New Mother Nature Taking Over...

It seems once my husband and I made the decision to give up city life for country life, we started travelling on a high-speed train headed for some sort of weird "off-the-grid sustainability, back to nature, healthy" lifestyle and mind set aided by all sorts of new gadgets like wireless Internet, cell phones, and social media. It seems like an oxymoron.

Don't get me wrong, we spend plenty of time getting our hands dirty cleaning barns, shearing animals, cleaning barns, putting in fences, cleaning barns, chopping wood...you get the picture.

Truly, it is a peaceful life with bouts of madness and one in which I am surprised by or learn something new almost every day. Most of my daily joys are little things that have occurred for generations...I just happen to be experiencing them for the first time: a lamb nuzzling against my leg, a swarm of monarchs resting in the trees, or an Indian Runner Duck (named Little Red) that lays her first egg.

Lately, my simple-minded bliss has been focused on NATURAL DYES! Many of my farmer's market customers want handspun yarns dyed the good old-fashion natural way. People have used natural dyes for centuries, but I'm just getting into for the first time.

I just finished experimenting with goldenrod, turmeric, and tea:

Collected goldenrod blossoms in cheesecloth.

Goldenrod seeping in a pot of boiling water along with alum for the mordant.

Generic tea bags ready to be put into another pot of boiling water.

Wool batts in dye baths. From top to bottom: tea, turmeric, and goldenrod.

Finished wool batts. From top to bottom: tea, turmeric, and goldenrod.

I will spin yarn from all the wool batts pictured above; however, I have one more color I want to do: POKEWEED RED! Yes, much to the chagrin of my neighbors, I have huge pokeweed plants around our tiny acreage. As soon as I get some washing soda (for the mordant), I hope to achieve a lovely reddish, berry color. I also read on another blog that you could freeze pokeweed berries...so I can dye all winter long!!

See, see what I mean? That's why I call this post the "New Mother Nature" because not only is it a new "back to the earth" experience, but one that is aided by blogs and other online information and sharing.

Have you been bitten by the same bug? You know what the song says about the New Mother Nature taking over: "She's getting us all."

I'll be sure to post pics of the spun yarn from these batts, so check back!