Brazilwood Dye Bath

Today’s adventure involved natural hand dyeing by myself. Previously my dye days were with a group of other weavers led by another fiber artist. On the last dye day, I came home with a gallon jug each of Brazilwood and Logwood dye baths that were not spent. Also, a baggy for each, with the wood junks and shavings used as the dyestuff wrapped in cheesecloth. The yarn, 80% wool and 20% silk blend that was a dusty light  Yellow color, had been in my stash for too many years. This was  wound into 5 – 2 oz. skeins. The over dyed yarn will be the weft yarn for a future throw. The warp yarns will be from a previous natural dye day. ( See post Natural Dye Day, Feb. 28, 2013.) I mordanted the yarn using alum and cream of tarter. The Brazilwood dye bath is setup on my outdoor grill’s extra burner. The bath was heated to approximately the same temp as the mordanted skeins that were still quite hot. The skeins were allowed to simmer for about an hour producing this beautiful color. Since I only had one heat source my dyeing must be confined to one dye bath at a time. The logwood dye bath will be for a future adventure.