Dyeing an array of fibres purple

Further to my previous three posts I have continued to dye the Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool and fibre selection that I have chosen and now that the third lot is dry I can get on with my fourth and final lot. 

So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:

150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself
40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"
25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
25g of Mulberry Silk
12g of Tussah Silk Noil
12g of Trilobal Nylon
12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar

I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production.  This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.

I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 67.5% River Blue and 22.5% Flame Red and 10% Midnight Black.  What I weighed out was 1.86g of River Blue, 0.62g of Flame Red and 0.276g of Midnight Black.  The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.

Dyeing an array of fibres blue

Further to my previous two posts I have continued to dye the Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool and fibre selection that I have chosen and now that the first two lots are dry I can get on with my third. 

So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:

150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself
40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"
25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
25g of Mulberry Silk
12g of Tussah Silk Noil
12g of Trilobal Nylon
12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar

I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production.  This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.

I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 75% River Blue and 25% Amazon Green.  What I weighed out was 2.07g of River Blue and 0.69g of Amazon Green.  The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.

Dyeing an array of fibres yellow-orange

Further to my post of earlier today I have also dyed a second batch of fibres the colour that I had intended to the first time around, before I weighed the dye out incorrectly.

So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:

150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself
40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"
25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
25g of Mulberry Silk
12g of Tussah Silk Noil
12g of Trilobal Nylon
12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar

I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production.  This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.

I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 95% Sunshine Yellow, 2.5% River Blue and 2.5% Flame Red.  What I weighed out was 2.62g of Sunshine Yellow and 0.138g each of River Blue and Flame Red.  The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots or the Milk Protein, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.

Dyeing an array of fibres orange-brown

Further to my post of a few days ago I have now decided what I am going to do with the combed Llandovery Whiteface Hill fibre.  I decided to split the fibre into 4 lots of around 155g each and add the same fibres to each lot but in different colours so that I can dye the fibre an appropriate colour and make 4 yarns that are almost identical but just in different colours.  The total amount of fibre in each lot will be enough to make 2 skeins of yarn and a nice amount to make a shawl.

I started out by sorting items from my ingredients cupboard into colour groups and then checking if I had at least 4 different colours of any given fibre.  Where I didn't have the necessary 4 colours that fibre was eliminated from the piles.  Next I had to decide which fibres in each colour group worked well together, such as which shades of blue out of all of the packets looked good together.  I ended up with 5 piles of 4 small packets of fibres so I had to eliminate one colour group, which I did easily as the colours didn't work together as well as the other piles.

I also decided that I would take the opportunity to dye some of the currently undyed fibres in my stash at the same time so that these would go into my "ingredients cupboard" for use at a later date.

So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:

150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself
40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"
25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
25g of Mulberry Silk
12g of Tussah Silk Noil
12g of Trilobal Nylon
12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar

I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production.  This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.

I had intended my first batch to be dyed a kind of mustard yellow but I made a really stupid mistake when I was weighing the dye out and only realised once I added the fibres to the dye pot and saw the colour it all went.  Whoops, but a happy mistake because the fibres have turned out almost the exact colour I had intended for my second batch.

What I had planned was 1% dye depth made up of 95% Sunshine Yellow, 2.5% River Blue and 2.5% Flame Red.  What I should have weighed out was 2.62g of Sunshine Yellow and 0.138g each of River Blue and Flame Red.  What I actually weighed out was the correct amount of Sunshine Yellow and then I messed up and weighed out 1.38g each of River Blue and Flame Red (10 times too much of each colour).  The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots and in both cases they are kind of a peachy-coral colour along with what can only be described as grey and it looks like a pile of burnt rubbish. 

Analysis of the results of dyeing the plant based fibres

So, onto my analysis of my first attempt at dyeing plant based and cellulose based fibres.  The two anomalies that were pretty obvious were with the Tropical Green and the Deep Violet dyes.

Although not all of the fibres dyed 100% Tropical Green turned out to be anything like the expected colour, I am not going to over-dye what I did get from it because I do like the final result.  I've put together a kind of results photo of just the 100% Tropical Green fibres to show the comparison of fibres.  Some of them turned out more pale blue or aqua than green.  They are pretty though and I don't really mind as these were dyed purely to add a variety of colours to my "ingredients cupboard" for when I make blends with wool.  I wasn't dying with a specific end result in mind.

