Dyeing with Black Knight Scabiosa

 When I was in Gallup briefly this year,  some friends and I wandered iinto a yarn store that I spied around the corner from Perry Null Trading Post, where we were SUPPOSED to be. (Don't worry, we got there...) I wish I could find the name of the store. The owner had small bags of dyeing materials including black knight scabiosa, from Bluebirddyegardens.com.  (Check out the website... Blue Bird is in Southwest Colorado and grows, dries, and markets dyestuff as well as having workshops. I haven't been there...yet).

Back at home, I tried out the Black Knight Scabiosa, such cute little dried flowers...I'll try growing them next year.  It is an annual.

I mordanted some handspun wool and angora mohair with an alum bath.  I guess I was expecting a purple but no...here we go with a lovely mossy green!  I didn't know of any natural dyes that of themselves go green.  It's so hard to get accurate color, I had to play around with the tint on my phone. Samples are mossier and warmer than seen here, but it's not too far off. the wool (on the left) is a deeper and mossier a color than the mohair. (It's also better spun!)

I like doing small batch dyeing, and apparently spinning. I don't have the patience to spin for a large project but I do love spinning for small batches for baby knitting or tapestry weaving.  I wind up with lots of colors that I can use together.