Apples and Bracken

So this wasn't my first attempt at dying with plant products, but it was by far my most successful. Well, sort of. When I was working at Half Price Books a couple of years ago I picked up a book called Wild Color by Jenny Dean and this has been both my introduction and my blueprint to natural dying. This book has been a wonderful introduction to the history, procedures and plants that are used in dying. Two of the most available plants to me that I found in this book were bracken fern and apple leaves. My boyfriend, Aaron lives on a property of seven acres that is mostly comprised of woods. So! Off we tromped into the woods looking for bracken fern, of which we found a lot, and other forages, of which we did not find enough to dye with.

Although I am new to natural dying, one of the things I must impress upon those other beginner foragers and dyers is that you must be careful of how much plant material you take from one place. Some things it does not matter as much because it is rampant in the area (if you ever find a patch of comfrey or bamboo you probably don't need to worry because they are so invasive), but if you find a small patch of lichen DO NOT scrape it off its resting place. We want to make sure that the plants and lichen in the environment prosper and that we make as little an impact as possible. Luckily there was plenty of bracken fern in the woods! Between that and the apple trees that could be clipped in Aaron's garden we got plenty of plant material to dye some yarn. 

Now, to the yarn itself. Being a beginner it is easiest to work with wool, as it is one of the simplest materials; it's not so sensitive to heat and I didn't need to worry so much about the dye taking unevenly. The yarn that I chose to use was Cascade Yarns- Ecological Wool, an un-dyed wool. I soaked it for roughly 12 hours, so that the dye would take more readily, then simmered the wool with the plant fiber (roughly 120 grams each) for an hour. Note here that a more experienced dyer may have washed the skeins so they wouldn't have so much of their natural oils on them. This would have allowed the dye to take more readily, but out of curiosity as to what would happen, I did not do this.

If I had washed the wool my results may have turned out differently, however I was perfectly happy with the effect. The bracken fern was just barely more tan/brown than the dirty white of which the yarn had started. The color was just barely changed and although I liked the color, it probably could have benefited from being washed previous to dying. Either that or have benefited from being simmered with plant matter for a longer period of time. I will have to try this later. The apple, however, turned out to be an absolutely lovely deep and robust, rusty gold. I was amazed that this color could come from the seemingly simple green leaves of an apple tree. I can only imagine the difference that washing the yarn and a longer simmer could have done. I may need to try these differences next season! 

Below I have included a picture of the two yarns crocheted together and the colors truly compliment one another. As for the crocheting process itself, it is a simple double crochet pattern in which I crocheted in the backstitch of the previous row. Please let me know if you are interested in an official pattern.

Much love,

Kenzie