I over-dyed the disappointing result from dyeing the Faux Cashmere/Bio-Nylon blend and the Trilobal Nylon using my usual Greener Shades Dyes at 1% depth in Coral Reef Aqua.  I have discovered that these two Nylon based fibres can be dyed with either dye, both work on these particular fibres.

Top: Faux Cashemere/Bio-Nylon before & after
Bottom: Trilobal Nylon before & after

As I already said in the previous post, I did re-dye all of the Soybean again but on their own in the dye pot.

Summary by fibre type

Hemp - all of the samples dyed a little patchy so I think I need to open up the fibres more before putting them in the dye pot.  Having said that they did all come out the expected colour or close to it.

Trilobal Nylon - all of the samples dyed pretty evenly except for one and there was the two anomalies, being the Tropical Green and the Deep Violet.

Ingeo Corn - both samples dyed evenly and beautifully and the blue dyed as expected, it was the one that went into the green dye that didn't dye green.

Himalayan Nettle - both samples dyed a little patchy, I probably needed to open the fibres out a bit more, but took dye well and exactly the colour expected.

Pearl Fibre - both samples dyed a little patchy but intensely and the colour expected.

Soybean/Soy Silk - all of the samples dyed quite patchy, which was probably my fault for not opening the fibres up more than I did.  I re-dyed them in the same colours but opened them up more and gave them the entire dye pot to move around in and they came out much better.

Pineapple Fibre - both samples took the dye well, although a little patchy, and the colour was as expected.

Egyptian Cotton - this took the dye well and the colour was as expected.  I should have opened the fibres out more as it was a little patchy, especially in the centre of the length.

Faux Cashmere/Bio-Nylon blend - all samples took the dye well and evenly and the colour as expected except for the Deep Violet and the Tropical Green.

Milk Protein - both samples took the dye well and evenly.  The blue was as expected and the green was a lot brighter/more vivid than expected.

Banana Fibre - both samples dyed patchy so I need to make sure I really open the fibres if I do this again but they did dye intensely.

Mint Fibre - this had a pale golden base colour and I did only dye both samples a very subtle colour but they are both very slightly patchy and not dyed evenly.

Rose Fibre - both samples took the dye vibrantly although slightly patchy.

Over-dyed Soy Silk - both samples took the dye well but not evenly but this is most likely because the original colour was not a solid colour either, it was light and dark shades of pink.

I do have more fibres of this kind that I want to dye once I have purchased more colours to give me a larger range of colours that I can get from these dyes.

Dyeing all kinds of plant based fibres using Dylon cold water dyes

I've had a full day in the kitchen playing with a variety of plant and cellulose fibres and some cold water dyes.  My usual Greener Shades Dyes are not suitable for this kind of fibre and I now have quite a lot of it thanks to the two years of Advent Calendars and the occasional purchase by me, like the lap waste bags and a sample pack. 

I've bought some small packs of cold water hand-wash dyes by Dylon, they also do dyes you can use in the washing machine, I don't want those.  It doesn't say on the packets but working things out logically you can actually just use the amount of dye you need to use for the amount of fibre and keep the rest for later, you just need to be able to seal the packets up in between uses.  I have some food packet clips from Ikea which are really good and provide a nice tight seal.  You can also mix the dye colours to make new colours and shades, like my usual dyes, again it doesn't mention this on the packets but it does work. 

Each 50g packet dyes up to 250g of fabric or fibre.  The instructions say to weigh and then soak the fabric or fibre and to dissolve the whole pack of dye in 500ml of warm water.  Weighing the fabric seems like a daft instruction amongst the rest of the instructions to me, other than to make sure that what you are dyeing is less than 250g, because you would only weigh the fibre if you are weighing out the dye to achieve a specific depth of colour and these instructions are assuming you don't care about the finished shade or depth of colour, just shove all of the dye in and hope for the best.  It then says to fill a bucket or sink with 6 litres of warm water.  Next you have to add 250g of salt followed by the dye and then the fabric or fibre.  Stir for constantly for 15 minutes followed by regularly stirring for 45 minutes.  Rinse in cold water and its done.

