a red cabbage over-dye

 The little grocery store down the road from me had a sale on red cabbage last week.  Naturally, I picked some up to do a little dyeing.

 

Back in December I had dyed a couple of lengths of muslin using onion skins.  One I gave away for Christmas, but I kept the one on the right.  It seemed a prime candidate for some over-dyeing. I chopped my red cabbage and simmered it in the crockpot (I have a designated one just for dyeing - yay for garage sale finds!) until the leaves lost most of their color.  I then strained the leaves and tossed them in the compost and added my pre-mordanted wool and cotton to the dye bath along with a splash of ammonia.  And yes, it stinks.  A lot.  But the ammonia helps the color set.

 

My new onion and cabbage scarf is a pretty mix of olive and pale robin's egg blue.  Red cabbage dye often shifts towards grey on wool but I've found it less so on cotton.  I have some cotton duck I dyed last year that has still retained the look of chambray denim.  The thing with natural dyes is that even when they age and shift in color, they're still lovely.

Now I just need to roll the hem and I'm ready to wear some new color around my neck.

What have you made for yourself lately?

onion skin shibori scarf

 

A few last-minute gifts are getting finished up.  It's amazing how much one can get accomplished when a deadline looms.

 

Last night I pulled out a length of cotton muslin and the jar of onion peels I've been saving and did some shibori dyeing.  I stood at the counter securing stones in the cotton with rubber bands while the dye pot simmered away.

 

I had previously mordanted the cotton with alum so once the peels were strained from the pot, the scarf was ready to go in.  After letting it soak for an hour on very low heat, I removed it and rinsed it, then set about the task of freeing all of the rocks.  The dye was still strong and it seemed a shame to waste it, so I tied up another scarf and dropped it in.  This one I let sit overnight and it's darker than the first.

 

I love the splotches from where the rubber bands were.  Marigolds?  Dandelions?  A very hungry caterpillar?

 

Maybe little suns?  Speaking of which, the sun has peeked out today after days and days of gloomy weather.  It makes the bitter cold much easier to handle, though I did think for a moment when I saw the room illuminated with light "ah crap, Mayan apocalypse."  Thankfully, we seem to have escaped that one.

Hope your Friday is sunny too!