New Year and a New Day Out!

Firstly I'd like to wish all readers here a very Happy and Prosperous New Year, wonder what lovely textile things it'll have in store for us? It must seem like all I am doing at the moment is going out on jollies, but for now I can't get on in the dyehouse - it's too cold to put the water on in there and although the pipes are lagged they have a distance to travel outside and I would hate to have problems.

This week we have had friends over to see us from England, planning where to go and what to see was great fun, they are more textiley than historical and wanted to see bits of local France. We decided a trip to the sea side was in order and drove down to Le Treport and Eu.

Boy was it cold!!! We went on the funicular railway and walked along the harbour, dived into a café for a quick warm up at Le Treport and then went round to Eu. What a beautiful little town it is! We had a spot of lunch and then went a wandering .......

The first place we found open was the Chapel of Notre Dame et St Laurent which is a fine example of a Medieval Chapel, even better it had a crypt!!!

The effigies in there were fabulous - Charles d'Artois  (1394 - 1472) was a prisoner of the English at the Battle of Azincourt and not released until 1438 he died in 1472 so I guess the effigy dated to around then - you can still see some colour discernible on his doublet.
The clothing on the female effigies was really clear to see,

Charles had 2 wives, the first he married in 1448 - Jeanne of Saveuse but she died a year later.  His second wife was Helene de Melun who outlived him by a year.  The head dress on Jeanne's effigy is quite intriguing - it just really looks like a coronet with a very square front. Her plaits by the side of her face and the parting in her hair is very clear to see on top of her head!

This image shows the strange shaping of the head dress from the top - was it flexible to adjust to the hair style do you think?
There is still colour showing on her gown and lots of detail can be seen. Buttons, braids, and decorations all very clear. A good example to work from.

Helene de Melun outlived her husband by a year, so she is depicted wearing "widows weeds" You can clearly see the wimple under her chin and the detailed folds in her mantle and underskirt.

These are not the only effigies in the crypt, just the ones I focused on......

For info on visiting Eu and Le Treport go here
For info on the Chapel go here
For the Funiculaire go here

A grand day out

A few weeks ago we went out for a Grand Day Out!

On the 27th September 1066, William the Conqueror set sail from St Valery sur Somme for England. So we decided in this anniversary year that we should go and have a look! We collected some friends and meandered along the Canche valley to start with, then on to the Baie de Somme and the little town of St Valery.  What a beautiful place!

 It's fairly obvious that the town has spread from what it was in the 11th Century, but there is still a core at the top of the hill that is original.

Cobbled streets lead up to the "William Tower" which is also where Joan of Ark was held prisoner in the 15th Century (according to a plaque on the wall.) not sure whether it was one night or longer....



The Baie itself is beautiful, an absolute haven for wildlife, you can walk across to Le Crotoy on the opposite bank when the tide is out - we took the train, a story for another day!



 This picture speaks for itself - it's in the spot (supposedly) where the boats set sail from, now in the middle of the walkway with a road on either side. I suppose with 1000 years having passed the course of the river will have changed.....

I've been meaning to reproduce the colours of the Bayeux Tapestry for many years and so in tribute to the anniversary they were launched in August. Madder, Weld and Woad have given a really lovely range of colours, alum and iron were the only additions.

Coming back to here!

It's been a long time since I came here - the intention was to combine a new website and blog, but as yet this hasn't happened.

Soooo much HAS happened since I last came here, so I'm just going to start afresh as it were.

Should the website get sorted then I will use the blog there to talk about work things and I'll keep this one for research and interesting things related to natural dyeing and textiles.

Onwards to the future of a naturally coloured world!

An Update

This summer has I think been the busiest we have ever had - certainly travelled the most and we've spent quite a bit of time at our UK base. Internet access there is not good! Hence a distinct lack of keeping up with posts. Facebook is a little easier as I could take a photo and post to the page, so that's what I have tended to do. It is actually quite difficult to keep up with all the different social media places we can post and also to know which is the best to maintain.

It is also time for a change - the website is very old and clunky and I can't add in pictures anymore, so I'm thinking of trying to design a new one over the winter, I have no real experience of this so it will be a real learning curve. Logic says I should also try and combine the website and blog together, so I may have to start afresh as they say. Until then I will try and get back to writing here!

