Monday, October 7, 2013

Sometimes more is better!

Mushrooms,  polypores, and more...the season continues to give up a bounty of dyeing supplies, love mother nature and her generosity.  I have been processing the bounty of last week  for the past three days, and now the fibres are being labeled and trying to keep them all straight ..which is not an easy job when you have about ten different  vats  on the go... But. Think I have them all sorted and really appreciate having premordanted fibers to test with.  I mordanted some commercially spun wool with, alum, another with iron and one undpmordanted.  I keep the three yarns in separate bags and when I want to test a dye bath I put one knot in the end of one six inch piece of alum mordanted wool, two knots in a similar length of iron mordant, and no knots in the unmordanted and then I just tie the three together and put in the pot as a tester, the. I can cut pieces of this to put in an after mordant bath or akaline and acid, and that way I can see the results without using a whole skein of fiber...it is a traditional way of testing and one which I so like having on hand.
Now the fibers are all put to rest I shall post pics of the results..