Experimenting Naturally

The new issue of Knit 1 has an article on natural dyeing by Shannon Okey. It inspired me to get in the kitchen and try some natural dyeing. She mentioned dyeing with blueberries and I happened to have a couple bags of frozen blueberries in the freezer AND the bodega up the street was have a sale on fresh blueberries (2 pints for $2!) so I bought a bunch and threw them in the pot. 

 

The blueberry dyeing was so successful that I decided to poke around the kitchen to find other things I could dye with. I found some paprika in the cupboard and thought I'd try it out. I think I used too much because some of the granules didn't dissolve but the color I got was great! It took a lot of rinsing to get all the extra paprika off the yarn and I couldn't get the smell out of my nose for a few hours. I didn't know what paprika smelled like before this and I never thought it was a really powerful smell but after hours of smelling it I was starting to feel sick. So I guess I won't be dyeing with paprika again anytime soon. But the color is really nice.

I love the colors I got and today I think I'm going to head to the grocery store to see what I else I can use to dye with. I have one more skein of superwash-bamboo blend sock yarn that I can dye and I'm thinking maybe some cranberries or cherries. They should give me a nice pinky-red color. We'll see what happens.

I was so inspired by the natural dyeing that I ordered The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing: Traditional Recipes for Modern Use by J. N. Liles I can't wait for it to come so I can find out more about this dye process. If I get good at this I think you might be seeing more natural dyeing in the shop. Of course I still love my acid dyes so they won't be going away anytime soon. Now I'm off to do my Wii Fit for the day and  the grocery store. Happy Sunday!