Natural Dyeing
Wool Skeins Dyed by Diane using Natural
Materials
This page is dedicated to all the women in
our direct line who spun and toiled to keep their families
clothed and warm and then spent added hours gathering nuts,
berries, barks, flowers, and other dyestuffs to bring more color
into their families' lives.
Cochineal (with tin, second dipping),
Goldenrod (with chrome), St. John's Wort (with alum), Goldenrod
(with chrome), Madder Root (with alum), St. John's Wart (with
tin), Indigo (second dipping)
Onion Skins (with chrome), Goldenrod (with
alum) overdyed with Indigo, Cochineal (with alum), Onion Skins
(with alum), Indigo (first dipping), Madder Root (second
dipping), Onion Skins (with copper sulfate)
Cochineal (with alum), St. John's Wort
(with alum), Cochineal (with tin), Goldenrod (with chrome),
Goldenrod (with alum), Indigo (third dipping), Day Lilies (with
copper sulfate)
Diane's traveling tripod.
Hat, Sweater, and Mittens spun, dyed, and
knitted by Diane
The pattern was created by Diane and is
called "Hearts & Flowers"
To get the proper red for hearts cochineal
mordented with tin was used. The yellow for the flowers is from
onion skins. The stems are onion skins over-dyed with indigo. The
blue is indigo. The black and the white are the natural color of
the fleeces. These items were entered in a State Fair and a Wool
Festival where they received 1st place.
Goldenrod was used to dye the gold
sweater. The hat is Diane's own pattern which she has named
"Counting Sheep".
In numerous eveness of spin and ply
competitions Diane's skeins have placed 1st.
210 years after Diane's 5th great
grandmother Martha Lyon May's amazing accomplishment of spinning,
Diane felt the draw of the spinning wheel. It was as if she
always knew how to turn fiber into thread as it came to her so
naturally.
Photographs by Diane Shepard Johnson
Photographs copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
2004, 2005: Diane Shepard Johnson
Patterns for Hearts & Flowers Hat,
Sweater, and Mittens copyright © 2000,
2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005: Diane Shepard Johnson
Pattern for Counting Sheep Hat copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
2004, 2005: Diane Shepard Johnson
Web site copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,
2004, 2005: Diane Shepard Johnson & Sarah E. Johnson
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this web site may be reproduced
in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard
Johnson & Sarah E. Johnson.
