Why I use natural dyes

When I first started dyeing 12 years ago I couldn't afford chemical dyes, so I used what was in my garden and the local hedgerows.
I became very skilled at dyeing yellow and beige, but there are only so many times you can use yellow and beige, so I saved up and bought a few chemical colours.
I hated them, they didn't have any character and I didn't know what to do with the exhausted dye baths, it seemed wrong to pour something down the drain that I was unsure of. 
Was it harmful? or was it safe?
I didn't know anyone to ask, so went back to my natural dyes.
I still don't know much about chemical dyes, but I do know a lot of chemical dyers who are ethical, responsible and skilled people and that their dyes are tried and tested to be as safe as possible.

In the early day's I used alum and cream of tartar as mordants, they were freely available, alum was used in hospitals to bath bed sores and cream of tartar was used in cooking, so I felt that I was safe to use them without harming the environment.
After a year or so of yellow and beige I discovered a supplier who sold historical plant dyes and mordants.
My world changed, suddenly my colour palette was a lot bigger and I had the option to use lots of different mordants which made the palette possibilities even bigger.

I quickly wrote off using the mordants as most of them are heavy metals and certainly couldn't be poured down the drain.
So I still only use alum and cream of tartar.

The dyes were all the raw materials, which meant lots of boiling and soaking to extract the colours.
It was like making mud pies for adults, I loved it.
I used the raw plants for many years and was very snotty about extracts as I believed it was cheating.
But then NDS grew too big, we needed to cut down on the time it took to prepare a dye bath, so now I use extracts.
Most of our extracts are made by a very ethical company who grow a lot of their own organic plants and are soil association certified.
They are only too happy to give us advice and answer all our dye related questions.
When I first started using extracts I was really happy to discover that they behaved in exactly the same way as the plants.

I find it impossible to obtain the same colour from the same dye using the same recipe each time.
The dyes are effected by the water quality, weather and the time of year.
For example the dyes play up in the winter and the colours lose their intensity, but by the spring we can get a lot deeper, more saturated colour.

For example the first photo below shows Angel lace dyed in the spring and the second shows Angel lace dyed in late autumn.

Last year we moved to Devon from Suffolk, our water type changed from alkaline to acid. 
The water type effects the colour, its been a huge learning curve and challenge not knowing what colour to expect.
The colours seem darker and more intense here, but we have to add chalk to several of the dyes, to get a similar colour.
It will take us several years to know what to expect each season.

You may notice I am using "we" instead of "I", thats because Daisy our number 2 daughter moved with us and has become my apprentice, we have learnt about the new colours and how the dyes react together.
Its been a huge amount of fun, every dye bath is exciting.
She has by-passed the years of stinging nettle dyeing and gone straight to extracts.
But she's already become a skilled dyer, some days she does all the dyeing and creates new colours on her own.

But this year we are faced with a new colour challenge, but I'll tell you more about that another day.

Our very first snow in Lynton

Occasionally it used to snow in Suffolk, not much, but a little bit.
Over the past week I've been following the weather forecast and its seems to be snowing a lot in Suffolk, but we didn't have any here.
While Suffolk was snowed in we had manky grey drizzle, but all that changed on Thursday night.

We woke up to snowy Lynton yesterday morning, we are very close to the sea and the roads were melting by about 10 am so Phil decided we would go to work.
He wouldn't accept that there would be more snow the higher you went and persuaded Dais and myself that it would be fine and we were being wimps, so off we all went.
The drive up the hill was very slow and tricky on the hair pin bend, there were several places where snow was drifting across the road, but even still he was determined to get through.
Eventually we got through, Alta Lyn is up a tiny lane, up a little hill and down a little hill.
Up was ok, down was ok, but turning the van round so we could go home wasn't.
The van got stuck on the very small hill, luckily there is a grit box outside the studio gate, so Phil had to do griting just to get the van out so we could go home again.

Here are some of the photo's just to prove we made it.

Outside the dyeroom

The studio and dyeroom

Lynton from Alta Lyn

And Daisy being a standing up snow angel.

