DYERS Natural dyeing?

I think DH may have gone stark staring bonkers.

I have always known he has had a vague interest in natural dyes. And
of course whenever he runs across something bad about synthetics he
comes arunnng to me with it. The man is still trying to convince me to
dye my hair with indigo because he doesn't trust the comercial hair
dyes.

So I am finalizing the seed order for the garden this year and
figuring out which bits can be crammed in where, and how much work
certain things would be to either keep alive or keep reined in, and
etc. Then he pops up with several suggestions all aimed towards dying,
and giving me the whats, and wherefors on them. I got told about how
to successfully extract and use bugloss, how we may be able to make
woad and madder survive, what larkspur gives the best blue, and a
compare and contrast of the uses of yellow dock and dyers broom. Also
pointing out that if I took to using the yellow dock for something it
would no doubt die out on me. And that was just the tip of it.
He is actually talking about a semipermanent coldframe-greenhouse
cross sort of thing _and_ a small contained boggy area just to get
some of these plants to mature!

I just sat there and gaped at him.
Honestly I don't know what to think.
He obviously has taken the notion to heart, but natural dying is a
fair bit more work than the much simpler chemical dyes.
I asked and it is in part a toxicity issue. It is not that natual
dyes are less toxic, some of the mordants are quite heinous, and some
of the materials themselves are poisonous, but the knowing what is
toxic and why.
It apparently bothers him not to know what I am paddling about in.
He knows his weeds, and he is rather good at chemstry, but even the
suggestion that I ask for MSDS on everything did not suit him.
The other part seems to be the monetary saving in planting a dye
rather than buying it. So long as I am already gardening it only
makes sense to plant some dyes. I can see that. I am not sure how
much saving there would be after getting the needed variety of
mordants though.

I am considering planting a few of the less work intensive plants.
Just a sampling to see how viable it would be to try.
I have my current growing spaces planted or planned darn near by the
inch, breaking lot more new ground in the increasingly smaller free
space was not excactly what I had in mind this year.

Whatcha think?

NightMist
--

Nothing has been the same since that house fell on my sister.

Dearest Nighmist,

I think men all are born without the ability to realize that their
best ideas end up creating so much work for "us girls" that the end
result is no longer fun.

In evidence: Camping with children. Mud, wet, cold, asthma, tent,
sleepless, up at dawn, cook in rain on outdoor stove, wet clothes,
diapers in a campsite, rats in the outhouse, nighttime upset stomachs,
cold food, no sleep, wet clothes, asthma, wading in freezing cold
stream, wet clothes, wet sleeping bags, upset stomachs, no sleep. At
the end of this week, when we arrived home with two sick children, a
car filled with muddy, mildewy and stinking clothes my man looked at
me and said lovingly, "Oh Babe, I just can't wait for next year!"

Ok, so the question is: are they nuts for coming up with these wild
harebrained schemes that make us buy heinous mordants or cook in
pouring rain, or are we nuts for loving them and ..... going back
again the next year????

I won't guess what you will answer, but I am a betting woman and I put
good money on a future post by Nightmist telling RCTQ all about the
gorgeous natural dyes and heinous mordants she's playing with. BG

Love,
Sunny






--

Nothing has been the same since that house fell on my sister.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NaturalDyes/ might help or hinder you
depending on where you want to go with this!

good luck!

--
Kellie J. Berger
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
www.kjbeanne.com
www.kjbeanne.com/kellie.htm
"NightMist" wrote in message
...

I think DH may have gone stark staring bonkers.

I have always known he has had a vague interest in natural dyes. And
of course whenever he runs across something bad about synthetics he
comes arunnng to me with it. The man is still trying to convince me to
dye my hair with indigo because he doesn't trust the comercial hair
dyes.

So I am finalizing the seed order for the garden this year and
figuring out which bits can be crammed in where, and how much work
certain things would be to either keep alive or keep reined in, and
etc. Then he pops up with several suggestions all aimed towards dying,
and giving me the whats, and wherefors on them. I got told about how
to successfully extract and use bugloss, how we may be able to make
woad and madder survive, what larkspur gives the best blue, and a
compare and contrast of the uses of yellow dock and dyers broom. Also
pointing out that if I took to using the yellow dock for something it
would no doubt die out on me. And that was just the tip of it.
He is actually talking about a semipermanent coldframe-greenhouse
cross sort of thing _and_ a small contained boggy area just to get
some of these plants to mature!

