Mason Jar dyeing and dyeing with herbs and plants

I finished off my mason jar dye with a dip in the water bath canner. It turned out great.

 After that success I decided to try something new. I did a little research and decided to try dyeing with some of the plants that grow on my property. So I went and collected some Black-eyed Susans. I already had some dried rose petals, lavender, mint and lemon juice on hand.

First I mordanted my superwash wool. I used a combination of alum and cream of tarter about 2 tsp of each for 1 oz of fiber.

This I heated for about 90 minutes at 90 degrees celsius. While that was going I prepared my dye bath. I used about 2 quarts of water with 4 good handfuls of the flowers or herbs I was using. Then I heated them to simmering for about 30 minutes.

 Then I strained the herbs and flowers out and put the fiber in I set it on the stove for about 30 minutes on a low simmer.

Here is how they came out.

The lighter one is Black-eyed Susans , the other is a rose-lavender-mint blend with a touch of lemon juice.

I decided to take a quick detour from the “Oh The Fiber ” series and try my hand at jar dyeing.

 I am using my Cushings Acid dyes and some superwash wool.

First I wet down the fiber in water with a bit of dish detergent in it. While it was soaking(about 30 min) I made up the dye bath.

 I heated some water and vinegar to about a simmer and then added Cushings Acid Dyes in Nile Green.

I put the wet wool into the jar and then added the dyebath.

 I set it out in the sun. I thought this might help it take like sun tea. However remembering that these are acid dyes and not natural dyes I might be better to process them in a water bath canner. I might try that today and see what happens.

Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red.

Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic bananas come from the two wild species Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana or hybrids Musa acuminata × balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific names Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca are no longer used.

The banana plant has long been a source of fiber for high quality textiles. In Japan, banana cultivation for clothing and household use dates back to at least the 13th century.

In South Indian state of Tamil Nadu after harvesting for fruit the trunk (outer layer of the shoot) is made into fine thread used in making of flower garlands instead of thread. I find it interesting that banana fiber is being called a “new fiber”, when it has actually been used for textile purposes for hundreds of years.

Musa Basjoo -fiber banana

 Musa basjoo has been extensively cultivated for fiber or gardens outside its natural range, into Japan and parts of Northern Europe and Britain, the United States, and Canada.

My Banana fiber.

I am keeping this post short and sweet as today is my son’s birthday. He will be 16 today. My how the years have flown by.

We have a new member of our little farm. His name is Ray . Ray is a beautiful Ruby-Eyed White English Angora.

Ray enjoyed his outing to the bunny run today. He is really quite a sweetie.

All the other animals wanted to check out what we were doing. I wasn’t able to get a picture of this because I was holding Ray.  However Francois was very sweet to him I brought Ray to the fence and Francois came over and gently touched him on the nose with his nose it was such a precious moment.

Sign up for the blog and newsletter to see the latest items in the store.