We are now having to go for a walk every day. John had a heart attack 3 weeks ago, he's come through fine, but obviously he has to excercise and think about what he eats so we are having to look at changing a few things. At the start of the year I had an idea of walking and photographing the seasonal changes and then using the pictures as inspiration. Hopefully a bit late I will be able to do this!

Afternoon Tea has become a big feature of our life - it isn't every day (it can't be as we have 2 starvey days a week) but we try to have tea and cakes at all the markets and also when we are doing demonstrations. At home they are also important - watch out for the stock that is always in the picture, YOU may be inspired!

Looking forward to getting back to putting thoughts and experiences down here.......

WW1 and Khaki

If you follow me on Facebook you'll have read that this year we have lots of demo work commemorating the Centenary of the start of WW1.

In the past I would have said "ugh chemical dyes, no way!" But having started researching the colour Khaki not only is the subject fascinating I've discovered they used lots of natural dyes too!

In the age of "let's patent that" we appear to have a patent for every variation of recipe that they could come up with to produce the colour.

Actually I should perhaps clarify Khaki a little! The word I understand comes from Urdu and means earth or mud. The colour itself can be anything from a tan to brown to olive to grey. It is attributed to Sir Harry Lumsden in Peshawar India where In 1846 he was trying to raise a troup of Guides. He was apparently told to make sure they were "loosely, comfortably and suitably clad" Not a thin red line then! He went to the market and bought white cotton cloth then took it down to the riverbank, wet it out and then rubbed mud into it. He dried and ironed the cloth and made shirts and pants for his troups - hey presto they blended into the hills around!

This colour was adopted officially by the British Army not long afterwards.

So far I have tried a couple of recipes - 1 for cotton and 1 for wool. The cotton definitely looks "khaki" but the wool is not what I would have thought of as that colour. The recipes are different but both are based on cutch and fustic with the use of chrome (eeesh devil's mordant!!!) The wool is also fascinating in that I dyed both Blue Faced Leicester and Merino together in the dyebath - what a difference in the way they have taken the dye!

We will be selling cotton bags, yarn and bookmarks during the year and making a donation to Help for Heroes from the sale of each.

Don't throw it away!

2 days ago I decided I needed to use a boiler, lifted the lid and immediately held my nose! There was liquid in there that ponged, had a scum of mould on the top and the liquid (when I got through to it) looked colourless.
"That's going" thought I so started scouping out the liquid into a bowl to throw into my waste liquids tank. When I got close to the bottom there was a thick layer of gloup - sludgy, squidgy gloup!
I scouped this out but then thought "wonder what happens if I dye with this?" Found a pan and poured it in.
Rooted though mordanted stuff and found 100g shetland tops and worked it through the gloup. I heated the pan to almost boiling - must have been about 90 degsC. Simmered for about 1/2 an hour and then left it to cool down. When I took the tops out I was stunned at the depth of colour there!
The I added 100g yarn and reheated - well basically did the same again, still more colour but slightly paler.
Haven't added anything else yet, but I don't think it's exhausted!

I should add that this was originally a madder dyebath in use about 6 months ago - I'd used a different boiler to my normal one and then forgotten it!
Just shows you shouldn't throw anything away certainly not without checking it out!

Textile Tidings

It's taken a while but I've finally got back into my account! I will endeavour not to forget my password again.

So - what is the title about then? Well over the years when I've gone to Guilds and Museums doing my demonstrations and talks about "The Life and Times of the Mediaeval Dyer" or Roman or Tudor or Geargian and now World War 1, I have frequently been asked whether I have written a book with all the information in that I've been talking about.

The answer has been always "No!" However it has occurred to me that a compilation of period textile "facts" would help me no end - getting older and the brain being slow, if everything was written down in one place then it would be easier to refer to, so I've decided the time has come to start this compilation.

The title will be Textile Tidings hopefully a mix of interesting little facts about anything to do with dyeing, spinning, weaving, fibres, sheep, silk, etc, etc.In the paper version all references, primary sources etc will be annotated with the "fact" so it can be verified.

However I also thought it would be fun to put facts out into the big wide world as a bit of a game. So on twitter and facebook if you see #TextileTidings please join in and say what you think something might be or when it was or what it was.  I won't be able to do one every day - we don't always have the use of computers and phones when working (Mediaeval Dyers didn't have them!!) But they'll be out there as often as possible!

