Dyeing Archives - Josefin Waltin spinner

November 4, 2023November 4, 2023

Serial blue

This weekend I harvested the very last of my indigo leaves for a final extraction. Throughout the season I have dyed for a serial blue.

To learn more about fresh indigo dyeing, pop in at the Dogwood dyer‘s!

This is my first real season of both woad (European and Chinese) and Japanese indigo (Maruba and Kojoko) and it has been such a beautiful experience. I did try both woad and Japanese indigo a few years ago, but the Japanese indigo never germinated and the woad was eaten by flea beetles, so I don’t even count that.

Woad woes

There was some trouble with the woad in the beginning. Our local city fox decided to investigate the pantry properties of the hugelkultur where I had planted my woad. Nighty pantry digging raids resulted in severely damaged plants. Twice. Of the few plants of Chinese woad I had from the beginning I was left with only three. The European woad plants were more from the beginning and I ended up with around eight.

A hand holding three balls of ground and compressed woad leaves. A mortar and pestle in the background. — I made some lovely woad balls out of a whole harvest, but they molded quite quickly.

At one point I harvested all my European woad – over 500 grams – to make woad balls, but they started to mold after just a couple of days. I did a final extraction of the autumn harvest kast week, but it only resulted in a blue tint in the coffee filter. Still, I have lots of seeds left and I am counting on the existing plants to grow another year in the hugelkultur. And oh, they are accompanied by a sweet plant of madder now too.

Extractions

All through summer I have harvested a small amount of leaves. My first try was a cold water extraction, but the most common method of extraction has been a semi-warm fermentation – 35 °C in the water and a double boiler “thermos” of around 45 °C. The extraction has taken around 18 hours.

A pot with some green leaves under a lid with two rocks holding it down. The water in the pot is clear. — Cold water Indigo extraction from kojoko plants. Day 2 to the left and day 4 to the right.

A pot with some green leaves under a lid with two rocks holding it down. The water in the pot is light green and the surface looks a bit oily. — Cold water Indigo extraction from kojoko plants. Day 2 to the left and day 4 to the right.

When I have decided that the extraction was finished I have removed the leaves and started oxidizing the liquid. This is the most fun part. With just an alkaline addition and some oxygen the liquid turns magically blue and I know I have secured some pigment for future vats.

Baby steps

The reason why my extractions have been so small is practical – my buckets and pots aren’t large enough to ferment the whole harvest in one go. I was a bit annoyed by this in the beginning, but then I realized that multiple extraction for a serial blue has its advantages, at least for me as a beginner. By making small batches I ensure that I can extract some pigment. If one extraction fails I still have the other ones. Had I done it all in one go there would be a risk of it all going down the drain.

A person pouring a blue liquid from a bucket into a pot. In the background are green plants. — Oxidizing my indigo extraction is the most fun part! My small indigo garden to the right.

Another advantage is that I have learned a lot by doing the multiple extractions. I know the signs to look for, I know what the liquid is supposed to smell like and I know how much lime to add in the alkalization stage. I have also created a routine for the extractions that has worked well for my context and my tools.

A small mason jar with a blue liquid in it. The liquid has separated in the top few millimeters. — One of my first Maruba extractions.

After the very last (perhaps tenth all in all?) extraction this week, just before the frost covered the ground in a sparkling blanket, I measured my serial blue dried indigo pigment to around 5 grams. It’s not much, but I have made it all by myself and I am ridiculously proud of every grain of blue.

Fresh leaf dyeing

In the beginning, before I had enough leaves to make extractions, I did some fresh leaf dyeing. I used both the salt rub and the blender method and enjoyed myself tremendously.

Two rubber gloved hands holding mashed leaves and textiles that have turned green. — With both salt rubbed (left) and blended (center) fresh leaves I ahve dyed my handspun silk (right).

A hand stirring a bowl of green liquid with greenish blue textiles in it. Leaves and stalks on the ground beside i — With both salt rubbed (left) and blended (center) fresh leaves I ahve dyed my handspun silk (right).

As I started extracting I took advantage of the fermented leaves too. The ones that still looked fresh still had some dyeing potential, and I used them with the blender method. Every batch got a small skein of handspun silk and a few linen buttons.

Serial blue

I got some lovely greenish blue skeins in the fresh leaf baths and light blue buttons. However, it was when I started to overdye that the real fun began. By dyeing skeins and buttons two or three times I got a darker and deeper dye from both indigo and woad.

Five skeins of singles silk yarn. Four of them in a mellow greenish blue colour, one golden beige. — Woad dyed silk and natural muga silk (left), Kojoko dyed 2-ply embroidery yarn (center) and multiple dyed linen buttons (right).

