What’s the Madder?

Armed with all my recently assembled madder info, I set out Friday to give it a go.

I had assumed that the madder I had in my EarthHues natural dyeing kit from many years back was probably ground roots, and so was planning to have to go through an extraction process.

But upon closer inspection, it became clear that what I had was madder extract. So that really simplified things. I used the whole 30g that I had in the little container, but upon reflection, I probably didn’t need to. The bath was quite strong. Not quite sure of the total volume, but I filled my big pot up about 2/3, so maybe 6 gallons?

I tested the pH, and found that it was a bit acid (6.5). I wanted to increase the alkalinity and add a bunch of calcium, which supposed to boost the red pigments, so I added powdered dolomite lime.

Then I added my fibers and heated the bath to 160F. I think I left the goods in there maybe an hour- and look at these results! Glowing pink/red in the sunshine, almost burgundy on the grey felt in the front.

After washing and drying, here are the finished goods (total of 10.1 oz)

I was so surprised- it almost looks like cochineal. And the pot still has a lot of life in it.

I wanted to try something out that I’d read in the Jenny Dean book, about using the exhaust batch to produce a tangerine color on unmordanted fiber, and so added just a couple of cups of the dyebath to my rinse water to simulate a near-exhaust color density and added a little vinegar. Popped in some more fleece. Heated it up to 160 then just let it sit and cool with the fiber in it for quite a while.

It didn’t give me tangerine, but a pretty peachy pink

It might fade out, since it wasn’t mordanted. Only time will tell. But it’s lovely right now.

Also making some progress on the Dottie cable sweater- both shoulder pieces complete, and front right in progress

Feels so cushy and luxurious! I was telling Dottie about it this morning as I was checking and trimming her hooves, but she didn’t seem too interested. Maybe I’ll take it out there for her to inspect later. But I’m guessing she’d be more excited about a handful of oats 😉

Have a good week folks-