09-14-2025

Made a toyon leaf dyepot today. Used equal weight of toyon leaves as wool--about 200 grams each. The wool is CA red pre-mordanted with alum (10% by weight).

Simmered the leaves for a couple hours, added wool and simmered the rest of the day. Turned off the burner and allowed to sit overnight in the dye bath.

09-21-2025

After dyeing with the toyon I left the dye bath in the pot overnight before dumping it out. What I noticed was that the next day the dye water was VERY orange. I also looked up whether toyon had tannins and found that yes, it does. So I did a second dye experiment with toyon leaves that had been cooked and then left to sit overnight. I reheated the orange dyebath the next day and added the wool. Simmered for awhile and then left to steep overnight with the wool in it. And I got orange! The wool tips are dark orange, but most of the wool is a pale pinkish orange.

I also made a dyepot with dry (and old) tan oak leaves, simmered. I added unmordanted CA red fleece and simmered and then left overnight. The wool is looking very beige so I am leaving it in the dye for awhile. The leaves are pretty tough and still don’t seem very broken down so I’m thinking I’ll let them start to rot a little.

One last leaf dyeing experiment for the weekend. I collected walnut leaves that had dropped from the neighbors tree. These were mostly browned and dry leaves. Let the leaves steep most of the day because my pots were in use. Water was quite brown. Added wool and simmered (water accidentally boiled for a short bit). Then added wool and continued on very low heat. I also plan to let these sit in the water overnight.

10-06-2025

Made a dye bath of walnut shells (mostly) and hulls (some). I believe this is English walnut rather than black walnut. Soaked, then cooked, and now cooled and still soaking. I will let this steep longer before using it to dye the wool. Hoping for a rich brown.

Also made an elderberry leaf dyepot hoping to get green. It started out green but after simmering with the wool it looked orange. The camera did pick up the green in the picture, but to the naked eye, the dye water was orange. I added some vinegar just to see what would happen. I didn’t see any change. I let the wool soak overnight and will probably rinse it out today.

01-27-2026

Dyed some CA Red and some Shetland using oxalis weeds. Going for the bright yellow that this plant gives.
For my first batch I just pulled and broke them off and had lots of stems. The stems are full of water and added weight, diluting the color. I strained the water after cooking for an hour of two and then added the wool and simmered for another hour or two and then left overnight to cool.
The color wasn’t saturated enough so the next day I gathered more, but ripped off the watery lower stems. (These oxalis are 8-12 inches in parts of my yard.) I added these to the dyepot in a mesh bag and cooked the dyestuff with the wool. Another couple of hours. Then left it to cool with the dyestuff still in the pot. Now I have some yellow!

06-06-2026

Have been spinning the dyed CA Red wool and piling up the skeins! I’m planning a blanket that combines all these yarns. The last batch of CA Red went into the dyepot with fig leaves and I did get a bit of a green hue to the fiber--especially when contrasted with the orange from the toyon.

Some of the CA Red is quite nice--not soft, but it it carded up nicely and has a little bit of a silky feel. Some of it is pretty harsh and has lots of neps. So the spinning isn’t the most fun I’ve ever had. But I want to get this all spun and out of the fleece stash soon.

06-16-2026

Final amount finished: 970 grams or 2 lbs, 2 ounces.

I do still have a small amount of fiber that is gold/brown (dyed with ceanothus). I might still card and spin it, but I might not. I think it’s about 50 g.

I haven’t counted yardage, but I think it will be plenty for a couch size blanket.