Weaving - the warp on hold.

I'm feeling a bit frustrated, weaving-wise, the sample warp is wound on the back beam and has sat there most of a week. I had other things to do this weekend, my next good chunk of time for making progress will be Thursday morning. The next task is to tie-up treadles, then thread heddles, sley the read, tie the warp to the front apron. Quite a few hours work!

So, in the meantime, here's a photo of the warp "on hold". To stop the threads slipping and tension being lost, I have run a lath along the top of the back beam. Under the lath, to create the friction needed to grasp the threads so they don't slip, there is a thick piece of linen thread. You can see the tail end of the thread emerge from under the lath at the top left of this picture. The lath is held tight with a solid pair of g-clamps. I keep finding more uses for these clamps, they are invaluable weaving tools!

Logwood

I used the traditional dye Logwood for the first time recently. Historically this dye was very important, especially as a source of navy blue (obtained with potassium bichrome mordant) from 1800 onwards, but I find when I talk to people who aren't dyers that while they have heard of woad, indigo and madder, this and many other natural dyes have slipped out of general knowledge. Jill Goodwin in A Dyers Manual says Logwood, from the south american native tree Haematoxylon campecianum was known in England from the time of Queen Elizabeth I, but its use was prohibited by law until 1661, as dyers needed to learn to how use mordants to make this dye lasting. The chips of logwood sold as dyestuff come from the heartwood of the tree, which is cut down when about 10 years old. Rita Adrosko in Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing and Rita Buchanan in A Dyers Garden both recommend soaking the logwood chips for at least a few days as fermentation that occurs when the logwood is soaked leads to better results. Rita Buchanan says the choice of mordant is important because logwood does not last long when alum or tannins are used, and best results are obtained when using chrome or iron.

I wish I'd read these books before I did this work with logwood, as I've used only alum mordant and also hadn't seen that Jill Goodwin recommends the dyer to stop heating the dyebath when the wool is added for best, clearest colour.

Here are the results of my experiment, the wool my usual superwashed merino, the mordant my usual pre-mordant of 10% alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) and 8% cream of tartar (potassium hydrogen tartrate). Progressively lighter shades were obtained from the same dyebath, until I ran out of wool.




The next photo shows how one of those magical dyebath transformations has occured - see how the colour of the dyebath the wool went into, and the first colour shown by the wool in the dyebath, was most definitely orange.

Dyes from Dock seed heads

Just a quick photo here to show the colours I obtained from the pre-soaked seed heads of the broad leaf dock plant, Rumex obtusifolius. For several weeks I kept checking the plants (which grow wild in our garden) to see when the seeds would be ready. I was keen to try using the seed heads after reading in Su Grierson's book "The Colour Cauldron" (self published, 1979 reprint, now out of print) that a red dye could be obtained if the seed heads were given regular heating over a few days. She obtained apricot / caramel shades and first and thought this red was coming through because of decomposition of the dyestuff. I think I should have used more plant material to get a stronger colour.

I didn't get to the brick red she described, but in the sample on the left of this picture you can see a more pink/red tone coming through. This wool sample was dyed three days after the others, with approx 3 hours heating of the dye bath in total before dyeing. Next springtime I shall try again, as I am told that the young spring leaves also give reds.

The samples to the right are, far right, with after mordant tin (stannous chloride), centre with after mordant iron (ferrous sulphate) and then both the samples on the left are only treated, as all this wool was, my usual pre-mordant of 10% alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) and 8% cream of tartar (potassium hydrogen tartrate). The wool is superwashed merino, again.