What is that smell?

OOOOH it's the smell of burning blueberries!
Yes yes. I forgot the blueberries on the stove while watching Lost. Hey. It's Lost. I got sucked in.
Soooo the yarn from this batch will be called Burned Blueberries once I get it done.


HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! JOHN GUESSED IT WOULD BE DESMOND!

See? I was still sucked in.

So, look forward to Burned Blueberries in the next few days... If I can find tartaric acid that is. Otherwise I'll have to freeze the dye so it doesn't spoil and do it once I get a proper mordant.

In the pot

The batch of tired blueberries from Fran's house are in the pot.
I found a place that sells alum mordant, but I think I'm going to try making my own first... just to see

still here

I'm still here. We've just been working on the sleep issues in this house, which leaves little time for playing in plants.
We also went out of town for the weekend. I picked some old dried out blueberries off my mother-in-law's bush, so we'll see if I can get a good run out of them. I was eyeing the red clay they have, but I think I'll save that one for next time. I just didn't have the energy to drag home a bucket of dirt.
Hmmmm a project to do on-site next time, Fran? Could be fun!

it's still in the shower

It was still damp on the bottom (see picture, it's still darker at the bottom) so I haven't been able to do anything with it yet. I also won't be dyeing more yarns until I find tartaric acid and make a good mordant. That will be the goal for this week.
And researching plants.

A sort of success

Well here's the end result of the first blueberry dye. The color is much lighter than I thought it would be, but I've since found a site recommending a salt fixer for berries instead of the vinegar that I used. I think that next time I'll give my yarn a soak in an alum mordant first too.
I asked for and received offers of acorns and walnuts this fall. Hee hee! When the nuts start to drop, beware!
Another lady in the area who gardens has also offered to let me have some plants from her garden. Oooooh joy! I need to get some better gloves, because if I get any good at this I'm going to be purple (or some other color) to my armpits.
Mwaaa haaa haaa haaa. Fall will be an excellent season this year.

blueberries started it all

I was making blueberries into baby food last weekend, when I realised just how much stuff I was straining out. It was such a pretty color I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I'd been knitting soakers for my son to wear over his diapers, and had dyed some covers with koolaid. How much of a leap is it to use blueberry leftovers?
A ball of Lion Brand was hanging out behind my couch. I got it on sale anyway... so if it totally flops I won't be too upset. Except this is taking some time to do, so I guess I'm out the time.
At first I just took all the leavings and put them in a pot with the yarn (which was a pain to rewind into a loose hank let me tell you...) and cooked it a bit. I got a nice gray color out of that but neglected to take a picture. Then I left it to sit for a week.
Blueberries will be out of season though... so two pints later:


I've changed my method a bit, boiling and straining. It's soaking now, and I'll rinse it tomorrow and see what we get.

Let's begin!

testing testing...