Three mini skeins of 2-ply silk yarn in vibrant greenish blue colours. — Woad dyed silk and natural muga silk (left), Kojoko dyed 2-ply embroidery yarn (center) and multiple dyed linen buttons (right).

I realized that I could play a lot with this – any skein that ended up too light or unevenly dyed went back into the next bath.

A wooden board with 14 small skeins of handspun silk. They are all in different shades of greenish blue, one is purple. On the ground beneath the board are yellow maple leaves. — Serial blue – multiple dips of my handspun silk yarn in fresh leaf baths.

The colour differs between the two Japanese indigo types and the woad, the Kojoko being a little more vibrant than the Maruba and the woad a little lighter and earthier than the Japanese indigo. On the picture above you can see woad on the fourth from the right. The second and third from the right and the first, second and fifth from the left are Kojoko, the rest is Maruba. The somewhat tousled skeins are dyed with the salt rub method (where the fresh leaves are massaged into the skeins) and the others with the blender method (where the skeins are soaked in leaves that have been blended with ice cold water).

Indirubin

The purple skein is a result of having added some heat and a little alkalinity to already extracted leaves. This can, if you are lucky, bring out the indirubin, which is purple. I did this several times, but this skein was the only one that was worth saving. The second from the left is an overdye from another bath that wasn’t as successful in extracting the indirubin. You can still see some traces of purple in the skein.

Until next year

All the dye pots are stored away now. Of the plants in the garden are just a few stalks left. But on the windowsill in my home office are two pots, one with Kojoko and one with Maruba plants. A few stalks rise high above the others, displaying a multitude of flowers. These are my heroes and seed producers for next year’s dye garden.

A stalk with green leaves and small pink flowers. — Pink flowers on my Maruba plants. The Kojoko flowers are white.

Seeds of Japanese indigo need to be fresh to germinate, so for every season I need to grow new seeds for the next. If I succeed and if the seeds germinate I will have a dye garden of blue in 2024 too, and lots more experience than with this first one.

My play with fresh leaf indio on my handspun silk is over and I do have plans for the skeins. I will also experiment with vat dyeing with the indigo pigment I did manage to extract, which will be a whole new adventure. I’ll keep you posted!

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.

August 26, 2023August 26, 2023

Blue ice

I have had lots of blue adventures this summer with my homegrown Japanese indigo and woad, and they are not over yet. Today’s post is about blue ice and leaf pounding.

To learn more about fresh indigo dyeing, pop in at the Dogwood dyer‘s!

I love that I can dye straight from fresh indigo leaves. I have tried the salt rub method a few times with both Japanese indigo and woad, and they have all given lovely results. Another fresh leaf method is the ice method, also called the blender method. You blend freshly harvested leaves with ice cold water, strain the blended leaves away and plop prewet textiles in the indigo juice for 5–20 minutes.

Silk cuffs

Usually when I play with indigo dyeing, I test with handspun silk yarn, a linen button and strips of linen and antique cotton. This time I had an addition to the dye bath – a white silk shirt I bought second hand online. It has wide and billowing cuffs that I wanted to dye with the ice method.

I used two plastic clamps to make sure the cuffs came straight and organized into the dye bath. I also clamped the neck strings together with the cuffs. To keep them off the dye I tied the rest of the sleeves and the body in a plastic bag. I prewet the shirt with the rest of the textiles overnight and prepared some water to cool in the fridge and an ice tray in the freezer.

Blue ice

In the morning I realized the capilarity had done its thing and wandered up into the rest of the garment. I knew that was a risk, but I didn’t mind. It could turn into a lovely effect.

I picked 100 grams of Japanese indigo Maruba leaves and blended with the ice cold water, strained off the leaves and carefully added the cuffs and the rest of the fabrics into the green fluid. Anything could happen now. But I was okay with that, it was an experiment and I would learn from it either way.

Baby teal

After only five minutes in the ice bath there was a clear difference and after 15 the material had transformed into the loveliest baby teal.

The blue ice bath after 5, 10 and 15 minutes.

I have a contradictory relationship to the colour teal. While I do love the colour, we don’t have the concept in Swedish so I am never sure whether or not I can call it teal. I don’t always know how to keep it apart from turquoise and other neighbouring colours. I decided though, that the colour of the cuffs is baby teal, and so it is.

The shirt is still wet and the colour a little more intense than when dried.

The dye did creep up an inch or so above the cuff seam, as I suspected. I really like it, though. It’s a perfectly imperfect transition between dyed and undyed, like a blue shadow.

Leaf pounding

I had planned the blue cuffs for quite a while, but it was only a day or two before I dyed that I realized that the perfect partner to the blue ice experiment would be pounded indigo leaves. I would place them as a decoration above the cuffs and around the neckline. So I picked some Japanese indigo leaves, placed a piece of cardboard between the fabric and the hammer to protect the silk and and pounded away.

