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.