Here is the result of last weekends dyeing at my cottage! All dyed with lichen and mushrooms that I’ve gathered myself. In total, 2225 grams of yarn. Most in 25 gram skeins. I am in love with the purple and magenta, my favourite colors.
The lichen was in an airtight bucket for 4 months, with 2 parts water and 1 part ammonia sulphide. I aired it out and stirred often the first week. Then let it sit in a window for 4 months. I sifted the dye out and into a pot, and heated up to about 80-85 degrees Celsius. And just kept it there, adding skeins for about 1-2 hours at the time, until I had no more time to dye. There was still lots of color left, so I put it back in the bucket with lichen and will use it up later. Curious to see how much more color is left!
I also used several different mushrooms. These were dyed with the following :
- Green: Tapinella atrotomentosa, iron mordant.
- Red/orange: Cortinarius sanguineus, alum mordant.
- Yellow: Cortinarius croceus mixed with leftover tapinella, alum mordant.
- Yellow-orange: Phaeolus schweinitzii, alum mordant.
- Black and brown: Hydnellum ferrugineum, alum mordant. Raised pH to 8. The chocolate brown was a mix with the leftover Phaeolus schweinitzii dyebath.
- Beige/grey: leftovers.
Frigg Fiber Arts 