The newly pounded Koyoko leaf prints are still green (left). All that is left is a thin shadow of the leaf (center) that still has some blue to offer (right).

I used leaves of different sizes from both the rounded Maruba and the arrow shaped Koyoko. Both for their different shapes and for their different blues. I turned the silk shirt inside out and placed the leaves between the layers to take advantage of both sides of the leaves. This means that every leaf print has a mirror image somewhere on the shirt. Placing the leaves between the slipaway silk was a bit fiddly, but with pins and focus I think I did a pretty good job getting the pattern symmetrical.

Yoke play

I have been designing the yoke in my mind the past few nights. In the early hours I knew just the way: I wanted the yoke to resemble a knit Fair Isle yoke.

A fair Isle style leaf pounding yoke for my silk shirt. In the center picture you can see the handspun silk and wool yarns I dyed in the ice bath together with the cuffs.

I started at the neckline with downward pointing Koyoko leaves. Below that upward pointing Maruba leaves and to give some structure to the base line I added the tips of Kyoko leaves. To create the tips I placed the whole leaf where I wanted it. I placed a piece of cardboard on top of the leaf, with the baseline covering the Maruba leaves to the left and right of it and pounded on the cardboard.

My leafy blue ice shirt is finished and I love wearing it!

There is still some green left in the leaves, but I assume it will fade away and reveal some more blue. This shirt will mature and change over time, just like we all do.

My leafy garden blue ice shirt is finished and I have lots of ideas of more leaf pounding with my homegrown flowers. There is so much to discover and play with. I am buying another second hand silk shirt right now!

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.

August 11, 2023August 12, 2023

Blue magic

Mmmm… the blue magic of indigo seems to be my theme for this summer. This week I have tried a fermentation method to extract indigo pigment from fresh Japanese indigo Koyoko leaves.

The cold water fermentation method is described in one of Liz Spencer’s (the Dogwood Dyer) online courses. I liked the slow and unhurried pace of the method and decided to give it a go. After all, I’m totally new at this and have no idea what I am doing really. The chemistry of indigo dyeing seems quite daunting, but I am equally intrigued by the variety of techniques and range of colours I can get from my sweet little plants.

Koyoko

When I started an in-person class in indigo growing and extraction here in Stockholm in April we got seeds for European woad, Chinese woad and Japanese indigo Maruba. We also got a pot with a few plants of Japanese indigo Koyoko. These take some time to grow and flower very late in the season, so to be able to harvest the Koyoko seeds, our instructor Katja provided us with baby plants instead of seeds.

All my Japanese indigo plants have grown very nicely and I giggle with joy and excitement every time I see them. Since I don’t have that many Koyoko plants I wanted to do something special with them. When I saw the cold fermentation method in Liz Spencer’s online class I knew I wanted to try it with my Koyoko plants.

Fermentation

For the extraction I picked most of my Koyoko plants for the extraction. I saved a few plants to flower so I can get the seeds for next season. I do love the brightness in the colour that I have managed to get so far with this variety.

Sunday morning was the day to start. I picked my plants and prepared a pot outside our front door, just next to the container where the rest of the plants grow. I checked the fermentation pot twice daily to keep an eye on the process. Liz lives and dyes in southern California, so the temperatures there are a lot higher than here in Stockholm, where it also has been unusually cold and rainy during the past week.

The fermentation pot after 72 hours (left) and 96 hours (right).

Alkalizing and oxidizing

On the fourth day I didn’t want to wait any longer – there is a risk of over fermenting. Liz lists different signs that the fermentation is at its peak and I decided it was time to stop the fermentation. I removed the indigo leaves and alkalized the mermaidy turquoise fluid. I felt very grown up when I checked the pH with a few pH strips. When I had the right pH I oxidized by pouring it between large buckets for a while.

*Look at that colour! My indigo plants say hello from their contai*ner. Oxidizing to the left, finished oxidizing to the right).

The colour was amazing. So much blue from my little plants. I left the blue magic to rest over night and allow the indigo pigment to sink.

More dye!

Meanwhile I did a salt rub with the leaves from the fermentation that were still fresh looking. There was still indigo left in them and I got some more shades in my collection of indigo dyed handspun silk collection. I tried to squeeze some indirubin out too, but failed – all I got was green that I suspect is chlorophyll only.

Salt rub dye from the fermentation leaves that were still fresh. Soy treated antique cotton, linen and linen buttons to the left, handspun silk to the right. The right silk yarn is overdyed after a previous experiment.

And I wait

This is where I wanted to write about watching the pigment sink to the bottom and then decanting the fluid to get access to the blue magic. But I can’t, not yet anyway. The morning after I had oxidized, the fluid looked exactly the same as the day before. Beautifully blue, but not a sign of any pigment sinking to the bottom of the pot.