After a manic post packing session we made it down the hill very slowly with not too much trouble.
When we got home Phil took Loki out for a walk and took lots more photo's

The Torrs hotel, Lynmouth from the North Walk

The Lynton cricket pitch in the Valley of Rocks

Lynton 

Loki loves to roll in snow

Hollerday Hill from South Cliff, if you look really careful you can see a row of wild goats walking along the path in the middle of the photo.

Countisbury Hill from the North Walk

And finally the Valley of Rocks

Don't be scared of colour

I often have e-mails from customers worrying about whether the have the right colour for a project.
And also worried about whether one colour will go with another.
So I thought I'd write a blog post about it.

Firstly DON'T be scared of colour.
I bet you are not really scared of colour, even though you think you are.

Have you ever bought a dress and then needed to find a pair of shoes to match?
The dress and shoes probably aren't the same shade, its difficult to find leather and cloth in the exact same shade as both materials are dyed in a different way, so different dyes will be used.
Have you ever planned flower beds? You may know you wanted a pink here and a yellow there, but  nature decides for its self and even if you think you know the colour, you will end up with a different shade.
Or have you planned a wedding with a colour theme?
Buying bridesmaid dresses, napkins, flowers etc to match will end up a series of similar shades, but not the exact colour.

The wool photo below shows you an example of several different shades that go together and would be interchangeable.

See its not so difficult afterall, you do it all the time without even realising it.

For some reason knitters and crocheters can get incredibly stressed about using the right colour for a project. Personally I don't think there is right colour, as colours look different in different light.
If you are trying to use a similar colour, compare the new one to the old by squinting at them, its easy to tell which are the wrong colours as they will stand out from the right ones.

This bit is the advice to my customers who worry about getting the right colours for my designs.

I am lucky because I have a huge stash that is also known as shop stock, so I have a massive amount of colours to choose from. But I quite often find I have run out of colour and have to replace it with a different shade,.
If you look at my designs carefully you will find that I use lots of different dyelots in the same project.
Its easier to blend colours with crochet motifs, especially multi coloured ones.
For example the photo below, I have raised the contast so it's more obvious. The 2 motifs marked with crosses have backgrounds that are slightly different shades, it more obvious if you see the blanket in the flesh.
But its not too obvious for the motifs to stand out as being wrong.

You might be making a 3 round motif, the 1st round is pink, the second is purple and the third orange, maybe you run out of pink, you can add a different shade of pink, the motif will still look right with the others, there will just be a subtle difference.
I like the subtle differences I think they give a project more depth and detail, without much effort.
Another good thing about motif's is that you are only making a small piece 1 at a time, rather like jigsaw pieces. If you find a oolour that is wrong you can easily start again with a new colour.

I hope this post makes sense, I have a lot to say about colour, but its very jumbled in my head.
I really need to write it all down and do some proper blog posts about it.

New book?

I promised to tell you more about my colour experiment plans.
As you may have already realised I am doing lots of work with a triangle motif.
All of my recent designs use the same motif, sometimes I use 4 rounds, sometimes 6.
But its still the same basic motif however many I use.

The difference between each design is colour, shape and pattern.
I am so obsessed with the motif and what I can do with it.

This is the starting point for all my designs

So far I have made 2 lap blankets and am working on a lace scarf.
But I have layouts for another 3 blankets, 2 shawls and 2 scarves and I think if I play with photoshop for too long there are more designs lurking.

I'd like to do a book of some of my triangle designs, but am not sure if people want books on colour, shape and patterns. I haven't seen any, but that doesn't mean to say there aren't any.
I've always been a huge fan of Kaffe Fassett, his thing is colour and pattern, I could spend hours looking at his books, not for his knitting patterns, but for the colours and shapes.
I'm not saying I'm want to be Kaffe, but I would love to be as talented and as inspirational.
People love Kaffe, so maybe my book would be ok.

I am worried that you might be disappointed with a crochet book with only one motif in it and that pretty diagrams and photo's might not be enough.
What do you think? I'd love to know.

Although I would say I am going to be guided by your opinion's before I make a decision as to whether I should do a book or not.
But I think I'm far too obsessional to listen.
But I am really interested to know what you think........