Watch out for #TextileTidings!

Slow cloth

Does anyone understand this "slow cloth" concept?
I've just been reading things on the "slow cloth" fb page  and am somwhat baffled.

Process: 
appropriate time, Well I am a great advocate of appropriate time - why oh why do people want to rush doing something that needs to be done properly?

skill and mastery, I have spent years studying and doing my best to learn from the old master dyers who wrote their work down.

Ethic of quality I definitely go along with, I try oh so hard to make sure that my work is the highest standard I can make it, don't understand how others can sell something that they know is inferior. I do testing on my dyeing, wash and light, I experiment, I do sample dyeing and I reject what is not good or I will put in the sale box with an explanation of why it is there!

Culture
Diversity and multiculturalism, well I work primarily from a UK perspective, I look at what was imported dye wise, when and where from. Then I look at how it can apply to the present. I work with suppliers from wherever is appropriate to a product if I can.

Fostering community not quite sure I get this bit, am I supposed to get everyone in the locality to grow the dyes for me and work with me?

A commitment to teaching. Yep definitely! Have plans in store for even more teaching than I currently do!

Soul
Joy The whole process fills my soul - I love the smells, the textures, the colours, the methods......even the tastes!

Contemplation there is no rushing with natural dyes, you have to allow them to work in their own time to get the most from them, this allows time for contemplation of what is happening, how, whether the colour is what is wanted how to change it........oh so much contemplation!

beauty  what isn't beautiful about working with nature? (even if they are chemicals!)

expression my colours will not be the same as another dyers for many reasons, but they are an expression of MY work!

Materials
Sustainable use of resources I do my best to follow this - I went into getting organic certification for my dyeing and came to the conclusion that my standards are higher than GOTS so I stick to my own, I waste as little as possible and rarely any dyestuff!

Appropriate materials Doesn't this come back to having studied and researched and learnt to do the job properly, thereby knowing that the dye is appropriate, the fibre is appropriate and the mordant is appropriate and that they all work together properly?

Pleasure  Oh yes I LOVE MY JOB!!!!!!!

So am I a slow cloth person then?

I can't say it's something that I want to be, the terminology feels much more negative than positive, it implies that I sit around doing nothing waiting for the colour to happen and that it is shoddy - not well dyed,bright and cheery. I knw that that is not what is meant but it's what it says to me!

I have been working to most of the above since the early 1990's when I started, but suddenly someone comes up with a term and everyone is supposed to buy into it, is that the idea?

 I want to be someone who has done their best to master the historical dyer's skills and pass it on to future generations so that we never again lose these skills, not just someone else who comes under some arty farty terminology! I never went to art college to learn how to waffle and get huge grants for nothing, I just get on with the job!

 

Happy New Year!

I've just been out for a wild windy walk , just our village area not far, but I was inspired by the scenery around me and thought I'd share my thoughts here!

Our house in France is in a very rural setting, the village is straight ahead of us but in all other directions is farmland, much of it is agricultural, huge great fields that over the year carry a range of crops.

I thought it might be interesting to follow the fields and locality through the year see the different crops and changing colours and allow this inspiration to influence the colours and shapes of my work. 

 

I would like to re- visit embroidery which I haven't had time to do for many years so the designs for this will come from these images too!

To the best of my ability I will show a monthly update of how these images change, lets see what transpires through the seasons of 2014!

Crochet scarf

Many years ago I crocheted a scarf out of our naturally dyed linen. I wanted to show how lovely it is when worked, well I want to do the same for all our yarns but I'm not a designer, it therefore takes ages for me to produce items. I crochet cos I can do that without thinking but I rarely write anything down - I don't know how!! Certainly don't know how to make it a legible pattern! Many people have asked for a pattern but I just tell them what I did and let them go and play...

The scarf has always been on display with the linens at all the events we go to however the last time it was seen is Yarndale last September - we have not seen it since and don't appear to have put it in a strange place, I've looked everywhere!

So my Christmas project is to re do said scarf! The colour will obviously be different and I guess the pattern will differ as I have no reference to go back to, but I am going to write it all down! I think a chart may be the way forward so I'll get to work in excel!!

Here's the scarf so far-

Catching Up!

Goodness I've not done very well this year at writing this blog. My apologies, I shall try to do better!