My revised instructions for enabling these dyes to be used in smaller amounts is as follows: 

• use 1g of dye for every 5g of fibre
• Dissolve the required amount of dye in 10ml of warm water for every 1g of dye
• use 5g of salt for every 1g of dye
• add the dissolved dye to a further 120ml of warm water for every 1g of dye
• add the fibre and stir
• rinse in cold water after being in the dye for about an hour

So, the fibres that I have dyed are:

I also planned to dye a 10g sample of Egyptian Cotton, which I don't have a before photograph of and I have over-dyed two pink fibres that I have in my stash, 11g of pink Bamboo and 75g of Pink Soybean/Soysilk.  The pink soybean isn't too bad a shade of pink but I do have quite a lot so I have split it into 3 lots, keep one in the original pink and dyed the other two lots.

My "dye pots" are re-cycled plastic take-away tubs and these hold enough dye to dye roughly 30g-35g of fibre.  The dye colours that I have used are Vintage Blue, Deep Violet, Tropical Green and Sunshine Yellow.  The results are not always what I expected but I am dying this fibre purely to put into my "ingredients cupboard" in a variety of colours.  The fibre base colour will have an affect on the final result, especially the Soybean.  The Mint fibre is a kind of pale mushroom colour in real life so that is likely to have a bit of an affect on the results too.

There were 16 "dye pots" throughout the course of the day and most of them had 3 different types of fibre in them.  All of the fibres were soaked in warm water with the addition of a small amount of Synthropol prior to being put in the dye to remove any finishes that may have been on the surface of the fibre. 

The Soybean, Trilobal Nylon, Hemp and Faux Cashmere/Bio-Nylon are larger amounts and have been pulled into lumps of about 10g each.  The other fibres that I am dying from scratch are 25g samples htat have been split roughly in half to be dyed two different colours.  I will let the following photos tell you all need to know.  Where there is no percentage figures on the dye photos means that it was 100% of that colour.  I have only put percentage figures where I mixed the colours in those proportions.

I'm pretty happy with my dyed fibre.  The Soybean/SoySilk fibres didn't take the dye too well on the first attempt and I went back through and re-dyed them in the same colours as the first time around but this time it was on its own in the dyepot.  I also over-dyed the Trilobal Nylon and the Faux Cashmere/Bio-Nylon blend that had turned out bright pink from the Deep Violet dye.

I will write a separate post to discuss the results, as this one is long enough already.

A day dyeing fibre - mostly wool

There is always a yellow fibre blend required for the TdF in commemoration of the Yellow Jersey.  I am not buying anything in especially this year but I have nothing true yellow in my vast stash either so I will need to get the dyes out and dye some fibres and then blend the results with others bits from my "ingredients cupboard".

Today is the day for doing this.  I also have a couple of other dye jobs I want to try and fit in today too.

Middle photo shows the dyed fibre drying.  Left hand side: before & after Celluose Fibre followed by the Merino/Suri Alpaca. Right hand side: before & after Mulberry Silk Noil followed by Trilobal Nylon

I weighed the fibre I intended to dye and made up a dye pot of Greener Shades Dye in Sunshine Yellow at a dye depth of 1%.  After all the fibre was soaked in warm water containing a dash of Synthropol I added the fibre to the dye pot.  There was a 100g of a white Merino/Suri Alpaca blend that I got from WoW a few years ago and that has really taken the dye well, very bright yellow.  5g of Mulberry Silk Noil that I've had a lot of years and interestingly that hasn't taken the dye as I expected but it is a pretty lemon yellow.  I also added 10g of an unknown cellulose or plant based fibre and I didn't really expect this to take much dye in, if any at all, as the dyes are specifically for wool and animal based fibres but it has taken some dye and is another one that has come out a lovely pale lemon.  The 5g of brilliant white Trilobal Nylon that I also added to the dye pot sucked in the dye really well and came out the same bright yellow as the Merino/Suri Alpaca.  I also tried throwing a small handful of hemp into the dye pot but that was totally unaffected by the dye so I haven't bothered to show that here.

