Wayside Herbs revisited
How the garden has grown!
Back in April I told you about this place and was looking forward to returning in the year to harvest plants for natural dyeing. Last Saturday the weather was perfect for our day of "Dyeing from the Garden"
Pots bubbled, colours thrilled, a harvest of Autumn's natural colours.
I dyed small skeins of wool with the following plant materials.
1 onion skins- yellow 2 madder- deep orange 3 yew shavings- fawn 4 weld- yellow/green 5 walnut- rich brown 6 woad -duck egg blue 7 ragwort- yellow 8 alkaret- apricot 9 black hollyhock- olive green. Then I over dyed some of the skeins using some indigo, I also experimented with wood ash and vinegar dips washes to enhance the colours.
I'm particularly pleased with my woad of duck egg blue as I have been growing some little plants in my own garden this year so I look forward to a harvest next year with those. I'm also chuffed with the madder dye this time as I was able to achieve a pumpkin orange, perfect for the season!
Here are my skeins of colour produced on the day. As in the garden nature's colour palette always seems to get it right. Sometimes a colour looks uninviting on its own, it feels that something is lacking, but always trust in nature, she knows what she is doing - all the colours compliment one another. I have a soft, warm muted small batch of Autumn wooliness to enjoy.
