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A Cautionary Tale
A Cautionary Tale
Why, oh, why did I decide to dye with herbs and flowers? I’ve been interested in it for years, with The Dyer's Garden gathering dust on my bookshelf. This past autumn, I was overwhelmed by impulse. Such things rarely end well.
In my rather incomplete notes, there is first the mystery of the Rose mallow mirage. I cooked the flowers. I wrote it down. And then it all disappeared. I think mold may have played a role here, but we will never know.
Now you have to understand two things. I am perennially broke and I live in a house where, well, it wouldn't hurt to have a rope and someone to pull you back lest you get buried in the piles of stuff. I had great fun scavenging. So far as I know, the Cream of Tarter with the dust on it and the Alum that really is a plant additive were just fine, but the wool was strangely sticky after I cooked it. But I got over my Fear Of Mordants!
Energy and optimism was still high at this point. That poor, innocent, woman I was. Extensive scrubbing of table on back porch (oil, muck, don’t look too closely). Scavenging and testing of camp stove. Organizing of stuff and setting up of dyeing station. Firmly separating dyeing equipment from cooking equipment.
And I thought I was paying attention to details. Watching the stove carefully when I’m first using it. Weeding the patio ‘cause I didn’t want to stray too far from the stove....This didn’t last. By the third or fourth dyebath, I was much more casual, rather like, I’ve been told, raising children.
But it's always the details that you don't pay attention to that get you. The local wool store bent over backwards skeining my sticky, not quite dry yarn. And much later I found out that processed wool is not supposed to be used (note to self - ask herbal list serve early next time - thank you, though). But I haven't dared tell them at the wool store!
Late September
Zinnia - much math, much furrowing of brows, worrying about blighted blossoms??? confusion over directions in book, as the directions for how much to use goes by plant, not by flowers...Realizing that it takes a LOT of flowers to make a dyebath. Fortunately, zinnias and dahlias put up new flowers after the others have been picked.... first experience of bright colors fading to pale colors to a dyebath of ....tan. Trying to believe that it might be orange, but, no, it’s tan....Soaked it for four days, risked a moldy dyebath and it’s still...tan.
Dahlias - math calculations and storage in freezer, and yet more additions to the freezer. Those flowers are still down there, nearly a year later....
Early October
Marigolds - somewhere between one and one third of plants. Simmered 3/4 of an hour. No wait, the fuel ran out sometime in the last 15 minutes. Luckily, looking back at the book, find that they are only supposed to be simmered for a half an hour so it’s all good. Started out with gold and rust colored flowers, but have...tan wool. Had simmered the flowers overnight? Two days later, now with fuel, simmered the marigolds in the dyebath. Nasty suspicion dawning. After fifteen minutes - tan. Let’s be optimistic - golden tan. Really. If you look closely. Hopefully, if I leave it overnight, will turn into a more interesting color. Beginning to lose heart. Two days later, it does look a golden shade of tan. Oh, there's Mud in the water...This cannot help
Basil Hoping for green! Anything but Tan! Two big plants cooked. After sitting overnight, to quote my journal “the dyebath is brown, boring brown. Gah!” So, in desperation, I’m added vinegar. Measure, nah, just slosh it in...turned the bath to, you guessed it...tan!
At this point I just gave up. I wrote hopefully in my journal of using turmeric, but my will was broken, my eagerness flown....
Many months later, when proposing this article, the mystery was provincially solved. Joanne Fatherly hypothesized that it might have something to do with the mineral content of the water. Ours is very high, so.....it's always the detail you don't pay attention to.
But renewed and determined, once more into the breach I go! Stay tuned!
Why, oh, why did I decide to dye with herbs and flowers? I’ve been interested in it for years, with The Dyer's Garden gathering dust on my bookshelf. This past autumn, I was overwhelmed by impulse. Such things rarely end well.
In my rather incomplete notes, there is first the mystery of the Rose mallow mirage. I cooked the flowers. I wrote it down. And then it all disappeared. I think mold may have played a role here, but we will never know.
Now you have to understand two things. I am perennially broke and I live in a house where, well, it wouldn't hurt to have a rope and someone to pull you back lest you get buried in the piles of stuff. I had great fun scavenging. So far as I know, the Cream of Tarter with the dust on it and the Alum that really is a plant additive were just fine, but the wool was strangely sticky after I cooked it. But I got over my Fear Of Mordants!
Energy and optimism was still high at this point. That poor, innocent, woman I was. Extensive scrubbing of table on back porch (oil, muck, don’t look too closely). Scavenging and testing of camp stove. Organizing of stuff and setting up of dyeing station. Firmly separating dyeing equipment from cooking equipment.
And I thought I was paying attention to details. Watching the stove carefully when I’m first using it. Weeding the patio ‘cause I didn’t want to stray too far from the stove....This didn’t last. By the third or fourth dyebath, I was much more casual, rather like, I’ve been told, raising children.
But it's always the details that you don't pay attention to that get you. The local wool store bent over backwards skeining my sticky, not quite dry yarn. And much later I found out that processed wool is not supposed to be used (note to self - ask herbal list serve early next time - thank you, though). But I haven't dared tell them at the wool store!
Late September
Zinnia - much math, much furrowing of brows, worrying about blighted blossoms??? confusion over directions in book, as the directions for how much to use goes by plant, not by flowers...Realizing that it takes a LOT of flowers to make a dyebath. Fortunately, zinnias and dahlias put up new flowers after the others have been picked.... first experience of bright colors fading to pale colors to a dyebath of ....tan. Trying to believe that it might be orange, but, no, it’s tan....Soaked it for four days, risked a moldy dyebath and it’s still...tan.
Dahlias - math calculations and storage in freezer, and yet more additions to the freezer. Those flowers are still down there, nearly a year later....
Early October
Marigolds - somewhere between one and one third of plants. Simmered 3/4 of an hour. No wait, the fuel ran out sometime in the last 15 minutes. Luckily, looking back at the book, find that they are only supposed to be simmered for a half an hour so it’s all good. Started out with gold and rust colored flowers, but have...tan wool. Had simmered the flowers overnight? Two days later, now with fuel, simmered the marigolds in the dyebath. Nasty suspicion dawning. After fifteen minutes - tan. Let’s be optimistic - golden tan. Really. If you look closely. Hopefully, if I leave it overnight, will turn into a more interesting color. Beginning to lose heart. Two days later, it does look a golden shade of tan. Oh, there's Mud in the water...This cannot help
Basil Hoping for green! Anything but Tan! Two big plants cooked. After sitting overnight, to quote my journal “the dyebath is brown, boring brown. Gah!” So, in desperation, I’m added vinegar. Measure, nah, just slosh it in...turned the bath to, you guessed it...tan!
At this point I just gave up. I wrote hopefully in my journal of using turmeric, but my will was broken, my eagerness flown....
Many months later, when proposing this article, the mystery was provincially solved. Joanne Fatherly hypothesized that it might have something to do with the mineral content of the water. Ours is very high, so.....it's always the detail you don't pay attention to.
But renewed and determined, once more into the breach I go! Stay tuned!
cranky