I know... is there really such a thing as a dyeing season? Can't I just dye in the winter, too? Well, I suppose I could... I just hardly ever do. Truth is, I like to keep the door to the balcony open while heating up the dye bath, especially when I'm using plant dyes - can get uncomfortably cold in the winter. Also, I like to dry my dyed yarn / wool braids / fabrics out on the balcony... takes ages in winter...
BUT, now it's spring again - and last week was Easter... which always makes me want to dye. I had been saving onion skins for months... ended up with a good 120g! So, onion skin dyeing it was...
I picked out a braid of mystery wool - I don't have the faintest idea what it is exactly... came with a drop spindle set - and some cotton fabric. Later, when it was clear that there would be plenty of dye left after the first dye bath I prepared three skeins of wool yarn for a second and third dye bath.
I mordanted everything with 12 % WoF alum and 5 % WoF cream of tartar.
And here's the result of a weekend of dyeing with onion skins:
The coppery orange braid on the right and the wonderfully yellow cotton fabric are from the first dye bath. I scrunched up the cotton cloth and tied it into a ball, which gave it a slight tie dye look. The light orange skein on the right is from the second bath, the two yellow skeins in the middle and on the left are both from the third dye bath - the colour of the middle skein was slightly modified towards a slightly orange tinge with a teaspoon of potassium carbonate.
And another picture of the skeins - in reverse order:
So, yup - dyeing with onion skins is definitely lots of fun - I was surprised by the range of colours (from a deep coppery orange to a sunny yellow) I got from this one pot of dye. Surely something that I will try again... already started to save more onion skins...
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