Experimenting with natural dyes...ideas? Suggestions? *pics*

[Aisling]

I've been doing a little dabbling with some success :tu :dance

I used some chlorophyll to dye the rim of a wool hat I croqueted (which turned out fairly nifty), and soaked a stained white shirt of dd's and a small roll of wool yarn in turmeric and paprika..and it turned out a really pretty saffron yellow! :mrgreen If I get time, I'll have to post some pics...

Anyone else do any natural dying? I'd love to hear your pointers and ideas :popcorn I'm hooked! :D

**edit to add pics**

This is a hat for dd made with the yellow yarn with undyed yarn trim
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b197/mamadoula_/8-31-06006resize.jpg

funky green and cream hat...that ended up to big around for my head :doh Had the shrink the silly thing in the dryer a bit :P~
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b197/mamadoula_/8-31-06008resize.jpg

the yellow shirt...tried to make a funky design on the front with the paprika, but it wasn't exactly what I was going for :O :giggle
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b197/mamadoula_/8-31-06009resize.jpg

Can you tell that I'm desperately trying to distract myself from the fact that I'm a week overdue? :P~ :bag

[sarahtar]

The paprika's cute!!

I've done some tea dying over the years, of everything from fabric to clothes to paper. And some with berries, which was fun, but IIRC, I needed to work with it a little more to get it right.

[righteous mama]

I thought about switching to all natural dye'ing, but then read an article that in order to make them truly colorfast (or mostly colorfast) you have to use some nasty chemicals. Instead I opted for using less dye and sticking with ingredients that don't scare me.

I like what you did, though...very pretty! You can also experiment with different types of tea. For example rose tea will give a rosey, brown-ish color and black tea gives a darker tea color. That could be fun!