Dye Days of Summer – Pears
For my second dye experiment, I used pear twigs and leaves, soaked in well water for about a week.
I don’t know the variety, but this is the pear tree I used for the dye.
I put the soaked twigs and leaves in the dye pot with fresh water, heated it to 200 degrees F, and added two sample skeins, one mordanted with alum and one with pond water. I left them in overnight, and in the morning I had wonderful results.
These are the basic samples. I really love the one on the left – alum mordant and pear twig dye. Really, the other two are pretty good, considering no mordant was needed to get that much color.
There seemed to be plenty of color in the dye pot so I kept throwing in samples. I got mostly tans, nothing as intense as the first two skeins. After removing the samples from the dye, I tried dips in various modifiers – copper, ammonia (a few drops of household ammonia in well water), vinegar (just straight white vinegar), and iron. Nothing earthshaking or surprising happened, but it was still fun.
All the samples. The basic three from the picture above reappear as the farthest left in their group. The two pale ones by themselves are from the solar jars.
I also poured the soaking water into the solar jars, to see if that would work. Those skeins have been in the jars for about 48 hours, and just achieved a very light yellow-greenish tan color.
The three different mordant samples were dipped into a solution of water, vinegar, and a few scraps of copper pipe.
These samples were dipped in water with a few drops of ammonia, to raise the alkalinity, but no real color change ensued.
A vinegar dip should raise the acidity, but again, no big color effects.
These were dipped for just a few minutes into a solution of water, vinegar, and old rusty bolts.
Now it’s on to elm twigs!
(If you need to know more about how I prepared the yarn for dyeing, and how I prepared the modifiers, I wrote about that here. Let me know if you have any questions!)
Very nice Earth Tones Colors, and as natural as can be. Thank you for sharing. Be A Blessing because you’re Blessed. Mtetar
Glad you liked it. Thank you for your always kind comments!
You’re quite welcome! Be A Blessing because you’re Blessed. Mtetar
Pears!! Who would have thought. Gorgeous colours. I love the depth of natural dyes.
I know! Somehow I never thought about trees being a source of dye material, other than walnut and hickory. It was exciting to see the possibilities from pears in Wild Color, especially because I had two pear trees that needed suckers cut back from their roots!
I had aspirations of being exceptional at crocheting. Alas, it hasn’t happened, however, I love to read your blog and live vicariously. They’re lovely colors.
Thanks for the nice comment! Some of the colors are so easy to get – just put the leaves in a pot, pour boiling water over them, let them sit until they turn color, then throw in some yarn and wait a day or so. Being patient is the hardest part!
I really don’t know what I’ll do with the yarn yet – since I live in Texas, wool doesn’t get a lot of use here. But it is easier to dye than cotton!
I don’t know what part of the state you’re in, but I’m in central Texas and am already about to cook. I can’t imagine what the rest of the summer will be like.
I’m pretty close to Huntsville. I work outside a little every day so I get used to the heat. Even in 2011, I went out every afternoon with my sheep. I just stay in the shade as much as possible!
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