I hope you enjoy watching my experiment with plant dyeing! I say that where I am water boils at around 93 degrees Fahrenheit, and, well that's not possible even on Mount Everest! I meant 93 degrees Celsius - It's a good thing I'm not a Chemical Engineer anymore! Also I saw a few questions on the reed basket I made, and I bought a kit on Etsy :) www.etsy.com/listing/511081950/harvest-basket-weaving-kit?ref=shop_home_active_30
We live at 7500'. Water boils at around 92°C, and pasta takes forever.😄 Camping in the mountains above 11,000 feet, it's instant everything or go home. All the white gas in the world won't cook plain rice.
The colours are beautiful. I would love to see you knit the 1920s jumper. This was a fascinating video and I would have done the same. Using a widely available local ”weed” to dye wool, although an older recipe and not much in use during the period of your pieces, I would think that there would still be some industrious women who wanted that colour and couldn't get it due to either money, availability or other reason using this method. Just because it wasn't widely done, doesn't mean to say nobody did it. Thank you for sharing this.
This is great! Also, it's not that people didn't ever use herbs to create dyes at home, that's why the knowledge was never fully lost. So, it's still historically accurate, especially if someone lived in the countryside, to extract your own dye.
Sure -- and some natural dyes have still never been matched for subtlety or intensity of clor. But this experiment shows why the 19th century advent of analine (synthetic) dyes was so important. Woad is kewl, but if you want reasonably sure outcomes, reach for the RIT.😄
Oh man, this made my nerd heart happy! Now I'm wondering how many colors you could get from making tweaks to the pH and varying how much reducing agent you use. I played with acid dying once and purposely broke black food color on a pH gradient and it was really fun. And I love that you made a basket just for herb collection.
Okay, this is *seriously* cool. There's always something so inherently satisfying and awesome about gathering and using something collected from the great outdoors and turning it into a product, being foraging for berries for jam or using it as natural dye.
That was great to watch. It must've been so frustrating to see the failed batch after all that hard work but how wonderful to get that rose yarn out of it! Thank you for sharing, swatches and all. =)
What a perfect baby pink!! I loved this video so much, yarn dying chemistry is fascinating, if this is how I was taught chemistry at school, I would have paid more attention 😝
What a rush to see someone who has the knowledge, skill, and love of these things! I can't help but wonder if you were born in July. It sounds like a silly woo-woo question but we July babies seem to love going back in time with our projects. If I were younger I'd be out looking for dyer's woad in our north west woods. I fiddled with other natural dyes a little in the past. Following you...I'm hooked.
I was so happy to see the blue come out of the second dye bath, and it is amazing how two different colors can come out of the exact same plant! Thank you :)
I’m weird, I’d have experimented further and seen what I could get by over dyeing the pink with the blue! I’d love to know if that would make a purple of some kind!
That's a great idea! I did see an article saying that purple is very possible with indigo, and maybe they did it by dyeing it once pink then once blue.
Chemistry is basically magic, I like it! I also admire the attitude you had towards the "failed" batch, with accepting the result but also trying again to solve the problem and obtain what you wanted.
These are so pretty! It's amazing that you can get such different results with one plant! The pink is lovely, but that blue! Oh my gosh! I know there are a lot of exclamation marks but I really am that excited!
I learned this week, (From 6th Century Viking sources,) that a dab of amonia added to the woad, will dye natural materials with a green colour. All interesting to try.
I am such a girly girl, and I absolutely love the pink yarn. It is fascinating to see how the process worked. Yes, you have mentioned at least once previously that you are an engineer, however I don't remember the specifics of what you do.
It's also the infamous blu di genova used to dye the toile de Nîmes, meaning the blue jeans color of denim, that became popular at the end of 19th century
I spent an hour watching your videos a couple of months back and then I completely forgot your channel name. I stumbled across this by accident and I was so happy to find it again.
