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?

got it!

Earlier this week I shared some dye results using red cabbage.  Yesterday I was revisiting it, hoping to recreate the lovely darker blue color, and hoping to remember exactly how I got it in the first place.

Thankfully I was able to remember which tricks I used, and came up with a shade that was close to what I was looking for.  And I've written it down now.

The silk looked so lovely flying against a patch of (short-lived) blue sky.

It's funny how the dye color starts off purple, but with the addition of a tiny bit of ammonia, turns to blue.  A sprinkle of alum, and you can turn the blue back to purple.

Given the chance, I prefer to dye with red cabbage outdoors.  It gets a little rank, especially if you add in the ammonia.  I don't particularly like using ammonia but it does help with both the color development and the colorfastness.

The beautiful pale blues came from an exhaust batch, and for grins I threw in a piece of unbleached cotton drop cloth.  It looks a lot like chambray denim and I have a little project in mind for it.  If it mellows towards a grey color like my other red cabbage projects have, I think it will look especially nice.

I'd love to be able to teach classes on dyeing someday.  Anyone want to come out and play?  It's fun stuff.

Have a great start to your weekend, everyone!

more dyeing with red cabbage

I have a date with dyeing this week.  First up is more dyeing with red cabbage.  It's a dyestuff I've used many times before, and I love the subtle blues and greys it gives, even if it isn't particularly lightfast.  The colors all together remind me of the blue jays that are at my feeder right now.

I made my daughter a mushroom toy a few years ago out of the pretty blues, that has since faded to bluish-grey.  It's still pretty though, and between you and me, I enjoy watching the color transition over time.

The real reason I'm revisiting the cabbage dye right now is because the last time I dyed, I got this amazing blue on silk.  Silly me didn't write down what combo of tricks I used (tho' I have an idea) so I want to see if I can recreate it.  I have a bad habit of not writing things down and that doesn't always mesh so well with this mind of mine, like a steel...um...sieve it is.

 

This week will be a busy one for me so I'm not sure how much you'll hear from me.  Hopefully I'll be back soon to tell you that I remembered my magic cabbage combo and have skads of pretty blue silk on hand.  Hopefully.

Have a good start to the week, everyone.