Inkberry Dyeing

Recently I was really inspired by some wool that Falathwen had dyed with pokeberries, which I had always grown up knowing as inkberries. With such readily available, and generally unwanted materials, this seemed like genius! She had gotten a gorgeous red color, though magentas and mauve are also pretty typical results. The really interesting part of this natural dye-good is that there are so many conflicting instructions on how to do it.

But here is what I did:

• Picked ~4 cups berries (picked off the stems)
• Boiled in a quart of white vinegar for 30 minutes
• Mordanted 8 oz wool with alum (just enough water to fully wet
• Squeezed berries with cheese cloth to have just a dye bath without floating bits
• Leave wool in vinegar/berry bath with all of mordanted water for a week

As an aside, please buy Heinz vinegar if you are in the market for white vinegar. Most of the vinegar you find at the store is made from petroleum products, rather than renewable sources, but Heinz is not.

Another piece of advice is to wear gloves. Getting the pink color off you hands isn't a big deal when it is just juice, but the hot vinegar/berry mixture does not go away for a couple days... Don't ask me how I know.

After rinsing, the 4 oz of white roving I had (some additional un-dyed corriedale on the right) from Misty of Geek Farm Life, I had a fabulously vivid magenta.

Lucy of Mind's Eye Yarns (and her etsy shop) had once talked to me about how if you want a really true red, your best bet was to start with a golden base yarn, rather than a while or ivory one. I tucked that thought away for a while, but this was totally the moment to give it a try.

I am ever so very pleased with the resulting 4 oz of worsted wool I over-dyed from a deep amber. Chiquita helped too, and even she thought this was pretty neat. We may have to go hunting more berries before the season is over.