As so much has happened through the year I thought I'd start with a bit of a retrospective, so the first few blog posts will be "things wot we have done this year"

In March we went to the Historical Markets in Piacenza Italy and then the following weekend Orange in the Vaucluse. This gave us an opportunity to have a few days break and investigate the area around Avignon.

One of the rivers flowing through this area is called the Sorgue and many of the towns and villages along the river have waterwheels - which historically used to run factories. We went into various villages and Tourist Information Offices to ask about the water wheels, no one seemed to know what these factories did! As luck would have it the last village we tried the lady in the TI said - oh they used to grind garance here so that's what the water wheel was doing!

(picture is the source of the river at Fontaine de Vaucluse)

I'm sure you could imagine how our ears pricked up at this - Garance is the French name for Madder.

 According to Dominique Cardon "Provence one of the main regions of production, 50 water mills along the small river flowing from the Fontaine de Vaucluse were turning day and night for 8 months of the year, grinding 40 million kilos of roots brought from all over France and Italy and producing 33 million kilos of powdered madder"

 

As we stood on the bridge photographing the water wheel someone came out through a french window in the mill on the opposite bank. (We later discovered that the water wheel has been moved and was actually once the working wheel to this mill) "Here duckie, duckies" was definitely not French!! We obviously started a conversation and got to learn a little more about the mill and then were told that as the plaster was being pulled off the walls inside (it was being converted into a lovely home for the couple who had recently purchased it) madder powder was falling out from the gaps left.........oh my!!! We spent a very happy time talking to the couple and admiring the mill and all the work they were doing there and I'm pleased to say came away with a little pot of madder to play with!

At Summer School in August I gave some to my students to sample - the result I think you will agree is a beautiful colour

. For a powder that has been sealed up in a wall for over 100 years I think it deserves to be admired!

A treat from Pontoise

This weekend has been the Marche Medieval in Pontoise an event we have been doing for quite a few years now. I'd like to thank Christophe and his team from Histoire Vivante for all their hard work organising such a successful event.

On the Saturday a young lady called Marie-Alix came to the stall with some hanks of wool in her hand which were clearly not ours. She said that she wanted to show me her spinning as I had sold her a spindle and given her a lesson and so inspired her that she had gone away and started practising. She is now a very proficient spinner and has started playing with natural dyes too. She had come to the stall specifically to thank me and tell me how much I had inspired her. She gave me one of the hanks of wool as a present - dyed with blackberries.

It's lovely, thank YOU Marie-Alix for both coming to see us and for the wool. I have been walking on air since you came!

I have started to crochet with the wool - it really needs to be made into something special, come back next time and I'll show YOU what you have inspired ME to do!

Packaging

For a long time packaging for my natural dyes has caused me headaches! I have used, as do most sellers, the ubiquitous polythene bags, bacause they are simple to get, reasonably priced and do a job. Sadly I find they do not do it well enough, but it seems to be what people expect. One of the issues is that people seem to like to see what they are buying - the plant matter, chopped up and shredded as it is, it's what they like to see, some because they can recognise what they are looking at and others because they want to KNOW what they are looking at.

I had a small flurry with the corn starch packaging - the enivironmental issue of polythene does bother me, sadly the corn starch is just not up to the job. Some of the chopped plant matter was OK, but lots of it found that the corn starch seemed to have an osmotic effect and water was actively encouraged into the packet from the atmosphere - not good!

One of the first things I wanted when I moved here was a dye store. I now have one! It is completely self contained, dry and cool. I can keep all my dye containers in one place and it is set up so that I can do all the bagging in there. I have professional scales, I have some laboratory standard calibration weights to ensure that my scales stay accurate, it is all important. BUT the most important thing really is THE DYESTUFF!

Over the years I have developed relationships with suppliers that I know will supply me with a quality product. I work with these dyes on a regular basis, so I know what I expect of them. If I expect the best - surely my customers do too?

Sooooo I have been looking for packaging that will work. Not everyone can do the dyeing immediately, so they need to know that the packet they have bought will look after what is inside until such time as they are able to use it. Dyestuff as with herbs should be kept in the dark and cool and dry to help it keep its qualities.

The new packets are brown paper, they have a polyfoil lining, they are still grip seal, but are also heat sealed, so until you open the packet there is a double protection there stopping the air get into the pack. The brown paper ensures the light isn't getting in and the polyfoil lining stops any exterior reactions from happening and NO atmospheric water should get in there at all.

