Julienne's Method

I thought I'd give an update on my dyeing method, as it is a while since I talked about it. I use the same process every time I dye, so that I can directly compare the colours I obtain. This is important, as the woven pieces I produce will be exhibited later in the year and I need to explain to the visitors how I produced my cloth. So here goes.

The skeins I use were supplied by Chester Yarns. They are 20 gram skeins of fingering weight, 4 ply (4 x 2/20) worsted spun, merino wool. Each skein is about 49 metres long. They each give me 8 ends of a five metre warp, with some extra to play with. That makes the maths easy!

I only use plants growing in my village, Loughton, in the new town of Milton Keynes, hence the title of my blog. However, this definition includes both true British natives and introduced plants, which the village's gardens are full of as it has been here since the Doomsday Survey. I've also allowed myself to dye plants that I am growing in my own 'dyer's garden', as a traditional dyer would surely extend her range of browns by growing some well known dyestuffs.

Depending on the specific plant, I gather everything from the plant that can be used to produce dye, including roots, bark, twigs and stems, leaves, flowers and fruits, berries, seeds and nuts. The colours differ according to the soil, time of year, how the plant has been grown and so on. It is all very improvisational and exciting. I suspect I will never get exactly the same shade twice, which is great for me but must have been frustrating when the woollen industry began to mass produce artefacts.

I extract dye from roots, twigs, bark, hard seeds and nuts in my dedicated slow cooker. I use at least 100 grams of plant material to dye 80 grams (four skeins) of wool, or a little more plant material if I can get it so that the dye is concentrated. I add 4 litres of water to the pot, chop the hard plant material into small pieces and heat the pot on a low setting for three days before I pour off the liquor and throw the exhausted plant stuff into my recycling bin.

I extract dye from the softer materials like leaves, flowers and berries by adding about 100 grams of them to 4 litres of water in my dye pot, bringing the liquor up to simmering point for about an hour, then taking the pot off the heat and letting it cool naturally, before straining off all the plant material through a colander, sieve or nylon stocking to leave the clear dye.

I use alum and copper as pre-mordants.  When I put my recipes on the blog earlier in the year, I gave the quantities for five skeins at a time. Here they are again. This is a separate process to dyeing the wool. The wool from Chester Yarns has to be un-skeined, tied at four places to stop the loose skein from tangling, and washed in a mild detergent, then rinsed, to remove any manufacturing chemicals.

Recipe for Alum Mordant

Sufficient to mordant 5 x 20 gram skeins (i.e 100 grams, dry weight) of wool. The wool should be wetted thoroughly before it is mordanted so that the mordant will take evenly.

• 8 grams of alum dissolved in a small amount of boiling water in a jug

• 7 grams cream of tartar dissolved in a small amount of boiling water in a jug

• 100 grams (dry weight) of wool, already prepared to receive a mordant by having been tied loosely into a skein and washed in warm water containing a few drops of wool-friendly detergent to remove any dirt, grease or chemical residue from industrial processing

• 4 litres of cool water in a stock pot

Add first the dissolved cream of tartar and then the dissolved alum to the mordant bath and stir. Add the wetted wool and bring the bath up to simmering point. Simmer for one hour, agitating gently from time to time. Switch off the heat and leave the bath to cool overnight. Remove the skeins of wool from the cool mordant bath, rinse them and hang them up to dry or use them immediately in a dye bath.

Recipe for Copper Mordant

Sufficient to mordant 5 x 20 gram skeins (i.e 100 grams, dry weight) of wool. The wool should be wetted thoroughly before it is mordanted so that the mordant will take evenly.

• 2 grams of copper sulphate dissolved in boiling water in a jug

• 40 millilitres of vinegar

• 100 grams (dry weight) of wool, already prepared to receive a mordant by having been tied loosely into a skein and washed in warm water containing a few drops of wool-friendly detergent to remove any dirt, grease or chemical residue from industrial processing

• 4 litres of cool water in a stock pot

Add the coper sulphate solution and then the vinegar to the mordant bath. Stir well. Add the wetted wool and bring the bath up to simmering point. Simmer for one hour, agitating gently from time to time. By this point, the wool should be pale green and the water virtually clear. Switch off the heat and leave the skeins of wool to cool overnight. Remove the skeins, rinse them and either hang them to dry or use them in a dye bath at once.

If you try this, the first thing that may strike you is the small quantity of each chemical needed. I was so surprised that I felt I had to check my figures. I have bought enough alum to dye 312 x 20 gram skeins of wool, and enough copper to dye 1250 x 20 gram skeins of wool! I don’t think I’ll be running out of mordants for some considerable time. However, I could get through a lot of skeins of wool over the course of the year. 

Now that my method is well-established, I am mordanting in the proportions of three skeins impregnated with alum and one with copper for each pot of dye I intend to produce, so now I also adjust the quantities given above to suit the number of mordanted skeins I need to dye either one, two or three batches of wool at a time. Although the copper yarns take on a bluish tinge, I tie an orange marker on them at this stage, so that I can distinguish them from the alum skeins in the dye pot.

To dye my skeins, I take the dye I've extracted from my slow cooker or dye pot and put it on the stove in a big, shallow dye pan/bath. This is a little less than the 4 litres I stared with as some liquid is lost during the extraction process, but it is enough to cover four skeins of wool. If you remember, three of these were pre-mordanted with alum and one with copper. The dye bath is brought up to simmering point and the wool sits in the bath for half an hour. Make sure all the wool is covered. I don't let the liquor boil at any point as I've read that this will spoil the colours, let alone the wool.

After half an hour, I extract 5 x 60 ml. ladles of liquid from the large dye bath, and put it in a small pan. I add boiling water to a pinch of iron (an assistant or modifier rather than a true mordant) in a small dish, stir, add the iron to the pan and watch the dye 'sadden' or dull. Then I extract an alum mordanted skein from the larger dye bath and pop it in the pan, which is then brought up to simmering point for another half hour.

At the same time, I extract 5 x 60 ml. ladles of liquid from the bath, and put them in another small pan. I add boiling water to a pinch of tin (another well known assistant) in another small dish, stir, add the tin to my second pan and watch the dye 'gladden' or take on a pale, whitish tinge. Then I extract another of my alum mordanted skeins from the original large dye bath and pop it in this pan, which is then brought up to simmering point for another half hour.

The remaining alum and copper mordanted skeins in the big dye bath are put back on the stove, also for another half hour, in the reduced liquid, which is just enough to still cover them. At this point I remove all three pans from the heat and let them cool naturally. Before I take the skeins out of the pans, I mark the alum mordanted skein and the tin assisted skein with coloured wool markers, so that I can tell which is which if the shades turn out to be very similar. The iron assisted skein is usually quite different in colour, so I don't normally need to mark it!

Once they are cool, I wash and rinse the skeins carefully until they are clean and all the chemicals and dye have been removed. This is probably the most laborious bit of the whole process. I can now understand why traditional dye works were located by fast flowing, reliable streams. I remove excess water with a salad spinner (!) and hang the skeins up to dry overnight. If I've been gentle, the yarn has not tanged during this whole process.

The following day I can re-skein my batch of four wools and see what colours I've obtained. These are often quite subtle, sometimes very surprising. It is quite alchemical and such good fun. I'm addicted!