Dandelion Dye

April's challenge on my dye calendar is dandelion dyeing.  So, where's the March project gone?  Well, March was daffodils, so I collected all the flowers as they died back and put them in a tub in the freezer, at the end of which I didn't have a lot.  Then the dandelions happened - big time! They went in the freezer too, until the main flush of flowers was finishing, then I picked the rest and put them all in the dyepot.  I knew I had to have quite a high proportion of flowers to yarn, and when I weighed them I had at least 750g.  My skein of handspun Cotswold :- 

 

was 125g, so no worries hopefully.

After simmering the flowers for an hour or so, the dye didn't look as promising as I'd hoped,

but was more green than yellow, so fingers crossed it would give me a decent shade on my alum-mordanted yarn.

I strained the flowers and squeezed as much dye as I could out of them, then added the wool.  After simmering I left the skein soaking overnight.  The resulting colour (unphotographed!) was yellow, but very pale.  I tried altering it with vinegar, but that did absolutely nothing.  A dollop of ammonia in the rinsing water, however, deepened and intensified the colour to what I'd hoped I'd get.

This photo doesn't actually do it justice, the colour is much brighter.  So, roll on May when the next project is . . .

Ditching the Chemicals 2

Another new soap to add to the collection.

This is a lemon essential oil scented soap, coloured with turmeric powder.  I actually thought it might be a bit more yellow than this, but you can never tell how the caustic soda and oils will alter the colour as they work together.

I had some castille soap hidden away in my cupboard - the only oil I used in that was olive oil, and it came out quite a nice creamy white.  I pared off curls of this soap with a potato peeler to put into the middle of my lemon soap which sounds very easy, but it was particularly difficult to get the soap to curl up.  It either wanted to stay in a straight strip, or break into numerous pieces.  Eventually though I had enough to make a statement in the soap and, after pouring about half of the soap into the mould, carefully placed the swirls on top and then filled up with the remaining soap mix.

The bits on top are grated from a bar of choc/mint soap that I made last year.  Maybe not very practical as I'm sure some will fall off when I start using the soap, but it looks pretty.

This was made almost 2 months ago and should be ready to use on 9th April so I'm looking forward to giving it a go.  In the meantime, I've got itchy fingers to make some more soap and have plans for a cocoa/lime swirl soap that I made last year.  It turned out really smooth and creamy and very nice on the skin.  Also, I want to make a dandelion and honey soap.  We're currently in dandelion season here so there are lots about.  I picked a jar of the flower heads last week and have had them soaking in olive oil.  This needs to be heated to extract some of the colour and, let's say, "essence" of the dandelions, and the olive oil will be used in the mix.  On the day I make it I need to make dandelion tea with flowers and boiling water and use that with the caustic soda.  I can't decide whether to add any fragrance or leave it natural.  I don't think there'll be much scent from the dandelions.  What do you think will go with this?  Lemon, orange?  I'm thinking citrus will be best, but not sure.