My next dye job of the day is an idea that I had pop in my head whilst on holiday last summer.  I had an idea about what to do with the left over North Country Cheviot hand combed nests from the British Breeds project.  I want to split it into two and make two matching yarns in reverse colours but dye it in a very light, summery green with maybe natural whites, yellows and greens as complementary textures.

Middle photo shows the dyed fibre drying.  Left hand side: before & after Trilobal Nylon, Right hand side: before & after North Country Cheviot

After weighing and soaking the fibre I made up a dye pot of Greener Shades Dye at a dye depth of 0.2% made up of 75% Sunshine Yellow and 25% River Blue.  There was a 157g of hand combed North Country Cheviot, 6g of Trilobal Nylon and I also chucked in a couple of other fibres which were already dyed green but not quite the right shade, these were 18g of Merino in shade leaf and 7 of silk noil in shade Chorophyll but these didn't change colour, maybe a tiny bit, but not noticeably different so I haven't included the pictures here.

My final dye job of the day was to over-dye a variety of hot pink fibre that I would never use as it was and I also threw a few undyed bits of fibre into the dye pot as well just because I'm using another different colour. I made up a dye pot of Greener Shades Dye Coral Reef Aqua at a dye depth of 1% and threw all of the soaked fibres in and hoped for the best.  Some of the smaller amounts I used a large jar and scooped some of the dye water into it and stood it back in the pot just to keep the fibres from mixing with others.

In the first photo you can see a lump of pink bamboo on the right hand side, this didn't take up any dye at all so I will try dying that one again once I have the right dyes.

The colours of the fibres looked pretty good in the dye pot but when I checked the pH I discovered that I needed to make an adjustment to neutralise it but I think I might have messed it up a bit because it changed the colour of the fibre from evenly dyed to kind of a random patches of different colours.  I might not have needed to do anything and I am kind of regretting touching it.  I need to get a digital pH reader because I really struggle with those little paper things.

Top row: 59g Merino
Middle row: 10g Trilobal Nylon
Bottom row: 48g Merino - Baubles, Day 8 from Advent Calendar 2022

Top row: 25g Northern Lights Bliss (Merino)
Bottom row: 16 Tussah Silk Raspberry

The previously undyed fibre is below

4g Trilobal Nylon, 5g Tussah Silk Noil
4g Tussah Silk Noil, 5g Hemp

All I have to do now is wait for it all to dry and then make the blends I want with the yellow and the green and all of this purple and blue will go into my ingredients cupboard to use in future blends.

Dyeing the Whitefaced Dartmoor for a second time

 A couple of weeks ago I tried to dye some combed Whitefaced Dartmoor wool using some left over cold water dye.  It didn't work.  At best it turned some of the outer-fibres of the hand combed nests a very very pale silver grey but it hadn't gotten down into the inner fibres. Today is the day that I am going to give this fibre some colour.

I am using my usual Greener Shades Dyes and have chosen to dye this at 0.5% dye depth (half a gram of dye per 100g of dry fibre), there is 282g of fibre and the dye is made up of 75% River Blue, 25% Amethyst Purple.

I did loosen the hand combed nests a bit before putting them in the dye pot in the hopes that the dye would reach all of the fibres and I am happy with the results.  The plan is to use this fibre in my own blend and add some other fibres and colours to it to make it more interesting and to add a bit of softness as well.

An interesting patchwork of blue and pink-y purple that I am sure will eventually make an interesting spun yarn and then go on to be made into something that someone would love to buy from me.

A full day of dyeing stuff

I had quite a few things that I wanted to dye or over-dye so I set aside a full day to do as much as I could, time and available space to get it dry depending.

The first thing that I tackled was a shawl that I finished crocheting at the beginning of the year but was not happy because the yarn was darker in one part than the rest and this dark stripe ruined the shawl.  I had to buy dye specifically for this as my usual dyes don't work on cotton.  I have already blogged about the shawl and updated the post to show the finished dyed version and you can find that here.

