have a go at weaveing my own wool dyed with plant extracts

[Stitchlily]

Give me a year or so, and I might come up with a tutorial! I've just bought a book, Natural Dyes and Home Dying, so will study that. I'm part of a big textile online community, theres a few natural dying groups, and from what I can gather so far, oakgall was used more as a mordant, it has a lot of tannin. They used to make black ink out of it. I'll post a few questions, and see if anyone comes up with anything. Theres a great website http://www.elizabethancostume.net/dyes/, althought elizabethan, she gives lots of links. Dyes hadn't changed much over the for years.

[wiblick]

Stitchlily and anyone else considering dyeing.

There are a few suppliers in the UK who are extremely helpful etc. Many sell skeins (not fabrics) already dyed

http://www.tinctoria.co.uk/
ooh I see she has a brand new website, very swish. She also does dye cards, little swatches of wool & silk naturally dyed with period appropriate dyes perfect for colour matching fabrics for kit.

http://www.mulberrydyer.co.uk/
click on her online shop for dyestuffs & mordants

http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/
Fibres again, perfect for embroidery and tassle making.

[azure]

In the modern context, there was a programme on RTE some time ago that showed handspun wool being dyed with a particular kind of lichen (no mordant). It came out a lovely soft grey-green.

[azure]

Just edited most of my post above, because I am not sure what time period we are talking about for dyestuffs.........As regards Airgeads black wool, I imagine the simpliest thing would be to weave with wool from a black sheep You can overdye it with other thinks to make it 'blacker', but as far as I know, all of them available in the early period 'burn' the wool and take the good out of it

[Stitchlily]

Thanks for those links on dyeing. Must have a look at them. I worked in Finland for a summer on a sheepfarm that specialised in Finnsheep. She breeds the sheep according to what colours she needs, they range from white to browns and blacks.

[Andrea L Redden]

As regards Airgeads black wool, I imagine the simpliest thing would be to weave with wool from a black sheep You can overdye it with other thinks to make it 'blacker', but as far as I know, all of them available in the early period 'burn' the wool and take the good out of it

I was always given to understand that none of the early period 'black' dyes were anything approaching colourfast. I know naturally black wool isn't. The outside is always mid brown by the time they get shorn. Spinning and weaving won't make it more colourfast so in a matter of months you'll have brown cloth. I told our guys to avoid modern, colourfast, analine, black dyed cloth.

Andrea