Winter Plant Dyeing - Peach to Yellows

Finn and Shetland wools

 Here is a lovely Finn sheep from my friend Erika's family farm - oneearthpermaculture.

The top (unrolled) wool is from these lovely finn sheep.  I treasure Finn wool - its perfect for needle felting,  It had a beautiful loft and is always soft.  The other is wool (white and grey) are from shetland sheep that I got from Roc Day this year.

The Finn wool roving goes into a mixed yellow dye, made from my gardens dried flowers from my garden this past summer.  

Marigold, coreopsis and cosmos (on the right)

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Avocado

Avocado skins that were saved for 2,3 years?  You have to de-skin the avocado and then rinse the skins under water to get all that green flesh away before drying them.  They were easy to crunch up in your hand, into littler pieces, so more dye is able to be released.  

The color turned a lovely shade of peach - lower right is the finn wool - its just beautiful and just what the Dr. ordered for this cold part of wintertime.

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Coreopsis

This was dyed with Dyers Coreopsis and Madder root.  Left is white finn roving and Right is the grey Shetland.  I so hope to get some madder plants going this year for my garden.  I still have some left over dried roots from a farm up in Maine that I went to this summer.

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Osage Orange

This is the difference between yellows from Osage Orange, dip one in a weak bath of ammonia water (top), brings out a warmer yellow.  Below is the Osage Orange on white and then grey shetland wool - When you use yellow dye on grey wool - you usually get green shades.

--- Just some more shots of the warm colors ---