Thursday, September 13, 2012

adventures in wool part one

aka how I spent my week.

Dyeing wool with acorns.  A long review of the internets revealed that everyone does this differently including which part of the acorn they use about the only thing that they agreed on was alum for a mordant and equal parts acorn to wool. 

Armed with this knowledge I began shelling acorns. and shelling. and shelling. and.... you get the idea.  I ended up with a pound of shells.  I soaked them for several hours, boiled them for an hour and let them sit over night.  I boiled them for another hour in the morning and then strained out the shells (mostly...grrr)

I weighted out a pound of wool, it looked like this:

and simmered it in alum for an hour, and rinsed it. Then I simmered the wool in the acorn water.  Oh yeah, by this point my entire house smells like nutty toast and wool, I liked it, my husband not so much.

I then decided to leave the wool in the water over night in the hope that it would darken a bit.  Three days of work took me from cream to light caramel.

not sure if this was worth it.  I plan on trying goldenrod next, no shelling and it makes a pretty yellow.  I did pick up a hot pad so I will be able to do the cooking out on the porch instead of in the kitchen.  Hopefully this will lead to less grumpy husbands.

8 comments:

  1. Not sure I've read much before on acorn dyeing, oak galls yes but not the acorns. Seems like a lot of work for not much colour - interesting to experiment though.

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  2. It was a lot of work and while I like the color, I doubt I will do it again.

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  3. Awww! It is a lot of work and i think it turned out really pretty. Wool and acorns...sounds like lovely therapy!

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    1. I got to card some of it on a drum carder this week and really enjoyed the carding, it looks nice and fluffy now. I think my favorite part it the nutty toasty sent it gave the wool.

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  4. I have to agree that the goldenrod dyeing should be easier! All that shelling, so much work :) I admire the dyers out there, I will always be a knitter :)

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    1. Now I just need it to stop raining to gather the goldenrod!

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  5. I'm thinking about having a try at dyeing my own wool this season. I had read that you need to add vinegar to help the colour take.

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    1. That depends on what you are using for dye. If you are using Easter egg dye, kool aid or an acid dye kit yes you need to pre-soak the wool in vinegar. If you are using most plant materials vinegar is not going to help you. I am mordanting these with Alum by boiling them in a solution of alum and water for about an hour, rinsing and then dyeing the wool. Poke berry is an exception to this as it needs the vinegar to be colorfast.

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