Welcome to day 1 of the dye-along, I’m so excited to get started!

Since many of you are completely new to natural dyeing, I thought I’d share a little introduction first. Natural dyes are precisely that, dyes we extract from nature: from flowers, fruit skins, herbs, roots, leaves, bark or insects. Natural dyes have a long history, as they were used exclusively for dyeing cloth up until synthetic dyes were discovered.

Natural dyeing is a slow, multi-step process. We always start with weighing and preparing fiber/fabric, scouring, and mordanting, before we get to dyeing. There are also additional steps involved when dyeing with whole dyestuffs (covered below) and when overdyeing to achieve certain colorways. Today we will cover the following steps.

Weigh and prepare

Today we are going to prepare all our fiber and fabric for scouring, the first step in the process of dyeing with plants.

First things first, we need to weigh our fiber/fabric. This step is important, since all subsequent measurements are given in relation to the weight of goods (WOG). If you’re dyeing yarn, you probably know the weight already (from the tag/band). If you don’t know the weight of goods and you don’t have scales on hand, you may have to eyeball this! This is not recommended, especially when dyeing items for sale, as the colors may not properly adhere to the fiber/fabric.

Note: always weigh goods while still dry.

It is also recommended to pre-wet fiber/fabric before proceeding with each step of dyeing. I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t always heed this advice, because I’m not a very patient person. So, if you’re like me, you can just skip this step.

Scour

It is important to scour all fiber/fabric prior to mordanting and dyeing. If too much of the natural lanolin or residue from the manufacturing process is present, the mordant and dye won’t adhere to the material thoroughly and uniformly. Scouring also helps ensure more saturated colors with better colorfastness.

Protein fiber (all fiber that comes from animals, such as wool and silk)

Dissolve 1% of WOG (1g for every 100g of goods) of Orvus paste or mild dishwashing detergent in hot water. If fibers are heavily soiled, like raw wool in the grease, increase this amount.
Fill a pot with enough cold water to cover the fiber. Fiber should move freely.
Pour the dissolved Orvus paste in the pot and stir.
Add the pre-wet fiber, and slowly bring the water to 180°F, rotating the fibers gently every 10 minutes or so.
Make sure all the fiber remains submerged at all times.
Hold at 180°F for 30 minutes.
Turn off the heat.
If rinsing fiber immediately, rinse in similar temperature water. Otherwise, let fiber cool before transferring.
If the water after scouring is dark yellow or brown, repeat the process until the water is clear.
Make sure all excess scour is rinsed off of the fiber before mordanting.
Extract excess water and proceed to mordanting. You may also dry and store scoured fiber/fabrics until ready to mordant.

Cellulose fiber (all plant fibers, such as cotton, linen, hemp)

Dissolve 2% of WOG (2g for every 100g of goods) of soda ash in hot water.
Fill a pot with enough cold water to cover the fiber. Fiber should move freely.
Pour the dissolved soda ash mixture in the pot and stir.
Add the pre-wet fiber, and slowly bring the water to 180°F, rotating the fibers gently every 10 minutes or so.
Make sure all the fiber remains submerged at all times.
Hold at 180°F for 30 minutes.
Turn off the heat.
If rinsing fiber immediately, rinse in similar temperature water. Otherwise, let fiber cool before transferring.
If the water after scouring is dark yellow or brown, repeat the process until the water is clear.
Make sure all excess scour is rinsed off of the fiber before mordanting.
Extract excess water and proceed to mordanting. You can also wash cellulose fibers in the washing machine without any detergent to rinse off the scour.
You may also dry and store scoured fiber/fabrics until ready to mordant.

Note: Handle wool with care, as high temperatures, sudden fluctuation in temperatures, and too much handling can cause it to felt.

While your fiber/fabric is scouring, proceed to dye extraction.

Dye extraction

If you are using whole dyestuffs, and in some cases also when using natural dye extracts (walnuts hull extract, for instance), you need to extract the color prior to dyeing. This process itself can take a few days, depending on the dye materials on hand. Therefore, I typically like to do this step in parallel to scouring and mordanting. If you don’t have an additional pot, just wait until your fiber/fabric is done scouring. Note that the steps outlined below are very generalized. Color extraction really varies from dyestuff to dyestuff, so I recommend doing a little bit of research on the materials you’re using.

Fill up a pot with enough water to cover your dye materials.
Use a 1:1 ratio of dyestuff to fiber/fabric for deepest shades (i.e. 100g of dyestuff for every 100g of yarn).
As a rule of thumb, I like to cook whole dyestuff on low heat, letting the bath heat slowly, and simmer for a long time (1hr+).
Let it cool for about an hour, pour off and store the dye liquid.
Using the same dyestuff, repeat this process several times until no more color is extracted.

If you’re using dye extracts, proceed with the next step.

A few resources for the steps outlined above:

These first steps of natural dyeing may not seem very exciting, but I hope that you had fun regardless! Remember, it is meant to be a slow process, don’t try to rush or circumvent these steps. Instead, take comfort in the simplicity and monotony of the tasks, use those stirring moments to take deep breaths, and trust the process.

Thanks for joining me, and I’ll see you tomorrow!