I just sat there and gaped at him.
Honestly I don't know what to think.
He obviously has taken the notion to heart, but natural dying is a
fair bit more work than the much simpler chemical dyes.
I asked and it is in part a toxicity issue. It is not that natual
dyes are less toxic, some of the mordants are quite heinous, and some
of the materials themselves are poisonous, but the knowing what is
toxic and why.
It apparently bothers him not to know what I am paddling about in.
He knows his weeds, and he is rather good at chemstry, but even the
suggestion that I ask for MSDS on everything did not suit him.
The other part seems to be the monetary saving in planting a dye
rather than buying it. So long as I am already gardening it only
makes sense to plant some dyes. I can see that. I am not sure how
much saving there would be after getting the needed variety of
mordants though.

I am considering planting a few of the less work intensive plants.
Just a sampling to see how viable it would be to try.
I have my current growing spaces planted or planned darn near by the
inch, breaking lot more new ground in the increasingly smaller free
space was not excactly what I had in mind this year.

Whatcha think?

NightMist
--

Nothing has been the same since that house fell on my sister.

sounds like a gardening adventure - you might suggest that this summer
you focus on one color and that he keeps a journal based on the
experience. If keeping a journal is too much work for him, the
problem is solved. If he dives in and loves the work, perhaps it can
become something the 2 of you share? As to the lack of space. Do you
container garden?

Musicmaker

I agree with your first statement.
Although there are people who use nothing but natural locally-grown dye... I
always remember that heavenly blue hand-spun wool from the Viking market:
woad with a mordant made of the family's collected pee over a couple of
months -ick! (Wouldn't take as long to collect if you had a barn full of
livestock.)
OTOH, just growing a few interesting plants for the fun of it, no commitment
to use for dyeing, could be interesting.
Roberta in D

"NightMist" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...

I think DH may have gone stark staring bonkers.

I have always known he has had a vague interest in natural dyes. And
of course whenever he runs across something bad about synthetics he
comes arunnng to me with it. The man is still trying to convince me to
dye my hair with indigo because he doesn't trust the comercial hair
dyes.

So I am finalizing the seed order for the garden this year and
figuring out which bits can be crammed in where, and how much work
certain things would be to either keep alive or keep reined in, and
etc. Then he pops up with several suggestions all aimed towards dying,
and giving me the whats, and wherefors on them. I got told about how
to successfully extract and use bugloss, how we may be able to make
woad and madder survive, what larkspur gives the best blue, and a
compare and contrast of the uses of yellow dock and dyers broom. Also
pointing out that if I took to using the yellow dock for something it
would no doubt die out on me. And that was just the tip of it.
He is actually talking about a semipermanent coldframe-greenhouse
cross sort of thing _and_ a small contained boggy area just to get
some of these plants to mature!

I just sat there and gaped at him.
Honestly I don't know what to think.
He obviously has taken the notion to heart, but natural dying is a
fair bit more work than the much simpler chemical dyes.
I asked and it is in part a toxicity issue. It is not that natual
dyes are less toxic, some of the mordants are quite heinous, and some
of the materials themselves are poisonous, but the knowing what is
toxic and why.
It apparently bothers him not to know what I am paddling about in.
He knows his weeds, and he is rather good at chemstry, but even the
suggestion that I ask for MSDS on everything did not suit him.
The other part seems to be the monetary saving in planting a dye
rather than buying it. So long as I am already gardening it only
makes sense to plant some dyes. I can see that. I am not sure how
much saving there would be after getting the needed variety of
mordants though.

I am considering planting a few of the less work intensive plants.
Just a sampling to see how viable it would be to try.
I have my current growing spaces planted or planned darn near by the
inch, breaking lot more new ground in the increasingly smaller free
space was not excactly what I had in mind this year.

Whatcha think?

NightMist
--

Nothing has been the same since that house fell on my sister.

http://www.prairiefibers.com/ this company has lots of experience and
information on natural dyeing.
http://prairiefibers.com/Dyeing%20wi...al%20Dyes.html Looks like
this is a good link on their pages.



--
Kathyl (KJ)
remove "nospam" before mchsi
http://community.webshots.com/user/kathylquiltz
"Musicmaker" wrote in message
...
sounds like a gardening adventure - you might suggest that this summer
you focus on one color and that he keeps a journal based on the
experience. If keeping a journal is too much work for him, the
problem is solved. If he dives in and loves the work, perhaps it can
become something the 2 of you share? As to the lack of space. Do you
container garden?

Musicmaker

well, there are two sides to every coin.

the comoraderie with your husband in the garden.....with beautiful
hand-dyed fabrics for a gorgeous quilt.

loads of work...bad back issues...delagating weeding time, etc.

i have an old book on the subject. it's very vague, but it also states
to use chemical mordants. i dunno. could be fun.

amy in CNY

I've picked up a couple of secondhand books on natural dyes and dye
plants - I would love to try natural dyes but no time right now. If you
have someone to grow the plants for you - sounds like a great plan! Just
let us know how it works please.

