Over the Labor Day weekend, I had a chance to play with some madder and some rosemary.  I never cease to be amazed at the color plant dye can produce and how that color can change when the dye pot environment changes alkalinity or acidity.  Just amazing!  I posted a picture of the results drying on IG but having rinsed and skeined them except for one renegade skein just gives me the happies.  And of course I have to share that with you.

From left to right:

• rosemary colored skein,
• madder with baking soda added to give me a beautiful orange,
• I got the pink from the leftovers from that alkaline madder solution,
• fire engine red from adding lemon juice to the solution which made it more acidic,
• and the bright peach colored renegade still tangled skein (oye vey) is dyed from the leftovers from the acidic madder solution.  I’m really going to have to get this untangled this week.

Since I’ve decided that this year I wouldn’t be that knitter without her own hand knit accessories, after dealing with the renegade, I’m going to start with this baby:

I want to make this hat below and I think both the yarn and the pattern will be perfect together.

Designer: Lisa Gutierrez of the Goodknits blog

Pattern: Honey

I’m looking forward to working with some more natural dyes especially now that I know what to do.  Not to worry … a tutorial will be on the blog soon, so you too can have some dyeing fun if you want to play.    😀