cabbage in Bittersweet

  • July 12, 2019, 6:51 p.m.
  • |
  • Public

Ok so purple cabbage dye job. Very cool! No really it is.

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For one thing. Boiling the cabbage for 45 minutes. SUCKS. Oh My God. It smells ugly. Like.. Boiled cabbage. Its hot heavy and reminds me of swamp ass haha! Anyway.
I boiled the cabbage for 45 minutes with several teaspoons of salt. I ooohed and ahhhed at the color then grabbed the closest wool. I wound hank of merino silk blend. I ” prepped ” the wool for a minute. I mixed hot water, cream of tar tar and alum to the water. Then added my hank of water, Just one end actually. I pushed as much of the wool into the water as i could. Then I added teh hot purple dye. Of course bits of cabbage are stuck to the wool. Ill pick them out later.

I allowed it to sit over night and so far its a glorious color. Im going to reheat the cabbage water today, Then pour it over the other half and fingers crossed for a gradient effect.

A friend told me when she did purple cabbage it turned a weird misty grey color. Which would be lovely too! It could be a pretty base. But she didnt do salt alum and cream of tartar.
Salt and alum are both a color setting “thing” They help the dye adhear to the fibers. Help the fibers open up to soak up the dye. Its a mordant, which affixes the dye. The cream of tartar from what i read, brightens up and clarifies SOME colors.
Hey im researching this as i go!

So purple cabbage. Pretty cool.
My yellow tones from the marigold are drying. Its been two days. Hello cool temps and high humidity.
The wild fires need the rain anyway.


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