Labelling has also been an issue. Working as I do across Europe it is difficult to label to keep everyone happy. So the labels now use the Latin name of the dyeplant as the main name. Everyone that uses natural dyes should be able to recognise the names and newcomers have a choice of English, German, Franch and Italian common names to look at to find the name they recognise. Oh and they haven't affected the price, that is dictated by the cost of the dyestuff to me!

I hope this meets with the approval of my customers, but I do feel so much happier about it and more content about my product!

Adding to the woodpile

On Monday it felt too cold to go into the workshops so we decided we'd better get a bit extra for the woodpile. It is running low and this cold weather is obviously going to last longer. So off we went to a "meneuserie" that we've discovered near to Arras. No, we didn't want to get a "stare" of chopped logs, we like the recycled woods that are stacked into cubic metres at this particular place.

 As you can see we get a really random selection - it can be anything, but within this hotch potch of wood is some beautiful hardwood that can be used to make textile tools!

Once we get the wool home we play the game of "one for you, one for me" as John enjoys himself picking over all the wood and choosing the pieces that he wants. He will hold a piece up and say "what's this then?" as if I can recognise what the different woods are (I am beginning to get better, but) The he'll tell me and say "that will be perfect for tablets" or "that's beautiful mahogany, be great for braiding disks"
As his pile grows I start thinking - are we going to have any wood to burn? There is lots of unuseable wood there - it has too many nails in it, or it's wormy or it's rotten, no problem on the fire, but it is so much nicer to give old floorboards and door frames etc a new lease of life as beautiful textile tools that someone will treasure and enjoy using.

Saint Johns Wood produces the most accurate historical hand carders with leather carding cloth for mediaeval through to the 17th century (carefully researched and lovingly made!) Mediaeval Tablet looms and tablets, Inkle looms, shuttles, braiding disks and squisks with stands, weights, bobbins, Marudai and mirrors, nostepinnes, lucettes, spindles, distaffs. All the items produced have been researched and an explanation of the appropriate date of use can be given if requested. ALL of course are lovely for modern use!!!

John has also created an improvement for the inkle loom - his own invention, with a patent applied for! It's called the Moving Heddle Inkle Loom and is something so new he is running a course this summer at the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Summer School in Carmarthen, Pembrokeshire.

 If you would like more information on the loom then do please email him.

Snow!

We have snow! I know that many parts of  UK are suffering from snow at the moment, but I just thought I'd say that we have some too!

It's stopping me from getting into the dyehouse at the moment, which I am not happy about as I have work to do and experiments to play with! The dyehouse is the big building with the garage door - that's the yarn house and next door hidden by the van is the cloth house, however the water has had to be turned off as it's freezing in there and we can't afford to deal with burst pipes! temperatures have been down to -10 at night and not above freezing during the day. I guess you could say that winter has finally arrived!

Yesterday you could see our road - the view is across the front of our house looking towards open fields, we have shelter around our corner and then it's just open plateau with the wind blowing the snow in drifts across the fields.

This morning we woke up to even more snow - it had been falling all night and is still falling now, in fact the forecasts say that we can expect it until Tuesday at least with the temperatures not coming above freezing til Thursday or Friday, and then only during the day!  (this view of the road is looking the other way into the village, you can barely make the road out now and the snow plough has been down once this morning!)

On a positive side I am sitting here on my computer working! Apart from writing this post I am designing new labels for all my dyes and learning lots of things - I know I need to, but this is making me get on and do it!

HURRAH for the snow, maybe I'll get to sort out an online shop eventually!!!

Happy New Year!

The end of the year has arrived with speed! My good intentions of writing more on here have not come to pass as I had hoped - I guess I am still too much of a technophobe to work out how to deal with being away so much........so-

Resolution number 1 for 2013 is to get to grips with THE MACHINE!
Resolution number 2 is to get to grips with THE CAMERA!
Resolution number 3 is to put the 2 together!

I hope to meet you all back here in 2013 with lots of news, photos and an increased knowledge of how this all works!

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year  looking forward to a year of research, learning and COLOUR from the natural world!

 

 

More on Cream of Tartar

A quick update on Cream of Tartar - we have now heard back from Waitrose - their "Waitrose Cook's Ingredients" Cream of tartar is again Potassium Bitartrate.

