Dyeing to Know
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about dyeing yarn. Specifically, I've been thinking and reading about dyeing wool with natural dyes. As it turns out, there are all sorts of plants growing in my area -- most of them unwanted weeds -- that produce vibrant dyes.
The problem is that I'm not sure how to collect them. Collecting plant material -- even unwanted weedy plant material -- is strictly forbidden in all East Bay Regional Parks. Oakland City parks are a bit more lenient, as far as I can tell. But I'm not sure I want to have the conversation with the nice ranger or police officer, explaining why I have a couple of grocery bags full of eucalyptus leaves.
So, I'm asking blog readers if they can suggest any places where I might be able to collect large quantities of the following. (Most plant-based dyes need to be at least double the weight of the wool that's being dyed.)
- black walnut hulls (the outer green husks)
- blackberry leaves
- broom
- dodder
- eucalyptus (the red iron-bark variety)
- fennel
- horsetail
- ivy
- mullein
- pomegranate (I want the skins, but I won't say no to entire fruits!)
- prickly pear cactus fruits
I'm envisioning overgrown areas, near industrial parks. Places that nobody really tends, but where I won't feel like I'm going to get mugged. Do you know of such a place? I've been considering the Albany Bulb, because it's kind of lawless. I've also been thinking about the various warehouse districts, but most of them are in pretty skanky neighborhoods.
If you're about to weed out your back garden, and you're over-run with any of these, do let me know. I'd be happy to help you weed, and would put your unwanted plants to good use.
While I'm asking, I may as well check to see if there are any blog readers in any of there areas where woad is a problem. This European dye plant is listed as a Class A noxious weed (whatever that means) in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, California and Oregon. Anyone want to mail me some? I'll pay for the shipping, and send you something fun in return?
Likewise, if you happen to have access to pounds of onion skins, I'd love to take them off of your hands.
Any thoughts or suggestions, blog friends?
Comments
I made the mistake of collecting a sample for a weed ID class I was taking and somehow ended up with it in my old garden where it still resides today despite many attempts to eradicate it.
Blackberry in Alameda at Godfrey Park, where I pick berries. Ivy in a couple of places in Alameda, both leaves and the berries.
I used eucalyptus once and made sickly yellow yarn.
It's almost time for me to start marigold and indigo for the spring garden. You might want to talk to Kristine at Verb for Keeping Warm. She and her partner have a pretty cool dye garden out back.
Myrrhia -- I plan to use alum and cream of tartar for mordants. Storing seawater seems like too much of a burden. But, yeah, a lot of the mordants are bad news!
Maybe there's a business here - growing for dyers!
Annalisa
And yes, persimmons sound nice. Want to spend an afternoon cracking nuts?
http://www.amystewart.com/wickedplants.html
You may want to talk to my friends Cristine and Adrienne who run A Verb for Keeping Warm, which is a yarn store. They make their own yarns and have classes in natural dying. Their shop is on San Pablo Ave in Oakland:
http://www.averbforkeepingwarm.com/
Hope you guys are well.
James
I think you would want to seed pods that come out in the summer. This is not the time to harvest it though. Today we have snow and tonight we will have more wind. Yeah! {not}