The Golden Fleece
Nothing says “it’s time to finish washing your fleece” like an upcoming fleece sale. That’s right. This Saturday, June 10, there will be a fleece sale in Langley. I was really considering driving down and buying a nice local fleece — maybe something mohair — but then thought, “hey, maybe I should finish using up the Gotland fleece I already have on hand”… so, out come the dyes…
I had just over 1 1/2 pounds left of the fleece, so I washed it, mordanted with alum and dyed it up with Pomegranate and Osage Orange natural dyes. Pomegranate dye is made from rinds of pomegranates and is high in tannin — it is supposed to give a gold/brown/yellow kind of colour. I think it’s better described as “caramel”. The Pomegranate comes as an extract, so all you need to do is add water and go. Here is the dye extract with just a bit of water… it looks just like chocolate ganache… and smells sticky sweet like port and maple syrup…
The Osage Orange, on the other hand, comes as sawdust… It’s cheaper this way. You can buy the liquid extract but Maiwa happened to be sold out when I was there. The Osage dyebath is easy enough to make though — put the sawdust in a pot with enough water to cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Decant and repeat. Since I was waiting for the fleece to finish mordanting, I simmered and decanted the Osage dyebath three times, straining it through an old nylon stocking each time.
Unfortunately, I ran out of alum and so the fleece that was dyed with Pomegranate only had half the amount of alum that it should have. That probably affected the final colour. The Pomegranate dye pot had lots of sticky scum on top, so I was anxious to get the fleece out of the pot and rinse it.
The final colours on this fleece… honey and lemons. That’s what I got. Caramelly honey colour and light lemony yellow.
I’ve separated the darker fleece from the lighter fleece so that when I card and spin the Osage Orange fleece, I’ll get a beautiful, clear lemon yellow yarn and a darker grey/green yellow yarn. The darker yarn will then go into an indigo bath to turn it mossy green. Yeah, sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll do an indigo day and overdye a little of everything I have in the stash — yarn, fibre, wool, silk, whatever.
The colours turned out very much lighter than what I expected, and I have to admit I was a little deflated by that initially — but now when I see that caramel-coloured fleece in the living room light, I love it. It’s subtle and gorgeous — I could dive right in. So this Saturday, instead of buying more fleece, I’ll be playing with this beautiful golden fleece!
Oh, and while I was dyeing on Sunday, Michelle dropped by to show me her first spindle-spun handspun. This is before setting the twist… so wonderful!
And we reviewed my second attempt at getting the right purple on silk…
The Lanaset worked so much better on these skeins of silk. They were immersion dyed in a big pot and the colour is quite even throughout. The skein on the right, the dark eggplant purple, is actually a mix of five different Lanaset dyes to give a colour that is deep but vibrant and glittery.
I wanna make a sweater... pouts
I LOVE that skein of silk on the right! It’s the colour I like the most : a deep eggplant! Nice done! I love your colouring so much! And your weaving, I would love to learn that too. Someday …
Greets!
That silk on the far right is divine–absolutely regal.
I’m still in shock over the lemon color from the dye, though — it’s so pretty!
Gorgeous fleece - I really would love to get back into natural dyeing, but I need to find the time. Sigh. The purples are all gorgeous in their own way, but the eggplant is my favorite.
The colors are so amazing.
You continue to wow me. A true artist.
Your work always continues to amaze me. The eggplant purple skein is so incredibly vibrant. Amazing work! When I spin, knit, or dye, I keep your blog in mind as an inspiration.
Mmmmmmmm I want some of your silk. I’ve been wanting to dye some silk but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet - I want to use it to make a nightgown bodice for my daughter. Things are always so perfect in my imagination - it probably won’t turn out so pretty in reality but I can dream. heh
Your silk yarns are so gorgeous. Hope your loom gets to you soon!
i love the purples. it’s got to feel good to be honing the silk-dyeing skill!
btw, i got a mail delivery today
love it!
Those silks are freaking perfect! I absolutely love the purples (major sucker for a good purple).
A few years ago I was at a knap-in. One of the guys there was carving a bow (as in archery) from a piece of osage orange. I sat at his feet and watched him shave the stave, watching and coveting those wooden curls of osage orange falling to the ground. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough balls to ask him if I could have them. He did know that they made a nice dye, btw.
i love the yellow fleece - thank you for sharing your dyeing adventures!
what a beautiful day of dyeing! the yellows and browns of the fleece remind me of sunflowers and the deep dark purple silk is dreamy. i love it all!
The eggplant colour is gorgeous and Michelle’s handspun is lovely.
the Gotland is absolutely gorgeous in honey and lemon! i love how subtle it is–moody with color yet creamy.
It’s so refreshing to see another person’s first hand-spun yarn. It makes me feel OK with mine, and encourages me to keep trying!
You make dyeing look like such great fun.
Will you card the honey and lemons together, or spin them separately? It might make a lovely heathery yarn if you combined them…
so beautiful!! i’m so jealous!
Gorgeous Fleece - love the colors your dyeing. Have you read the latest Spin-Off. WooLee Winder is going special production with the wheel pictured in there next year. It was love at first site for me and I figure since we have the same taste in wheels, you may like it too. I’ve emailed for specs on it.
Sigh. All those heavenly purple shades…
I’ve just done all my sample pieces for the honey’s new (and requested) oatmeal sweater and I’m sure it’ll be a right treat when it’s done, but I miss colour! Maybe that’s why I was fondling the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in eggplant on the weekend….
Mmmmm Wooly Brains…. /YarnOtterZombie
L