Dyeing with Toyon, a 10 day adventure!

Z is helping

There is a lot of toyon in my yard... it's supposed to be a great natural dye  First step was to cut some! I went to the folly with my helper Ziggy.  I picked 10.5 oz of toyon leaves, stems, and some berries and simmered them for about an hour. The book I have talks about the wonder scent of Toyon simmering... It is lovely, until you read that you need to cook it outside as the fabulous marzipan aroma indicates a low level of cyanide...

Toyon, by the way,  is Heteromeles arbutifolia.

Fresh stems, leaves and berries

On the 2nd day, I simmered it again for about an hour.  Then I let it sit on the deck for two more days, and look at the warm russet color of the water! Then I left it alone for about a week in variable weather, the color deepening daily.

Why a week? I wanted to leave it for several days, then realized I couldn't find my alum, so I had to order some, then I got too busy to wind the yarn... Yep, it was one of those weeks.

Boiled twice, then ignored for two days

Next step, I simmered 100g sock yarn (divided into 2.25 ounce and 1.25 ounce hanks) from my stash in water with alum and Cream of Tartar.  I think the fiber is Merino/Cashmere/Nylon.  I still can't find my last dye box after the move (I'm sure it's here but mislabeled), the one with measuring implements in it (scale and spoons), so I eyeballed a teaspoon of CoT and a couple tablespoons of Alum.  It simmered for about an hour, then cooled in the pot overnight.  Meanwhile, I drained the solids out of the toyon water and discarded the little bit of mold on the top. 

Now for the part where you learn why I'll never be a good dyer. Being a good dyer, who can begin to replicate results, requires that one measure reasonably accurately, and keep track of silly things like time. I suppose for natural dyes, I'd also want to note which bushes I took the cutting from, how small I chopped up the stems, what day I harvested the leaves on, what the weather was like while it "aged" and so on. But precision like that is hard for me, so I'll just detail the omissions and get on towards the photos of what happened when the fiber met the Toyon soup. 

I heated up the dye bath, adding the yarn early as I did not want to shock it. Then I threw the larger hank of yarn in and forgot to note the time. I think it simmered for about 90 minutes, then I turned it off and meant to leave it overnight... but it was looking pretty dark so I pulled it out after some time. Then I decided to throw in the smaller hank to see what would happen (it's the lighter shade), and simmered again for an indeterminate amount of time...While it sat in the dyebath, cooling, I got impatient and rinsed the darker one; I definitely lost some color. But I'm thrilled with the results! 

Next up in the dyepot: mahonia aquifolium!