I got nervous and described my predicament in a Facebook forum for indigo pigment extraction methods and got some reassuring replies with encouragement to give it a few days, perhaps even a week. So I wait, while at the same giddily planning upcoming blue adventures.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.

August 5, 2023September 29, 2023

Chinese woad

After a local fox had raided our hügelkultur a few weeks ago my woad bed was a mess. I had only around eight plants of European woad left and two of the Chinese woad. This week I did a salt rub with the chinese woad.

Please don’t ask me for dyeing advice. I don’t know anything about it. For lots of courses in fresh indigo dyeing, have a look at the Dogwood Dyer website or instagram.

The woad plants that are left after the fox attack are thriving. Three compost grids under heavy rocks keep the fox away, although they don’t keep it off other beds. The Japanese Indigo is untouched so far, though.

Salt rub

Salt rubbing with fresh indigo bearing plants is a lovely method that is quick and requires only the fresh leaves and some salt. The salt helps extract moisture from the leaves.

A few weeks ago I did a couple of salt rubs with Japanese indigo, both Maruba and Koyoko. They resulted in clear greenish blues. I knew that woad has less indigo than Japanese indigo, so I counted on subtler colours in this Chinese woad salt rub.

The textiles

I picked the largest leaves from my precious Chinese woad plant in the morning and weighed them. There weren’t many leaves, but they are quite large and resulted in 50 grams. The recommendations I have got is to use at least twice the weight of leaves to textiles. My textiles weighed 10 grams, but I figure the midrib of a woad leaf takes up some of that weight.

I popped in two small skeins of handspun silk singles, two antique linen buttons, a linen patch and an antique cotton patch. I had soaked the cellulose fiber items in soy milk a few days earlier to disguise them as protein fibers and thereby take on more dye.

Rubbing away

With the Japanese indigo, both liquid and textiles turned blueish green after 5–10 minutes, but with the woad it never did. After 17 minutes of rubbing, the colour of both liquid, leaves and textiles was still grassy green. Significantly darker than in the beginning, but not a trace of blue.

From light to dark, but still grassy green after 17 minutes of rubbing.

I still had hope, though. After a quick cold water rinse, a wash in mild detergent and a vinegar rinse, the woady turquoise emerged and lifted my spirits. My first try with woad a couple of years ago resulted in tiny plants that got totally eaten by flea beetles. How a person can manage to kill an invasive plant like woad remains a mystery. Still, after the flea beetle incident, a first very failed indigo trial the same year and the fox attacks I am very grateful for every tiny dye experiment with my homegrown colour.

Warm and kind nuances with Chinese woad.

There is a difference between the cellulose and the protein fibers – there is more blue in the protein fibers. The protein fibers take up more dye than the cellulose fibers and there is still some chlorophyl in the cellulose fibers. This might mean that the colour in the cellulose textiles won’t be as colourfast as in the protein textiles. But the linen buttons seem to have caught more blue than both the linen and cotton patches.

More than blue

The dye power didn’t end with the salt rubbing, though. With a little help from heat and baking soda the indirubin may emerge, a mauve colour. I covered the remining leaves with some water, added a little baking soda and kept it warm, at around 50 °C. I added a skein of handspun silk singles, a linen patch and a linen button and left it in peace.

After an hour or so the liquid was reddish brown and the textiles olive brown. After a quick rinse, though, the silk transformed into the loveliest dusty mauve. The linen patch also turned mauve, but a little lighter. The button, well, while I can see some traces of mauve, it is mostly brownish grey. There is some of that brownish grey on the silk skein and the linen patch too, and it may be where the leaves have been in contact with the fibers.

Giddy, giddy

Every morning when I open my door to get the paper I see my indigo plant bin and smile (and sigh of relief that the roe deer haven’t eaten it). I am quite giddy about this, and so far it is thriving. The European woad in the Hügelkultur also looks very healthy and I am glad I got so much dye out of my single Chinese woad plant, that now only has a few small leaves left.

The newly salt rubbed textiles are drying on our garlic drying nails in the woodshed. The salt rubbed skeins are a bit tausled from the massage therapy.

My plan is to dye my little skeins of handspun silk singles in as many colours as possible, using different techniques and my different indigo bearing plants. I keep spinning the silk singles (on a supported spindle), anticipating a rainbow of indigo colours. Eventually they will all end up in the same project.

Left: All the textiles dyed with the Chinese woad. Right: The silk skeins from the Chinese woad dye next to the two skeins I dyed with the Japanese indigo Maruba a few weeks ago.

The patches of cotton and linen are just for comparison, but I hope I can find a project for my sweet buttons. I am sure their perfect match will appear sooner or later.