I used a cold water Dylon dye in shade "Burlesque Red" and followed the instructions.  The water isn't properly cold, it has to be hand warm to begin with but doesn't require any further heat.  The shawl has come out pretty good though, I'm happy with it.

What I did do, whilst this shawl was having a nice soak, was to take a clean empty jam jar and scooped a small amount of dye water out of the dye pot and then pull off a 5g clump of undyed trilobal nylon from the 100g clump I have and pushed it into the dye water in the jar.  I made sure it was fully submerged and just left it on the side for about half an hour.  

The colour is nothing like the shawl, not even close, you would not think it was dyed using the exact same stuff at the exact same time.  It has come out a pale purple colour but evenly dyed though and this will now go into my "ingredients cupboard" for use to add a bit of shimmer when I make my own fibre blends.

The next thing that I dyed was some bright yellow cotton yarn that I would like to tone down a lot to make a more usable and appealing colour.

I have chosen the same cold water Dylon dye but this time in shade "Ocean Blue", fully aware that over-dying something yellow with blue will no doubt make it become green.

I'm happy enough with the result of the yarn, not ecstatic, but it's fine.  I also tried to dye some wool using the left over from the dye pot as it is supposed to be able to dye wool, just a much paler shade than you get from dyeing plant based fibres.  It didn't work, barely touched it, so I laid it to one side to dry until I could get around to using my usual wool dyes.

I done the same thing with this dye pot, I took a clean empty jam jar and scooped a small amount of dye water out of the dye pot and then pull off a 6g clump of undyed trilobal nylon and pushed it into the dye water in the jar.  I made sure it was fully submerged and just left it on the side for about half an hour.  

The colour is nothing like the yarn, but then I don't expect it to be given that I am dying something white with blue dye so of course it will be blue.  Again the result is evenly dyed and this will also now go into my "ingredients cupboard" for use to add a bit of shimmer when I make my own fibre blends.

The final thing that I wanted to dye today was the last of the white Jacob fleece that I have had a number of years, since 2014.  I had already chosen a dye and despite the poor results from trying to dye some Whitefaced Dartmoor wool in the left over blue dye I decided to still give it a go with the cold water Dylon dye in shade "Olive Green", given the fact that this is fresh unused dye and not left overs.  I have to say that it didn't work.  The results were poor and actually looked like it had been stained with urine.  Not nice at all.  However, the clump of trilobal nylon that I had dyed in the jam jar came out a lovely shade of very pale olive green.

So I now have two decent-ish amount of wool that is wet from a failed dye attempts.  The Whitefaced Dartmoor I am happy to allow to dry because its kind of a pale silver colour right now but the Jacob needs to over-dyed right now.  I dig out my wool dyes and shade book and I get to doing some complex maths and weighing out the dyes I need.  I chose a dye depth of 1%, that is 1g of dye for every 100g of dry fibre so its a good job I knew how much it weighed before I put it in the dye pot earlier, 427g.  I made the 4.27g of powdered dye up using 45% River Blue, 45% Sunshine Yellow and 10% Ruby Red and got cooking - the wool dyes require high temperatures.

I am happy with the results and can't wait to see what it will look like when it is combed and made to look nice and fluffy.

I also dyed some Trilobal Nylon with this dye by scooping some of the dye water into a jam jar with a small clump of the Trilobal Nylon pushed down into it.  This dye normally requires heat but I gave it a go with just it being stood on the side for about half an hour and it kind of worked.  Its not evenly dyed but it did take up some of the dye anyway so that's OK and I have some Trilobal Nylon from an old supplier that is just like this, not evenly dyed, and she gets away with selling it like that so I'm happy enough.

Mermaid - Badger Face Welsh Mountain - Torddu

Further to my post of 20th February about the Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep - Torddu, this post is about what I did with the "colourful" parts of the washed fleece and the small amount of hand combed fibre that I got from my purchase of just 50g of washed fleece.

