Natural Dyeing

Introduction
Natural Dyeing is an ancient craft practiced by many different cultures around the world for example the Roman Emperors purple robes and Turkish hand knotted carpets.
In Britain large amounts of cloth were dyed by commercial dyers who used a limited number of dyestuffs, mainly imported, to create a wide range of colours often using techniques such as over dyeing. Smaller amount of cloth and yarn were dyed by women in their cottages either to sell or to clothe their families. Cottage dyers used dyestuffs they gathered in the countryside surrounding them. It is these recipes many natural dyers use today.
All recipes for natural dyes were closely guarded secrets, if you were a commercial dyer your ability to create well dyed, colour fast cloth was your livelihood which you did not want your competitors to be able to copy. Cottage dyers used their skills to provide coloured cloth for their families and the knowledge of local plants and dyeing methods was built up over generations, which enabled women to clothe their families differently from their neighbours.Synthetic coal tar dyes started to be widely use in the late 19th century and enabled dyers to accurately reproduce colours. A wider range of colours and the production of colour fast synthetic dyes led to a decrease in the use of natural dyes.
The Dyestuffs
Many plants, often weeds, growing in our gardens, hedgerows, woodlands and meadows yield a colour. It usually a specific part of a plant such as the leaves, berries, flowers or bark. These plants are easy to find and identify: nettles, dock leaves, blackberries, birch leaves, elder berries, dandelions, and gorse. The following dyestuffs can be found in your local supermarket: onions (just the skins), teabags (can be used ones), coffee (instant or used grounds), walnut shells, turmeric and avocado (just the skins).
If you are collecting plants for natural dyeing you must remember to only collect plants from land you have a right to be on and not to collect any endangered species. For more information click here.
Natural dyeing is a seasonal activity as the parts of plants that yield a dye are often only available at specific times of year such as daffodils in the spring, marigolds in the summer and blackberries in the autumn.
The Mordants
Most natural dyestuffs need a mordant to fix them to the wool. The most common mordant is alum it is a metal salt and it chemically fixes the colour pigments from the dyestuff to the wool. Other mordants are Copper, Chrome, Tin and Tannic Acid. Mordants are poisonous and must be carefully labelled and stored away from pets and children. The easiest and safest mordants to use are alum and iron. Alum is historically the most commonly used mordant and it was extensively quarried and processed on the Yorkshire Coast. Alum fixes most dyestuffs but it can limit the colours attainable. Iron saddens or dulls colours, an easy way of iron mordanting is to put some slightly rusty nails in an old sock in the dyebath.
I use two methods of mordanting, premordanting and the all in one method. Premordanting involves mordating the wool before it is dyed the advantages are you can do one batch of mordanting then dye smaller amounts of wool with different dyes to get a range of colours and once dry the wool can be stored for use later. The disadvantage is you have to heat the wool twice, double the energy use. The all in method is exactly that, mordant and dyestuff in the same pan heated once.

Mordant Recipes.
Premordanting
I have always used imperial measurements, if you are mordanting less than a pound of wool adjust the quantities accordingly.
1lb of wool
4oz of alum for coarse wool/3oz of alum for fine wool
1oz of cream of Tartar (the stuff from the supermarket).
Method.
Weigh out the wool and throughly wet the wool in warm water.
Weigh out the alum and cream of tartar and put them in the dye pan with some hot (not boiling) water to dissolve them.
Fill the dyepan with warm water and add the wool.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

The all in one method.
Use a teaspoon of alum and half a teaspoon of cream of tartar for every 2oz of wool (dry weight) and make sure it is dissolved before you add it to the dye pan.

How to naturally dye wool.
Natural dyeing is an ancient craft which is both interesting and fun. Anyone with a little knowledge, some basic equipment, dyestuffs and mordants can have a go.
Any equipment used for dyeing must be kept only for natural dyeing and not be used for food preparation. Here is a basic list of equipment:
scales, to weigh wool, mordants and dyestuffs.
a large pan, stainless is best, but enamel or aluminium will do.
pieces of wooden dowel or long handled wooden spoons
a water proof apron and rubber gloves for handling mordants.
a pair of oven gloves and heat proof mat to put the pan on.

If possible do your dyeing outside on a camping gas stove, but where ever you dye make sure it is well ventilated by keeping windows and doors opened.

To get the best results the wool (tops, fleece or yarn) must be free from grease and oils. For information on fleece washing click here. Tops and yarn can have spinning oil in them, it’s easy to remove just soak in warm water with a few drops of washing up liquid in it. As a general rule a equal amount of dyestuff to wool is required (always weigh the wool dry).

Wet the wool thoroughly with warm water, put the dyestuff in the dye bath, add water and wool, bring a simmer and simmer for an hour. This is very general recipe but it gives a good basis for starting to experiment with natural dyeing.

Natural Dyeing at Wheeldale Woolcrafts
Here at Wheeldale Woolcrafts we previously used vegetation from the locality of the North Yorkshire Moors to dye my fleeces and handspun yarns. To achieve brighter colours especially reds and blues we use imported natural dyes. We stock a range mordants, natural dyestuffs, fleece, tops and yarns suitable for natural dyeing. Free recipes are available upon request with my natural dyestuffs.
Workshops focusing on natural dyeing are available on request. We can offer talks and demonstrations on natural dyeing to groups and at events please contact us for details.
A Glossary of Natural Dyeing Terms.
Adjective- a natural dyestuff which requires a mordant.
Substantive- a natural dyestuff which does not need a mordant.
Dyestuff- any plant material which can be used to dye wool
Mordant- a chemical enables the wool to take up the colour of the dye.