As I write this I look at my dyed textiles with joy while at the same time planning my next dyeing experiment. There are so many techniques to try and when I feel bold enough to try something a bit more challenging I will. I lean on the courses I have bought at the Dogwood dyer and the local course I am taking here in Stockholm. Just two weeks until the last class of the course.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.

July 22, 2023August 11, 2023

Blue story

A mystery linen shirt, a hedge top, a cauldron and a summer sky are the main characters in this post. Today I give you a blue story.

Ms Klein

Once upon a time there was a shirt, a white linen shirt named Calvin Klein. At leas that was the name on a tag at the back of the shirt’s neck. One morning, sky blue with just a few fuzzy clouds, she found herself casually draped over a hedge in a residential area, a very peculiar place to wake up in for a white shirt. Her back ached and she wasn’t very pleased about her situation.

A hedgerow conundrum

The house occupants were puzzled about the shirt’s arrival in their hedge, a perfectly fine white shirt, hanger and all. They confered for a while and decided to leave it in the hedge for a couple of days in case someone recognized it as theirs. But nobody claimed the shirt. The mother of the house decided the teenage daughter would be the new guardian of the shirt. And so Calvin came to stay with the family in the teenager’s closet.

A white linen shirt appeared on our hedge one morning in the late -80’s.

This was over 30 years ago. Calvin was worn and enjoyed for many years. For a while she was too small and for another while just fine again. The owner wasn’t much of a white shirt wearer, though. Still, Calvin was worn on a beloved auntie’s funeral only last summer.

Blue is coming to town

An indigo dyer came to town and offered a dip in their cauldron to clothes in need of some vibrant blues in their lives. Calvin had got some mysterious stains, and the now 50-year old woman figured Calvin would be the perfect candidate for some indigo dyeing.

I mended the holes under the arms with a linen patch on the back and running stitches with a linen yarn.

When the woman was about to scour Calvin to make her susceptible to the dye she discovered some torn spots in the armpits. She put a linen patch behind the spots and made neat stitches with linen thread to protect them from further damage.

Dyeing Day

The dyeing day came. The woman rode her bike the nine kilometers to the museum where the dyeing was to take place. She met up with her friend, she too with garments to dye, and together with lots of other people looking for some more blue in their lives and wardrobes, they began to dip their textiles in the cauldron, that looked a lot like a large plastic tub. The friend had brought two pieces of natural linen folded into cubes to experiment with some shibori-style dyeing.

Soaking textiles and textile cubes (left), starting the indigo bath (center) and dipping time (right).

The indigo bath had a yellow-greenish colour and a compost-like smell. Yet, the two friends trusted the instructors and kept dipping. And there was magic. Once they took the textiles out of the cauldron the limey green started turning blue. They swayed the sopping wet textiles in the air and watched the blue magic happen.

Learning curve

This was the first time the woman had dyed with indigo and she made lots of mistakes. But she learned from them and got a first sense of what it is like to dye with indigo. There was lots of dipping, drippning, airing and laughter. Some rain too.

The textiles are green when they first come out of the tub, and then turn blue.

After a few hours, cauldron (and stomachs) was almost empty, the rain plenty and the woman really had to pee, so the two friends gave their dyed textiles a final wash and went their separate ways.

Results

Wet and hungry and with soaking wet textiles in her backpack, thee woman rode her bike the nine kilometers back home. She tossed the garments into the washing machine and got a lovely dinner that her teenager had made.

Calvin in her new summer sky look (left) beside a wardrobe friend in the same look (center). To the right a tunic that used to be the same purple as the garment underneath it. For some old reason it got a more greenish colour. Still lovely! In the background the unfolded piece of natural linen.

The following day the clothes were dry. They were a bit lighter than she had expected and a little more uneven that she had hoped for. But still, very beautiful. Calvin was very happy with her new look that reminded her of the sky that day when she had woken up atop the hedge.

And the mending? It turned into a beautiful blue too.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.

June 24, 2023August 11, 2023

Blue play

This week it was time to pinch my Japanese indigo plants. This will hopefully result in bushier plants. It also paves the way for new plants and some blue play.

Please don’t ask me anything about the dyeing process as I have no idea what I am doing, I just follow instructions (and deviate from them) in the courses I am taking.

I am childishly smitten by my indigo plants. I have one rectangular container just outside the front door where I can keep an eye on them, plus a couple of pots in the pallet collar greenhouse. The other day I couldn’t help myself, and prepared to pinch the Maruba plants and use the leaves for dyeing.

Maruba salt rub

It’s generally best to pick fresh indigo in the morning, but this first time I did it in the afternoon, just because I couldn’t help myself. I got quite a lot from my little indigo garden. I decided to do this as simply as possible, to be able to focus on the process that was all new to me. This means that I didn’t weigh either leaves or textile, I took no photos during the process and I had no particular expectations.