Thank you for sharing. I found it fascinating to see the color change. The yellow to pink was incredible for me. Also, are only the plant leaves and stems involved? Are the flower parts ever used and if so, what is that process? Sissy, dear sissy, please where protection for your feet! The scalding water running and dripping so near them gave me the shudders! You are important and you need to take precautions for your safety. Sock would have grabbed the hot water closer and longer against that precious vulnerable skin. Please be prepared rather than just trying to be careful.
Super interesting! How did people actually figure this stuff out back then, history really amazes me! I honestly thought you were going to use the petals lol! Thank you so much for sharing!
So lovely! I liked the rich colour, I tried to dye a fabric for the confection of a corset with vinegar summac. It turned like your dusty light pink. I didn't see anything relate to PH on the site I looked. Take note for the next time! Thanks and yes, I want more video from you :) continue your good work!
Wow, what a difference in the two colors! I would not have thought they came from the same plant. It is amazing, isn’t it, when you think about how people developed the dying methods and how long ago it was done. They really came out beautifully.
That’s gorgeous and so fascinating. I’ve just been watching an Arne and Carlos video where they visit a yarn dyer and she’s using indigo too. She dips her wool 3 times.
Re: aeration You can buy an attachment for power drills that is used for mixing things in buckets. Usually they're used for paint. However you'd want the bucket half full as the vortex pushes liquid up the sides.
I would love to see you knit the dusty pink article. Thank you for all your sharing in your videos. I really enjoy watching your processes and following your thought processes.
Honestly I think this is historically accurate, even if indigo dye was commercially available at the time there were sure to be more than a few people who would go for free dye from local plants, especially out in the countryside where commercial dyes weren’t as easily available as plants in the fields.
These are beautiful! (I've always wanted to try indigo dyeing but I'm way to lazy/tired for messy/heavy stuff, I think I just want to find a workshop someday... so I'm super impressed by your efforts!)
You can also use woad and weld to make Robinhood green. That's the specific combination used for making Robinhood's cloak when you're trying to make a robinhood costume. Kind of like how mercury green is the only correct shade for the mad hatter's hat. I'm really curious about the chemistry of alum and other mordants contaminating food containers. Just how far can you push that with food grade alum? I'm also curious about why hibiscus dye starts magenta and turns blue over time when exposed to oxygen. Its very strange. I used Hibiscus tea for red hibiscus syriacus. also for aerating, how about using one of those bubble pump things for aquariums. That way you don't have to drive yourself insane trying to aerate your dye manually. part of the difference could be time of the year or weather. one thing I've learned about herbs is that the hotter and drier the weather is, the more concentrated the flavor and/or medicinal properties are. Mint is a great plant to demonstrate this with. The other important thing to think about is the plant's life cycle. I made two batches of rhododendron and iron dye, which makes a mossy green. However the green tone only came out in the batch I made in winter. when i made a batch in spring it came out grey. It could be something ticked over in the plant's lifecycle where it hadn't had indigo in it before, but when you went back it had.
Wow! That is some beautiful colours! Was it a smelly process? Traditionally woad was processed outside of towns because it was too smelly to be inside them. Also - I'd love to see the 20s sweater, but is there a video about the 40s sweater you wore to collect the plants?
I could look this up, but I'm just going to rely on my -terrible- memory, dying and tanning were traditionally outside towns because urine (for woad) and excrement (for tanning) were a main componant in the process, I think.
Thank you so much! It was quite a strong smell, I am glad I kept the leaves steeping outside, they smelled somewhat like a very strong tea, mixed with earth. It isn't too unpleasant, in my opinion, but very very strong. I sadly didn't make a video on my 40s sweater, I worked on knitting that here and there between other projects. If you're interested in a few more photos I have them up on instagram!
if i heard right you mentioned that for the first batch you took several days to collect your woad, but for the second you were able to collect all you needed quickly. i was wondering: do you think the freshness of the greens had any influence on how they broke down into dye? or was it solely to to with the amount of that one agent you added, that you think you overdid in the first batch?