The 50g of washed fleece

The 25g of combed top I got and then this top with the colourful parts from the other fleece

Obviously when I post about something that I've done, it is always after I have done it and sometimes I post in stages as I do it and other times I wait until I've completed the whole project and sometimes projects physically "cross-over" in real life, so whilst I'm waiting for something to dry I'm starting work on something else etc. In that post of 20th February I didn't mention that I had already dyed the colourful parts of the fibre when I had, in fact, dyed it on 18th February. I kept that information for this post.  I dyed it using Greener Shades Dyes in Coral Reef Aqua at a dye depth of 0.75%, so 3/4 of its usual strength, because I wanted a slightly lighter shade than usual.

I already had an idea what I wanted to do with it before I dyed it, which is partly why I dyed it that colour, plus the fact it was already slightly tinged blue from the raddle paint or whatever that the fleece had been marked with.  I wanted to make an oceanic yarn so I sorted out some ingredients in blue and green to add to it.

Top row: Colbalt Ramie, Gooseberry Merino, Peacock Angelina
Middle row: Caiprinha Trilobal Nylon, Torddu, Chlorophyll Silk Noil
Botton row: Ireland Silk Noil, Caiprinha Hemp, Harmony Merino

It was blended on 27th February and it looks really pretty like this.

It got left in a bag for a little while until I started spinning it on 16th April and I was having to thin out the small clumps of silk noil as I spun.

My finished yarn is a 2ply double knit weight and I have 112g/210m.  The final fibre count is 65.5% Badger Face Welsh Mountain Torddu, 27% Merino, 2.5% Ramie, 1.5% Trilobal Nylon (Firestar), 1.5% Silk Noil, 1% Hemp, 1% Angelina

Trying more plant based dyes

After harvesting the homegrown carrots, I have once again made some dye using the carrot tops but this time I am not waiting to use it at a later date, I am using it straight away.  I am also going to try a couple of dried goods for dyeing that I bought from a supplier, marigolds and logwood.

I mordanted the entirety of the white parts of a Jacob fleece in Bichromate of Potash first.  Its not a safe chemical and certainly not eco-friendly, which is a shame as by using plant material for dyes you would think that the whole process would be more eco-friendly than other dyes, but sadly not.  For plant dyes to take effectively you need to mordant the fibre and it is the various mordants that are not eco-friendly.

The fleece came from a friend of an ex-work colleague, you can read about that here.  This one was fleece No.5.

The first thing I dyed with was the carrot top dye that I had just made.  The tops had been chopped and soaked for 3 days, boiled up and simmered for about an hour.  I strained the greenery from the dye, which went into our compost bin, and put the dye liquid back into the dye pot and added 160g of mordanted fleece into it.  I don't think this is as vibrant as last time I used carrot top dyes but I am using a different fibre as well as maybe different strength of plant material relative to the amount of water.  I don't know, its often guesswork with me.

The next thing to go in the dye pot was some dried logwood which had been soaked in a little container of water for 12 hours.  This then had to be simmered for about an hour to obtain the dye.  Logwood produces dark grey dye but interestingly the water turned red when it was simmering.  I had read that if you add about a tablespoon of powdered chalk to the prepared logwood dye before you add the fibre then this produces blue fibres, rather than dark grey.  I gave this a go and put 247g of mordanted fleece into the dye pot.

I'm happy with the results of this one, I have a wonderful mix of dark blue and blue-grey fibres, this will be interesting once its combed.

Logwood can also be used on non-mordanted fibres and it is supposed to take.  The dye bath was clearly not exhausted so I ran and fetched some mohair fleece that I had had sitting around for some time.  I didn't dye all of the mohair but I did grab and good amount, 184g actually, and dumped it into the dye pot.  It didn't seem to be taking any of the dye at all until I added a good glug of citric acid to the dye pot, where it suddenly turned a mushroom kind of colour.  Not the best but not really nasty, I can use this, but I was hoping for some kind of blue-grey like the Jacob wool produced.

The final batch of dye was made using dried marigold flowers, which I followed the instructions for and soaked them for about an hour before simmering them for an hour.  I put 64g of mordanted fleece into the dye pot and hoped that it turned out the colour I had read about and that I hoped for.  No such luck.  Its quite boring to be honest and certainly does not have any orange colouration to it that my natural dye book said it produces with this mordant, as different mordants can affect the final colour produced and this is why I chose to mordant with Bichromate of Potash.