I decided to to the salt rub method – a method where you use salt to extract the liquid and then massage the leaves with the textile for 5–20 minutes. It was lovely to watch the liquid and the textile – supported spindle spun silk yarn in this case – slowly change in colour and depth. This needs to be done fast! As soon as the leaves are broken and/or dried the blue colour comes out of the plants and is consumed.

In one of my vases of indigo stalks, one stalk doesn’t reach the water. The plant dries out and the blue colour emerges.

I cut the plants, placed the cuttings directly in cold water and removed the leaves from the stalks. When I had removed all the leaves I put them in an empty bowl together with a little salt and the hank and started massaging.

Three mini hanks of supported spindle spun mulberry silk yarn dyed with indigo from the salt rub method and its afterbaths.

I massaged my mini silk hank for about 17 minutes and got a sweet mediterranean blue. The silk looks a bit tauseled from the massaging, but I don’t mind. I just love the colour and the fact that I got it from my very own plants. As I washed and rinsed the skein the water turned a bit yellow and the skein a little more blue.

*Newly cut indigo Maruba plants. In the background vases of deleaved stalks waiting to grow roots.*

I cut the plants to make them bushier – when I cut just above a node of the stalk, two new stalks will grow out. I saved the deleaved stalks and put them in water to grow roots. When the roots are long enough I will put these new plants in soil.

Afterbaths

I put another skein in the leftover liquid and leaf mix and placed it in the greenhouse overnight. the skein turned into a lighter turquoise than the salt rubbed skein. I continued the process with the same bath on the stove at low heat together with a new skein and a little baking soda. After a while the skein turned into sort of an olive part of the spectrum. I added a simple thread that got some beige colour, perhaps learning slight towards pink.

Kojoko salt rub

This morning I pinched my Kojoko plants. There were only four plants to pinch, so I just put a simple thread in it. And some of my hair! I envisioned a blue curl, but all I achieved was a green forehead. And, in a certain light, if you squint, you can see a shape of blue. I was really hoping for my white strands to deliver here, but I guess I’ll have to wait for some more white before I can get that blue curl.

Yarn samples! The top yarn has swum for a short while in an afterbath from the leftover leaves and liquid of a salt rub (Maruba). The bottom yarn has been dyed in a later salt rub (Kojoko).

Even if the hair dye wasn’t successful I really love the colour I got on the silk yarn sample, a very crispy mediterranean blue. It felt different than the colour I got from the Maruba. It might have been the difference in species or difference in harvest time, I have no idea.

Oh, and I might have lost the turquoise sample thread down the drain as I rinsed. I might also have lifted out the drawers from the washstand and unscrew the pipes to get hold of the thread.

Eco print

I also tried some eco prints with a few stray leaves. These turned out way richer in colour than the baby leaf I printed a couple of months ago. I love how the colour is richer close to the nerves and the stalks than in the rims and the tips.

There is so much potential in this plant! I have just started playing with it and there is so much more to explore and discover.

Woad status

Meanwhile, in my fox violated hügelkultur, my woad plants are mostly alive. Some have died in the drought, but I still have around eight European woad plants left and a few less of the Chinese woad.

Chinese woad plants under the compost grids, reasonably safe from the fox. Note the baby oak in the foreground.

I think the fox has tried to dig its way in, there are traces outside the oak branch wall of the Hügelkultur, but so far the woad babies are all right.

Tomorrow I’m leaving for Sätergläntan where I will teach the five day course A spindle a day. I am very excited and hope to learn a lot!

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.

June 17, 2023August 11, 2023

Blue reality

In the end of April I wrote a post about growing woad and Japanese indigo and of my blue dreams. Today I share the progress and setbacks of my blue reality.

I walk down to the community garden at 6.15 am to water the allotment. The air is still cool, but I know it is going to be another hot day. The air smells of morning and I soak it in and let it into my lungs. Slowly I fill the watering cans and pour the dear drops over the allotment beds. The drops fall differently on different plants – flowing down the matte kale leaves, softly bending the broad bean stalks and flowing over the flax plants like a wave on the ocean.

Indigo cuttings

I am taking a course in growing, harvesting and extracting dyestuff from woad and Japanese indigo. We have two sorts of each – European and Chinese woad and the Japanese indigo sorts Maruba and Kojoko. We got baby plants of the Kojoko, since it has quite a long developing time, and seeds of the Maruba.

As soon as the Kojoko babies were large enough I cut them and made new plants of the cuttings, and as the new plants were large enough I made another set of new cuttings. I just love the idea of making new plants from existing ones! The indigo cuttings produce roots really quickly, I can almost see them grow. And once the new plants are in the soil they start growing almost immediately.

