These are the results of my dyeing experiments. I’m pretty happy with them. I used a good lopi wool and mordanted with alum and cream of tartar.

Clockwise from bottom right:

Undyed wool. That is the natural shade the wool came in.

Next to that is one skein in a pale yellow – I dyed that skein using calendula blossoms. While a very pretty colour, the dye was weak simply because I didn’t have enough flowers. We removed all green parts from the flowers before putting them in the dye pot. Because the dye was so weak, that skein sat in the dye bath on low heat for over an hour, and then sat, with heat off, for at least an hour more. The colour actually deepend slightly as it dried.

Beside that, are four skeins dyed all at once in dye made from curly dock (aka yellow dock) root. I used a 1:2 ratio by weight of root:wool and was careful to keep the heat very low at all stages of the process. The root had been cut and washed a couple of days before I used it, and had been stored in plastic in the refridgerator.

One the top left are two skeins of the same wool, but in bulky weight, also dyed with yellow dock root. The ratio for this batch was 1.15:2. As well, the roots were used the same day I dug them, and I used higher heat during the dying process. I didn’t get the yellow or orange I had been hoping for, but this is still a beautiful shade.

Next, are four skeins, dyed in succession with mint leaves. The first is on the left, last on the right. I used a combination of peppermint and spearmint leaves and used only the leaves (no stems). Ratio was roughly 1:1. The colour is a very cheery yellow-green. The colour did not noticeably change with each skein.

It is interesting to me how different the two batches of wool dyed with yellow dock are. All the root came from the same plant. And since the the root had been stored before use for one of them, I expected a browner shade for that batch, but the opposite was true. In both cases, the dye bath stained a white plastic bucket a very pretty bright yellow, but dyed the wook in shades of mostly-brown with sort of honey-coloured overtones. Maybe. Depends on the light ;)

And I present to you Booga Bag Number 1. Before-felting info and pictures here. I have a high efficiency front loading wasing machine – which means that sometimes, I have trouble getting stuff to felt. This stuff felted beautifully, but it took three full cycles through the “heavy-duty” hot-cold cycle with two pairs of jeans to do it. I used three balls of Alafoss lopi, dyed with Kool-Aid. I began with the first ball for the bottom, then as I got to the sides of the bag, I alternated every two or three rows between two balls of wool until I had used all the wool (I made the handles first to make sure I’d have enough). The only change I made to the pattern was to make two handles and make them a little longer – about 50″ before felting.

And Booga Bag Number Two. It doesn’t actually glow like that. The sun was very bright and low, so yeah… There is also a stripe that is more visible in person than in the photo.
This bag has basically the same m.o. as the first one. I used three balls, dyed in Kool Aid, but when dying one of the balls, I also added a few drops of blue food colouring, making that one ball a wee bit darker than the other two. I made the handles (even longer this time) with the darker wool. Using the first light blue ball, I knitted the bottom and the sides until I had used almost all of that ball. Then I alternated every other row with the darker ball for 4 rows, then I used just the dark wool until it was almost gone, alternated with the dark and the last ball of light blue wool for 4 rows, then knitted with the light blue until I was out of wool.

I felted the blue bag through four cycles in my machine – one more than for the purple bag. As a result, the blue bag is a little smaller, is much thicker and more sturdy. It holds its shape very, very well.

I’m really happy with all parts of this process. The dyeing went really well and I got exactly the results I wanted. The wool felted beautifully, creating a fabric that is beautiful and sturdy and really fuzzy. And of course, the pattern is wonderful. My thanks and worship to the designer.