Dying with Herbs

I have been preparing samples for a presentation out at Log Cabin Vilage this Saturday (October 19) on dying fabric with herbs. These have included flowers, roots, stems, and fruit. Many of them have been really successful in producing a rich color while others have produced what my wife likes to call yellow, more of an off white really at times though.

Mainly I've been dying cotton but I also tried a wool swatch.  The difference between the wool and cotton is really obvious. The cotton turned a nice red while the wool is more of a light pink, both dyed in beet juice.

Much of what I've been using to dye has been locally harvested from around the area but a few things had to be bought such as the safflower and turmeric.  These were interesting to compare since the safflower has been used for dying for centuries as a dye and the turmeric has typically, at least in the west, used for eating.  The color of the turmeric however was a brighter yellow but fainter than the safflower which was a more orangeish yellow but set better. One of the less reliable dyes was the mesquite which bore only a faint off white instead of the blue one of the sources said it would. Then again it did not describe how to achieve the blue color either so I had to guess based off of other methods of similar material.

For any interested, the presentation will be at the Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth on University Drive just south of I-30 and the Trinity River. There is a fee to get into the village but there are many more presentations besides mine to go see there.

Roses are Red, Garlic is Blue

A lot of people have used that rhyme to express love in poetic form. Roses have been used for ages to show not only love but friendship, purity, passion and even mourning. Roses are probably the most used flower when proposing marriage so the rhyme is very fitting.

Garlic is... Wait isn't that supposed to be violets??? Usually that's true but in this case I would like to show my wonderful experience in preserving garlic.

It was supposed to be a nice happy jar of garlic cloves to put in whatever might be needed in the future. If we had followed the recipe exactly we would never have had this happen. I avoid the word problem on purpose since the garlic is still perfectly edible and tasty.

The recipe said that the garlic should be blanched to make it easier to remove the skins but it failed to mention that this step also prevents it from turning blue, or possibly green or purple as I soon found out.

There seems to be some chemical or another that reacts with the vinegar solution used in the canning process. Yes I know this is a jar but for some reason it's still called canning.

Personally I kind of like the color it gives it and recommend that everyone skip this boring step of blanching and enjoy the color it adds to your dish.

On a side note I began to wonder if garlic could be used to dye fabric but quickly abandoned this notion when I also realized that even if it did, your clothes would probably then smell a bit of garlic.

ARF!

There are quite a lot of folks who are using the word "fail" recently or by now for some time. This is an expression circulating around many writers I know to announce that something hasn't quite happened correctly or even badly as in "This coffee, fail."

My response to this trend is "ARF!"This will make sense to anyone who has come across the dreaded abort/retry/fail error and makes more sense than just fail since it gives you some options, unlike the actual error which usually just lets you abort after hitting "R" for retry a billion times in the vain hope that it might work.

The only unfortunately down side to this is when commenting on anything having to do with a female since I am sure saying "arf" will get you slapped.

So next time something just isn't right try "ARF". It' might work.

Seeing Red?

Seeing red? Most people look at a dandelion and cringe because they know that it's only the first.One dandelion can spread to a thousand in only a few days. I once thought that if I just picked the flower off that it would be done. One day I looked down at a flower I had plucked the previous day and poof, it was just that, a poof. Some of the seeds had even blown away.Next time you think red though you might want to think a little deeper, like Magenta! Dandelion makes a great magenta (allum) color or even purple (tin and vinegar) depending on the chemical you use to set the dye.

How to dye wool using dandelions:
1) In a stainless steel pot soak dandelion roots or plants overnight in water. In the morning bring the pot to a boil then remove the plants with a wooden spoon.
2) Wash the material you wish to dye in warm soapy water and keep it wet. The dye bath is your key to color.
3) Put a mordant (allum or tin and vinegar) in the pot with one cup of water: one ounce of mordant for every thirty-two ounces of material.
4) Simmer gently and stir until dissolved, add 2 quarts water, and stir well to mix. Your saturated textile goes into this bath; bring to a low simmer for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.
5) Note: When dyeing, ensure the fabric stays completely covered with water, and remember, materials appear darker wet than dry.
6) After the dyebath starts to simmer, check in 15 minutes if you wish to have a pale color. Leave the material in the dyebath longer for a deeper or richer color. For full color saturation, leave overnight in the dyebath.
7) Turn off the heat, let cool, squeeze out excess water, and then rinse in warm water to remove the alum.