A glass vase with green leaves. The short stems have developed roots. — My Japanese indigo cuttings are developing roots.

Plants at play

The Maruba that I got seeds from have also germinated and grown into fine specimens. A couple of weeks ago I decided the plants were big enough to come out and play. I planted both the Kojoko and the Maruba plants in clusters of 3–5 plants in a rectangular planting box outdoors, just by the front door so I can keep a close eye on them. I draped a garden fabric over the plants to protect them from too strong sunshine and to give them a more even temperature. And of course I used wool as mulching to keep as much moist as possible in the soil.

Japanese Indigo, Maruba — Japanese indigo Maruba (left and center) and Kojoko (center and right).

Japanese indigo, Maruba and Kojoko. — Japanese indigo Maruba (left and center) and Kojoko (center and right).

The plants seem to have adapted quite well to their new home. I keep two pots under garden fabric in the pallet collar greenhouse too. They are larger and seem to thrive more than the ones outdoors. However, they may be more sensitive to dehdrating or pests. I imagine it can’t be bad to have plants in two locations, should anything happen to any of them.

Woad woe

I replanted the woad plants outdoors a few weeks ago. We have a Hügelkultur in the far end of our garden, built from branches from a felled oak. It is quite large, and my idea was that it would be perfect for the woad. I arranged the bed with fresh soil and covered it with wool before I planted the woad in it.

A plant growing among wool. A compost grid shows above the plant. — A sweet little plant of European woad.

One morning the bed was in total shambles – someone had dug up the soil, leaving the tiny plants to their own destiny. I’m almost sure it was our local fox, perhaps it is looking for places to bury pray for the winter. I remember looking out the window one morning years ago, to find the fox digging up a very dead rat from our kailyard.

With tears in my eyes and brutally struck by this blue reality I replanted the plants I could save, plus some other ones that I still had in pots, covered the soil with compost grids and hoped it would keep the fox out. It didn’t. This time the plants were totally ruined.

The foxes’ forest

More tears, the last pot plants, four grids and heavy stones were offered to the Hügelkultur. The next morning the Borlotto beans, with no grid, were dug up.

Two pots with indigo plants in them. — Japanese indigo Kojoko (left) and Maruba (right).

We live in a city, but it is also the foxes’ forest and we have to deal with that. I cry a bit and move on. One second I dream about exploring the different extracting methods to dye my handspun yarns, the next I deal with violently and irrevocably broken stems. I tell myself that this is gardening. I can do my very best with my plants, but I can’t stop the slugs from gooing their way across the soil, eating everything in their way, the roe deers from munching peas and chard, blackbirds from pinching the strawberries or foxes from organizing their winter pantry. Or, as this June so far, the sun from drying the soil for weeks on end. I’ll just have to deal with it.

The garden potty

One way to take care of our plants to the best of our ability is to pee on them. Or, rather, water them with diluted urine. Urine is one of the best fertilizers. In fact, most commercial fertilizers are based on the Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium ratio in urine. I use my garden potty, designed to work as a watering can, for that particular purpose. I dilute the urine 1:10 and water the most nutrient craving plants with it – kale, tomatoes, leeks, courgettes, chili. And, of course the Japanese Indigo. Practical, easy and cheap!

A large, green watering pot with a red, heart-shaped lid. Behind it pots of tomato plants. — The garden potty ready to deliver some nutrients to the tomatoes.

You can read more about this at Sara Bäckmo’s site (in English or Swedish). She is one of my favourite gardening queens.

Eco printing dreams

It seems to be the summer of colour dreams. As I have been obsessing over videos and tutorials of different ways to use indigo plants for dyeing, videos with eco printing have popped up too. At first slight I wasn’t that jazzed about it, but now I am equally obsessed with that. I have bought seeds for a number of cosmos (rosenskära) species, as well as coreopsis, pin cushion and hollyhock (tigeröga, praktvädd och stockros) to have a library of flower shapes and colours.

A piece of white sheet fastened on a laundry line with a clothes’ pin. A blue leaf is stamped onto the cloth. — My very first eco print, a leaf of Japanese indigo Kojoko.

To be able to play other seasons than summer, I also bought a flower press for bundle dyeing with pressed flowers. I keep a close eye on Swedish eBay for second hand clothes in linen and silk, that may potentially look better with some flower arrangements printed on them. Also I have a plan to sew a dress designed for eco printing. In the meantime I look at the sweet little swatch I made my first indigo eco print on and listen to my heart singing, in blue.

The Dogwood Dyer has good tutorials for eco printing, bundle dyeing and what plants to use for it. She also has tutorials for working with fresh indigo and some sweet inspiration on her Instagram account.

