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Sunday 7 February 2016

Dying with madder

Hi, I just thought I would keep you up to date on my 'slow stitch' blanket. I have made some more felt, this time from a sheep called Speckle. Her  fleece is not quite as soft as Sally's. It has a few more guard hairs in it but it's fine for a blanket.
The pieces in the photograph were all dyed with madder. The one on the left was only left in the dye pot for about half an hour which gave me a brilliant orange, the on the left was in the same dye pot foe a couple of hours and turned out a little bit darker. The brownish one at the bottom was also dyed in the same dye pot but I put it in an iron modifier afterwards to 'sadden' the colour. Three different colours from one dye pot!
Now that the days are beginning to get longer plants are starting to spring to life so I am going to wait until the docks and nettles appear before I try any more dying. I think they should yield greens but I will let you know.