I've spent a good portion of the day testing an experimental dye I boiled out of althea blooms. The dye turned out a slightly-darker-than-storebought-honey color, so I figured it would take a long soak for any textile to show much of a change. I soaked some scraps of unbleached muslin, slightly off-white linen and white fisherman's wool in an alum solution last night, since flower pigments are supposed to be rubbish on unmordanted fabric.
So far the results are far less dramatic than when I made pecan samples last autumn. The cotton and linen just look like they're dingy, but the wool shows a bit more promise. The piece that soaked for 2 hours in the dye bath is a nice dark blonde color, so I hope the pieces I'm leaving sealed in the jar overnight adopt a bit more richness. As a further experiment I'm going to see what happens to one of the strands when transferred directly from the dye into a warm vinegar solution. Hopefully nothing bad.
In the future I'll most likely use vegetable and flower dyes for small projects - lengths of wool yarn or fabric scraps for embellishing garments and banners, pouches, badges and whatnot. I don't have nearly the amount of space to attempt dyeing multiple yards of fabric at once.
Photos to follow shortly!
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