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Colour your wool for a tailor-made shade

NOW you have taught yourself to spin wool with either a drop spindle or a spinning wheel, you may be thinking colour and wondering how to add this to your wool.

You have a choice:

1. Use chemical dyes, which can be bought from a hard ware shop with instructions, or
2. Use natural dyes that you can get from plants that you are able to grow in a small patch of land on your smallholding.

I enjoy using natural dyes and get very excited at watching the tiniest of seeds that I have sown in my greenhouse start to shoot and when transferred grow into mature plants in my flower borders ready to use for dyeing wool. Most plants grown will yield a colour but they are not all fast. The easiest colours to obtain are yellows, browns and fawns. There are a few blues and reds and even fewer greens.

Before starting to dye any wool it needs to be scoured (washed) and all of the dirt and natural grease removed as leaving the grease in results in uneven dyeing After removing as much vegetation as possible from the fleece and opening up the matted and weathered tips, put the wool into a bucket that has warm water with pure soap suds that have been dissolved. Allow the wool to soak for a while to release the dirt and grease.

Drain the water from the wool and prepare a second bucket making sure the water is at the same temperature as the first. Unless a third bath is required, rinse the wool in clear water - at the same temperature as before. The wool is now ready for you to use for mordanting/dyeing. Remember never to put dry wool into a dye or mordant bath. The amount of water that is used in the saucepan does not need to be exact but there needs to be enough to cover the wool and dye stuff and allow free movement of both. It has to be remembered that tap water plays an important part in the dyeing process as it depends whether your water is hard or soft as to the colour you may get. If you are given a dye recipe from a friend, she may have got a red colour because her water was soft; you may live in the next village but because your water is hard you may get a different colour from the same recipe.

Most plants used for natural dyeing need a mordant - this is a fixing agent for the colour. The ones marked with * are the most common but some of these are not easy to obtain and have to be ordered from specialist shops:

*Alum - Potassium aluminium sulphate is a popular mordant and is used with cream of tartar, which will brighten the colour and keep the wool soft.

*Copper sulphate - blue poisonous crystals - using plants such as dock or sorrel this mordant will give different shades of bronze. If using elder leaves or lettuce plants that have gone to seed it is possible to obtain a deep green.

*Chrome - Bichromate of potash - orange poisonous crystals - these should be stored in dark bottles as they are sensitive to light. These crystals are very good for orange and reds, which can be obtained from onion skins, madder or brazil wood.

*Iron - Ferrous sulphate - green crystals - this mordant tends to sadden colours.

Tin - Stannous chloride - white crystals - only a small amount is required and a brighter colour is obtained by using this mordant.

*Cream of tartar - soft white powder - this is used to modify the hardening effects of some of the mordants, ie Ferrous sulphate, alum and tin to name but a few Vinegar - improves red and purple colours and dispels carbonates in hard water.

Stale urine - at least two weeks old, helps with the fermentation of all indigo dyes both natural and chemical.

Equipment used for mordanting and dyeing wool should not be used for any other purpose and should be kept well away from children. The mordants should be kept in a special box marked "mordants poison" in either a locked cupboard or store room where all your other equipment is kept for dyeing . If you are having to do your dyeing in the kitchen and not in a specially-designed shed, make sure that you are not doing it while you are cooking or have food around, also make sure that where ever you do your dyeing and mordanting that the windows can be opened to release any fumes that may occur. Stainless steel saucepans, oven-proof glass saucepans or enamel saucepans that are not chipped (if chipped, rust may be present and will effect the colour of the wool) can be used for both dyeing and mordanting. It must be remembered that aluminium saucepans can be used but only with Alum as a mordant.

One saucepan for the dye stuff and one to use for the mordants - the larger the better - you should be able to obtain second-hand saucepans from either a boot sale or farm sale very cheaply. If space is available, it is a good idea to have enough saucepans for all the different mordants you are likely to use, as the chemicals eventually affect the saucepans and the colour of the wool that you are using, especially if all the different mordants are used in the same pan.

Remember to put a label on the saucepans with the name of the mordant or dye being used in each pan. It is good idea to wear rubber gloves, an apron and a dusk mask so you do not inhale the fumes. Scissors for cutting the dye stuff, string and muslin for holding the dyestuff will be needed along with a timer, pen and note pad for writing down the recipes, small scales for weighing mordants, larger scales for weighing the wool and dyestuff, non metallic spoons for measuring the chemicals, and also a length of dowel rod to use as a stirring rod.

Now is the time to think about the plants you have available in your garden that you may wish to use for dyeing the wool along with details of how to use them.

Rose petals or daffodil heads - using Alum as the mordant you can get a pale yellow/green colour.

Marigold - using the flower heads and Chrome as the mordant with a few drops of formic acid you should get an orange colour.

Lettuce that has gone to seed - using iron as the mordant with cream of tartar added, a good green should be obtained.

Onion - the skins of the onions are used with a small amount of mordant of either Alum, chrome, tin or Ferrous sulphate it is possible to obtain amazing shades of yellow or bright orange, depending on which mordant is used.

Take the saucepan to be used for mordanting and put a label on the side of the pan with the name of the mordant being used. Fill the pan with cold water and add the mordant (about half a tea spoonful of chemical) to the water then stir the mordant in with the rod until it dissolves. Add the wet wool (eight ounces) to the pan, making sure there is enough water and movement for the amount of wool being used. Bring the cold water with the wool in the pan slowly up to boiling point. Now simmer for forty five minutes. Take the saucepan off the stove and leave it to cool naturally in the open air. When the water has cooled remove the wool from the pan and rinse the wool in warm water. It is now ready to use with the dye stuff.

Take the other saucepan and label it with the name of the dye being used Fill the saucepan with cold water. Now take the dyestuff, ie onion skins, and chop them up with scissors, tie them in the muslin material with the string. Put them in the cold water, making sure there is enough room for movement. Bring the saucepan slowly up to boiling point, stirring occasionally with the stirring rod, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Take the pan off the stove and leave the pan with the water and dye stuff to cool naturally in the open air. The time has now come for you to put the damp mordanted wool into the dye bath making sure the wool is completely covered with the water and that the pan is large enough to accommodate all the wool with movement. The dye stuff can stay in the dye bath if you wish, or you can take it out before heating up the water with the wool in. You can decide; I usually leave it in. Bring the dye bath with the wool slowly up to boiling point and simmer for 45 minutes occasionally stirring the wool with the stirring rod. Remove the pan from the stove and leave it to cool naturally in the open air.

When the water has cooled, take the wool out of the pan and rinse the it in warm soapy water, now allow the wool to dry naturally in the open air.

It must be remembered that wool will not felt if it is put in to cool water and taken up to boiling point, it will only felt if put straight into boiling water.

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