Natural Dyeing

It's been a busy, busy couple of weeks and I have a number of projects on the go at the moment.

I've been quite sidetracked by Natural Dyeing though.

I recently took a natural dyeing class at the Knit Cafe (I'll post about that soon!), but before the class started I had the bug. Bad.

I also had some really nice, single ply alpaca yarn my mother gave me.

I decided to mordant this yarn with alum and cream of tarter. Unfortunatly, I listened to the advice I found online and only did a 7% solution with the alum (I should have aimed for 15 - 20%). I simmered the yarn in the mordant solution for about half an hour, and let it cool overnight.

Then I rinsed the yarn out (mistake 2, next time I won't rinse)

Then, I poured my soaking water from a ton of black beans over it, and put it aside for a few days.

Initially, I wasn't impressed.

It looks like worms!

Eventually though, it started to turn blue! After 48 hours, I pulled out the yarn and rinsed it out. Mistake 3: I should have left it longer.

But hey, it did turn blue. So I guess it wasn't a lost cause!