Allison

NightMist wrote:
I think DH may have gone stark staring bonkers.

I have always known he has had a vague interest in natural dyes. And
of course whenever he runs across something bad about synthetics he
comes arunnng to me with it. The man is still trying to convince me to
dye my hair with indigo because he doesn't trust the comercial hair
dyes.

So I am finalizing the seed order for the garden this year and
figuring out which bits can be crammed in where, and how much work
certain things would be to either keep alive or keep reined in, and
etc. Then he pops up with several suggestions all aimed towards dying,
and giving me the whats, and wherefors on them. I got told about how
to successfully extract and use bugloss, how we may be able to make
woad and madder survive, what larkspur gives the best blue, and a
compare and contrast of the uses of yellow dock and dyers broom. Also
pointing out that if I took to using the yellow dock for something it
would no doubt die out on me. And that was just the tip of it.
He is actually talking about a semipermanent coldframe-greenhouse
cross sort of thing _and_ a small contained boggy area just to get
some of these plants to mature!

I just sat there and gaped at him.
Honestly I don't know what to think.
He obviously has taken the notion to heart, but natural dying is a
fair bit more work than the much simpler chemical dyes.
I asked and it is in part a toxicity issue. It is not that natual
dyes are less toxic, some of the mordants are quite heinous, and some
of the materials themselves are poisonous, but the knowing what is
toxic and why.
It apparently bothers him not to know what I am paddling about in.
He knows his weeds, and he is rather good at chemstry, but even the
suggestion that I ask for MSDS on everything did not suit him.
The other part seems to be the monetary saving in planting a dye
rather than buying it. So long as I am already gardening it only
makes sense to plant some dyes. I can see that. I am not sure how
much saving there would be after getting the needed variety of
mordants though.

I am considering planting a few of the less work intensive plants.
Just a sampling to see how viable it would be to try.
I have my current growing spaces planted or planned darn near by the
inch, breaking lot more new ground in the increasingly smaller free
space was not excactly what I had in mind this year.

Whatcha think?

NightMist

If he's going to do the work .... planting, weeding AND the dyeing, GO FOR
IT!!!
Lobo ; )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Delete the obvious to reply to me personally.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"NightMist" wrote in message
...

I think DH may have gone stark staring bonkers.

I have always known he has had a vague interest in natural dyes. And
of course whenever he runs across something bad about synthetics he
comes arunnng to me with it. The man is still trying to convince me to
dye my hair with indigo because he doesn't trust the comercial hair
dyes.

So I am finalizing the seed order for the garden this year and
figuring out which bits can be crammed in where, and how much work
certain things would be to either keep alive or keep reined in, and
etc. Then he pops up with several suggestions all aimed towards dying,
and giving me the whats, and wherefors on them. I got told about how
to successfully extract and use bugloss, how we may be able to make
woad and madder survive, what larkspur gives the best blue, and a
compare and contrast of the uses of yellow dock and dyers broom. Also
pointing out that if I took to using the yellow dock for something it
would no doubt die out on me. And that was just the tip of it.
He is actually talking about a semipermanent coldframe-greenhouse
cross sort of thing _and_ a small contained boggy area just to get
some of these plants to mature!

I just sat there and gaped at him.
Honestly I don't know what to think.
He obviously has taken the notion to heart, but natural dying is a
fair bit more work than the much simpler chemical dyes.
I asked and it is in part a toxicity issue. It is not that natual
dyes are less toxic, some of the mordants are quite heinous, and some
of the materials themselves are poisonous, but the knowing what is
toxic and why.
It apparently bothers him not to know what I am paddling about in.
He knows his weeds, and he is rather good at chemstry, but even the
suggestion that I ask for MSDS on everything did not suit him.
The other part seems to be the monetary saving in planting a dye
rather than buying it. So long as I am already gardening it only
makes sense to plant some dyes. I can see that. I am not sure how
much saving there would be after getting the needed variety of
mordants though.

I am considering planting a few of the less work intensive plants.
Just a sampling to see how viable it would be to try.
I have my current growing spaces planted or planned darn near by the
inch, breaking lot more new ground in the increasingly smaller free
space was not excactly what I had in mind this year.

Whatcha think?

NightMist
--

Nothing has been the same since that house fell on my sister.

Well, when DH gets critical of something you planted, you could always
tell him what I tell my DH. Last summer I mentioned some ideas I had
and he started in on all the cons (not so good at the pros, probably
because he thinks that it's his job to keep me in reality) and I
looked at him and said, "so is there something in our gardening
history together that tells you that you have any say?". This is
based on the fact that I mow, till, hoe, weed, plant, preserve,
landscape etc by myself.

Musicmaker