Daffodillies..............

Oh my this swapping thing is so addictive. I can't believe that just for all the stuff I don't want, I'll be getting Lambs Pride wool; some magazines, lots of chocolate chips, sizzix cutters, fabric, dollmaking stuff and much more besides. It's recycling at it's best isn't it? Exchanging the stuff I don't need anymore for the stuff you don't need anymore and I'm going through my shelves again soon, I can tell you!

Now I promised to tell you about dyeing with daffodils in this post and many people complimented me on the colour which was a bright, bright yellow. However, I got that colour in a roundabout way and I'm going to show you how.

First off I started with no less than 40 bunches of daffodils (which I did get cheaply thank goodness) - weighing nearly a kilo. I put them in a pan and brought them up to boil and simmered it all for an hour. I had to do it in two lots because they didn't all fit in my pan.

 

Then I let the pan cool overnight and next morning I strained out the flower mush and added my mordanted fibre. I also put in a few bits of onionskin as I'd read that it enhances the yellow of flowers. Brought it up to boil and simmered for about an hour.

Now you can't really see here but once I let the pan cool a bit I took out some fibre and rinsed it. It was a pale hay, goldy colour and not at all to my liking. I was worried that it would dry even lighter.

So I did an experiment on the side. I took out some of the dye liquid and I added washing soda to it which makes the water alkaline and I added a bit of wet fibre to it and compared the result.

   

The washing soda'd stuff is on the left and as you can see it went a vivid yellow:

Then being the impetuous person that I am I decided that I preferred the brighter shade so I bunged a bit of washing soda into the big pan. It went darker:

Yep, if you flick back to the other pic you can see the difference in colour. I left the fibre in for 10-15 minutes and then I washed the whole lot in dishwashing liquid which is ph neutral.  Here's another picture of the two shades. This is now just a memory as I put ALL the fibre back in the pan to brighten!

There still seemed to be a lot of colour in the pan so I added some mordanted blanket yesterday and boiled it for about 20 minutes. I've read that washing soda isn't good for wool so I didn't want to risk leaving it in for too long. However, as another experiment I did put two pieces in the pan overnight (without boiling or simmering). There was plenty of colour in the pot as you can see:

So, what's my advice if you want to try daffodils? I'd say that unless you want to dye 250g fibre and about 250g blanket you won't need as many flowers as I did, thankfully. The washing soda seems to make the dye more brilliant and to make it go further. So for 100g of fibre or blanket you'll only need about 200g of flowers. Boil up your flowers, cool in the pan overnight, strain and add your fibre. Boil and simmer and then add about a teaspoon of washing soda or maybe a teeny bit more if it doesn't darken. Agitate the fibre and leave for 15 mins. Then rinse in dishwashing liquid (I just use Ecover) and wash out and leave it to dry. By the way only rinse in hot, hot water if you've just taken it out of a hot pan otherwise the change in temperature will make the fibre felt.

VERDICT: I love the colour of the blankets but I'm not so sure about some of the fibre. The curls are lovely, bright and shiny but I'm not so sure about the bluefaced leicester - it may well be different once it's carded. On the whole it was definately worth it but if I'm going to do it again I need to grow my own flowers. If that's the case then it would be cheaper to grow french marigolds which give just as nice a yellow. But you know me - at least I can say - been there, done that when I next walk past daffodils.

Just want to leave you with a lovely song that my children all sang at Kindy before I get back to my cauldron pot:

Daffodillies, daffodillies you're so pretty I was told,

because you shine like the sunshine, like heavenly gold

because you shine like the sunshine like heavenly gold.

Aaghhhhhhhh....................

Comments

[Saltygal]

I love the natural shades so much more than the store dyes,forgive me if this is a silly question but did the dafodills have to be fresh, as in just picked? One thing I do have ( or will in a few weeks) is plenty of daffodils

[Georgia]

Actually Simmy, it's probably just easier to dye with onion skins. Every time we cook we save the skins in a ziplock bag and when it was full, I dyed with them. Now I naturally have very alkaline water which may have effected the outcome, but the wool came out the most divine "daffodil" yellow colour-bright but not garish. I will try the daffodils though, but I'm going to wait until they've wilted and dried...I'll let you know what happens. Oh and did you mordant in alum?

[ramona]

oooh how wonderful. i think i couldn't do that. the poor daffodils ;-) btw, i answered all your email. maybe they are stuck in your spam folder? it happens sometimes to emails. otherwise let me know and i'll resend them.

[kristin]

thanks for sharing this process. what satisfying results...the yellow is just wonderful!

[cosymakes]

your pictures are always so educational. i love that one with the daffodils on top.

[Jodi]

I'm going to pass your daffodil info to a woman I work with. She saved lilys from last summer and tried to dye linen this winter. She said it was a disaster. She noticed that the stamen from the lilys would stain her clothes when she worked in her garden, and this is what gave her the idea. She said that the one good thing that came from the process was learning the difference between stain and dye.

Jodi

[Ali]

Simmy, you are an alchemist!

[sue]

I just LOVE the lovely yellow curls! I think I'll take your advice and try the french marigolds, since I use them in my garden anyway, and the girls have a blast popping off the heads;)

Thanks for a terrific tutorial! And we loved to kiddies poem, too :))

[carol]

Gorgeous! No daffodils here yet--we just got rid of snow last week, but wow is that a neat way to dye. I'm keeping it as a reference. thanks.

[Jan-Knit]

What a great experiment. Thank you for sharing it with us!!

[little jenny wren]

What a wonderful array of yellows. Isn't nature wonderful to give the possibility of so many different shades and to give you so much fun playing with them.

[Evelyn Lum]

Hello Simmy,
I have been a big fan of yours. You and other crafters are a great inspiration to me. Slowly but surely, my own weblog is coming together. I am going through this by trial and error. There are just too many questions and the info on typepad gets me more confused.
I hope you will include me as one of your fave blogs. I am so much to show everyone!

[theundergroundbaker]

Hi S,
Great post, the yellow is beautiful!

I have been considering working with natural colourings for my cakes, (if you get a chance check out my orange polka dot prototype recently posted), but of course I have to consider flavour, not to mention toxicity!

I have had some lovely lemon saffron cookies in the past, so that will probably be my first experiment colouring the pastillage and sugar paste yellow/gold.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Just recieved my copy of Colours, looking forward to starting it.

Funny, my mate is a journalist too.

[Candy Minx]

Oh my GAWD!!!!!!

The colours are so beautiful. You have done a gorgeous job of documenting this and teaching us this too. The yellow is so lovely I am blown away.

Hey Simmie, I have done a little virtual tour of art on eBay for fun...and I also wote a small survey.

About art in the home and decor and interest levels in art or collecting. I was hoping maybe you and some of your readers might take a moment and drop by to participate?

Here is the survey:

http://gnosticminx.blogspot.com/2007/03/candys-special-tour-of-art-on-ebay.html

[Kristy]

Where do you find the time for all your loveliness?I wouldn't know where to start x