I wonder where the "substitute" is going to eventually turn up! I also wonder WHAT it is, as I still haven't found anything!!

Cream of Tartar

So...........what does the name conjor up for you? For me it means the white powder that you buy in tubs from the bakery section of a Supermarket or Grocers store. I have no idea where the name "cream of tartar" comes from, but  historically, it was the "leys of wine" the powdery sediment found on the walls of wine cellar vats. Then it was given the name "Argol" and it could be red or white depending on the colour of the wine it came from!

 There appear to be many names for the chemical - the commonest I have found are Potassium Hydrogen Tartrate or Potassium Bitartrate, but you can also find monopotassium tartrate, potassium acid tartrate,

[R-(R*,R*)]-2,3 Dihydroxybutanedioic Acid Monopotassium Salt, Potassium (2R,3R)-3-carboxy-2,3-dihydroxypropanoate, and more.......!

The chemical formula can be written KC₄H₅O₆ 

or even

C4H4O4 (OH) (OK)

Its CAS  number is 868-14-4 (One of the commonest classifications to stop confusion between chemicals)

CB number -CB7854493

formula weight:188.18
E number - E-336(i)

  It is the mineral acid salt of Tartaric Acid and probably best known for its stabilizing properties when making meringues. It is a component in Baking Powder and also a chemical buffer.

So I can now see you wondering what this post is all about!

Many dye recipes both historical and modern recommend the use of Argol  or Cream of Tartar as an addition to alum in the mordanting process, it is there to assist the alum in mordanting wool with salts of Aluminium, Chromium, Iron, Copper and Tin. It is said to improve the permanence, fulness nad brilliance of the ultimate colour. For the chemists amongst you this is surmised to be due to the double decomposition of the tartrate and the mordanting salt, the mineral acid of the latter combining with the potassium of the tartrate and the metallic hydrate with tartaric acid, (it is also possible that a double salt is formed).

Given all the above information I am struggling to understand why several dye retailers in the UK make a claim that the Cream of Tartar sold for catering is a substitute chemical not suitable for use as the mordant assistant.

So what is this substitute? I cannot find it - is it the same product but using one of its other names?

For my own peace of mind I have comtacted Dr Oetker and Tesco both of whom are very clear that the product they sell under the name Cream of Tartar is CAS number 868-14-4 Potassium Hydrogen Tartrate (etc, etc) I have their replies in email format so if you wish to see them I am happy to forward on - or feel free to contact them yourself.

I feel so strongly that we should be able to buy the product we want under the name that it is known by that I would like to find out more on the subject of this "substitute" used for catering. Maybe if there is a substitute we should be considering approaching Trading Standards to get the name used as it should be and another name for the alternative!

What can have coloured my silk?

I have just prepared a variety of silk fibres and yarns ready for dyeing. There are several winter markets coming up so I thought I ought to get started - but without the usual panic and rush!

Maybe this was a bad idea! ALL the fibres and yarns were Mulberry silk so white rather than cream or caramel coloured. I scoured them all first - but in separate pans as I didn't want the fibres attaching themselves to the yarns.

 I had already mordanted alpaca and romney so the mordant was an exhaust bath being re-used, it had had alum and cream of tartar in (hopefully taken up by the wooly yarns) so I added a different proportion of alum and cream of tartar for the silks. The liquid was CLEAR, absolutely no sign of any colour before I entered the silk. The silk was still white before being entered.

The liquid was heated to about 45 degrees and then left for a day - I like the mordant to have a good length of time with the fibres! When I took the lid off to srain out ready to use again I had something of a shock! 

All the fibres had changed colour to a lovely shade of peach! The liquid has remained colourless - hopefully you can see that from the yarn picture. The mordant bath is stainless steel and there is nothing unusual about the alpaca and romney that came out before. (The green you can see is the tags I use for labelling my yarns - and no, none of the ink has come off either!)) I am sure there is no iron contamination and although I do sometimes add in tannin when mordanting silk (correct historically) there was none present here.

The white tub shows the silk caps that have been taken out of the bath - they really are very pretty, but what can be the colour?

I haven't yet tried to dye any of the fibres - that will be the next interesting challenge,

Has anyone had a similar experience - or any suggestions? I'll let you know how I get on with the dyeing in due course!