After dyeing with logwood at the guild last year, I ordered some chips from a tapestry weaver in Sydney; recommended by my dyeing teacher, apparently he imports plant dyestuffs to dye all his own threads (wow!) and then sells what he doesn’t need. My friend Mel has very generously shared with me a pack of Renaissance dye extracts that included some logwood… so there has been a couple of dyeing sessions to see what colours could be achieved using the two different sources.

Almost all skeins were pre-mordanted with alum and cream of tartar and I didn’t use any mineral modifiers (such as iron), although the enamel pot I used when dyeing with the extract has a chip in it so I think I may have added some iron into the water that way. Next time, I need to do two batches, one in that one and one in another, to compare results. Some of the yarns I used had previously been dyed with other plants and this has just reconfirmed for me that overdyeing gives some of the most interesting and beautiful colours!

Logwood on wool

From back to front:

Pre-mordanted with alum and cream of tartar, dyed with chips for around 40 minutes

Pre-mordanted with alum and cream of tartar, dyed with extract for around 40 minutes

Pre-mordanted with alum and c/t, dyed with extract for around 30 minutes

Pre-mordanted with alum and c/t, dyed with extract for around 20 minutes

Logwood on wool and wool/ silk

From left to right:

Wool/ silk, pre-mordanted with alum and cream of tartar, dyed with extract for around 20 minutes

Wool/ silk, pre-mordanted with alum and c/t, dyed with extract for 30 min

Wool/ silk, re-mordanted with alum and c/t, dyed with chips for 40 min

Superwash wool, pre-mordanted with alum and c/t, dyed with chips for 40 min

Shetland, pre-mordanted with alum and c/t, dyed with chips for around 40 min

Logwood on wool/ silk

All were dyed with chips for 40 mins

From left to right:

Unmordanted, previously dyed with soursob (Oxalis pes-caprae)

Pre-mordanted with alum and cream of tartar, previously dyed with rosemary

Pre-mordanted with alum and c/t, previously dyed with Eucalyptus cinerea

Pre-mordanted with alum and c/t

Lovely colours, aren’t they? Despite not being that into purple, I’m really looking forward to using these…