It hasn’t rained for weeks, the lawns are yellowed and the plants seem to have come to a standstill. The weather forecast promises rain on Sunday. I want to drink in the smell of fresh summer rain, see the leaves cleaned of pollen and dig my hands into moist earth. At 7.15 am I am done. I have filled and emptied two 13 liter watering cans 11 times each into the garden beds, hoping the water will sustain the plants a little longer. I long for Sunday.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.

April 29, 2023August 11, 2023

Blue dreams

After a number of utter failures I have mustered up the courage to plant indigo again – two types of Japanese indigo and two types of woad. This will be the summer of blue dreams.

Green leaf freshly picked
Imprinted on cloth, softly
turned blue overnight

A few years ago I tried growing both woad and Japanese indigo. The Japanese indigo didn’t germinate at all. I told the seller and I got new seeds. They didn’t grow either and I gave it up. The woad did germinate, but bite by bite the flea beetle ate every single plant. I gave that up too. I am quite fascinated, though, by the fact that I managed to kill an invasive plant like woad.

A sprouting yearning for blue

Despite these failures I haven’t given up my blue dreams. In early January I got inspiration again and looked around for courses. I found one quite far away from me and asked the teacher, Sofia, if she would consider teaching in Stockholm sometime soon. She wasn’t planning on it, but she kindly offered to send me indigo and woad seeds and planting instructions. I got the sweet seeds and they are now snugly tucked in pots in my kitchen window.

Indigo course

Just a couple of weeks ago my friend Cecilia found a course in growing, harvesting and extracting indigo from woad and Japanese Indigo, just a couple of kilometers from my home. We registered immediately.

The course has three lessons – one in April to plant, one in July to play and one in August to extract the indigo. I knew from the beginning that I couldn’t make the July lesson, but it was still worth it.

We had the first lesson a week ago at a nearby community garden. The teacher Katja told us about the plants and gave us an overview of growing and creating the best circumstances possible for the indican. Each of us got a tiny pot of Japanese indigo Kojoko seedlings and seeds for Japanese Indigo Maruba and European and Chinese woad. I have planted all my seeds and I can’t wait to tend to my new blue babies.

Blue dreams

While waiting for the seeds to germinate I dive into YouTube videos on how to use fresh indigo leaves with different methods. There is so much to play with! I was particularly fascinated with the salt rub method. So fascinated that I have started spinning a silk yarn to dye with the salt rub method and weave into a shawl. Perhaps Japanese indigo in different shades for the warp, and woad (that will probably be lighter than the Japanese indigo) for the weft.

*Mulberry silk spun from the fold on a supported spindle. Picture these skeins in a range of blues.*

I may be mad to think I can weave a silk shawl in a singles yarn with my very basic weaving skills, but I need to try it to find out.

If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see how I spin silk yarn for my indigo experiment in the April 2023 video postcard.

Baby leaf eco print

I also stole a leaf from one of my Kojoko plants and made a single leaf eco print. I knew there was a risk that there wouldn’t be enough indican in the young leaf, but it doesn’t hurt to try, does it? Since the Indcan reacts with oxygen I also knew that the print needed time to find its blue colour. So I let it be overnight. Although I have to confess that I checked it every ten minutes or so in the evening.

The next morning the leaf was still chlorophyll green. Perhaps a tiny hint of blue around the edges. I had read that the chlorophyll could be washed away, so I wanted to try that. Just a drop of dish soap and water. I was astounded to find the green disappear and leave room for the indigo colour I had dreamed of. It was really there, on my patch of vintage cotton sheet. My heart tingled and I have come back to the blue leaf time and time again during the day to see if it’s still there.

My sweet blue baby leaf of Japanese indigo Kojoko.

There is so much potential in the tiny plants and pots I have. I will do my very best to tend to them with love and affection. Whenever I feel like an obstacle I will turn to my eco print.

One of the best fertilizers for the garden in general and for the Japanese indigo in particular is diluted urine. In fact, most of the commercial fertilizers copy the nitrogen/phosphorus/kalium ratio of urine. In Sweden we call it guldvatten, gold water. I will happily and lovingly pee on my plants and keep up my blue dream.

Resources

As I am a total beginner of growing indigo plants, please don’t ask me about how to do things related to indigo. There are many people who are experts on the subjekts. Below are some links and accounts I have found and been recommended:

Margaret Byrd has a lot of videos about dyeing with indigo in various shapes and forms. Here is one of her videos, on the salt rub method with fresh indigo leaves.
BillyNou had a lovely video too on the salt rub method. She, in turn, recommended the following two Instagram accounts
I followed Make with Mandi’s video on eco printing with indigo leaves.
The dogwood dyer, who has lovely photos and videos with various techniques with indigo. She also offers online courses.
Seaspell fiber also has photos, videos and online courses on indigo techniques.

If you have suggestions of additional resources, please let me know.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.