Pokeberries, 2016

One of these years, I need to get all my pictures off my camera and onto these blog posts... Alas, another thing on the To Do list.

So, last year I used this as the basis for dyeing with pokeberries:

https://osbornfiber.com/2010/09/27/dyeing-with-pokeberries/

And decided to give it a try again. However, there is one thing I hadn't counted on. I shouldn't take the pokeberries out of the freezer until I'm ready to use them. I meant to dye with them about a week ago (or was it two?). So, the berries have been in my fridge for at least a week. Not the end of the world, but the berries were not as firm as they were last year. In fact, they were... squicky. I have no better way to describe them.

I decided to soldier on, because - pokeberries! -and just figured I'd deal with things like not knowing the weight of just the berries, because I did them in small batches. And by that I mean that squished and squeeze the stems/berries in the bag first, and then I removed the berries from the stem in small batches, and the removed berries went into a strainer sitting in the pot I thought I was going to use. (Last year, I used a crock pot. My concern with my crock pot is that it hasn't been giving consistent results - sometimes it gives great results, other times it doesn't seem to get hot enough for long enough.) I think I'm just going to add the dye to the cooled mordant bath as the pot is bigger.

So, this year I'm using the stove. (Sorry, love!) It's rather colorful after the past few weeks of walnuts, annatto, and exhaust baths. I'm trying to get the kitchen cleared out, which is why I have someone coming over tomorrow and want to get this done today.

Per the Osborn Fibers post, I am currently mordanting the wool (about 4 oz give or take of corridale/cormo cross) in a 50/50 mix of water and distilled vinegar. It was simmering for about an hour, so now I'm going to let it cool. Normally, I'd mix things together in one pot, or pour the dye stuff into the warm mordant bath, but pokeberry dye is rather heat sensitive, so I'm letting it cool down. I'm hoping to get one bath in before I need to get going for the evening.

Hopefully, in the next few days I'll get this done and remember to get pictures taken.