Gift Idea No. 9!

This is a really simple idea, following on from the last post.

For spinners who've never tried natural dye extracts (or even dyeing!), why not buy them one of the substantive dyes that contain tannin. These are Amber-M (Oak Gall), Kango (Myrobalan), Pacific (Pomegranate) and Thar (Cutch). One 25g packet of any one of these dyes will dye 500g of fibres and shouldn't need any other mordant, such as alum and cream of tartar and so can be done in one step:

• Weight your fibres in their dry state
• Wet them out (if using tops curl them into a bundle and secure end round the bundle then immerse in warm water with a squirt of washing liquid
• Weigh up to 5g of dye extract for each 100g of wool yarn.
• Dissolve the dye in a small amount of water, heating if necessary to aid the dissolving or add a "grain" of washing soda.
• Top up the water so that it will be sufficient to cover your yarn when it's in the pot.
• Add your wetted out yarn to the pot.
• Slowly bring to a simmer over about 45 minutes.
• Simmer for 45 minutes.
• Cool in the pot then rinse thoroughly.

For as little as £1.30 for the dye and your fibrey friends own fibre what more could they want!