I do think the freshness of the greens had something to do with the first batch failing! I read more on saving indigo batches after my first one turned out differently than I'd hoped and one resource mentioned that indigo can break down quite easily if not dried properly. I also had a lot of sediment in my bucket the first time around, so if any indigo was present it would have preferred to precipitate out onto the sediment rather than my yarn, I also read. So I think there were quite a few things I did imperfectly the first time! Thankfully, I fixed them all enough the second time around!
@@EngineeringKnits there are sooo many variables! and it's fascinating how they can add up to such a wide spectrum of results. that pink looks perfect-- you'd never know you weren't actually going for that color!
11:38 please do not handle big pots of boiling water in your socks. Even a small splash of boiling water on your foot can make you flinch, and when you flinch you risk losing control of the pot of boiling water and ending up with the whole lot on your feet. A cheap pair of rubber boots kept in the house for this sort of work will cost a lot less than the consequences of boiling water all over your feet.
I hope you enjoy watching my experiment with plant dyeing! I say that where I am water boils at around 93 degrees Fahrenheit, and, well that's not possible even on Mount Everest! I meant 93 degrees Celsius - It's a good thing I'm not a Chemical Engineer anymore!
Also I saw a few questions on the reed basket I made, and I bought a kit on Etsy :) www.etsy.com/listing/511081950/harvest-basket-weaving-kit?ref=shop_home_active_30
I was going to ask about the temps, thanks for clarifying! Those colors are gorgeous!
Absolutely lovely colour. Natural dyeing is definitely a skill set I'd love to develop.
We live at 7500'. Water boils at around 92°C, and pasta takes forever.😄 Camping in the mountains above 11,000 feet, it's instant everything or go home. All the white gas in the world won't cook plain rice.
That pink is just gorgeous! I'm glad you had success with the blue, too. Chemistry is so cool.
the quality of that pink is really stunning! Very impressed with how even it came out.
Thank you! I was also so happy with the even-ness of the color, I knew right away I had to make something beautiful with it!
Another vote for the 1920s sweater! I'd love to see how that soft pink yarn looks in sweater format.
The colours are beautiful. I would love to see you knit the 1920s jumper.
This was a fascinating video and I would have done the same. Using a widely available local ”weed” to dye wool, although an older recipe and not much in use during the period of your pieces, I would think that there would still be some industrious women who wanted that colour and couldn't get it due to either money, availability or other reason using this method. Just because it wasn't widely done, doesn't mean to say nobody did it. Thank you for sharing this.
This is great! Also, it's not that people didn't ever use herbs to create dyes at home, that's why the knowledge was never fully lost. So, it's still historically accurate, especially if someone lived in the countryside, to extract your own dye.
Sure -- and some natural dyes have still never been matched for subtlety or intensity of clor. But this experiment shows why the 19th century advent of analine (synthetic) dyes was so important. Woad is kewl, but if you want reasonably sure outcomes, reach for the RIT.😄
@@robertmcgovern8850 If only RIT wasn't horrible, hahaha. I understand what you mean though.
Oh man, this made my nerd heart happy! Now I'm wondering how many colors you could get from making tweaks to the pH and varying how much reducing agent you use. I played with acid dying once and purposely broke black food color on a pH gradient and it was really fun. And I love that you made a basket just for herb collection.
I would love to experiment more with dyeing yarn - it was so much fun! Breaking black on a pH gradient sounds like it would produce beautiful colors.
I don't much about it, I like dying fabric and this have make want to investigate about this process and play with some swatches...
Dude, I’m a ChemE student! It’s so cool to see another ChemE in this corner of the world.
Very cool to see the 2 distinct colours derived from the same plant. ❤
Okay, this is *seriously* cool. There's always something so inherently satisfying and awesome about gathering and using something collected from the great outdoors and turning it into a product, being foraging for berries for jam or using it as natural dye.
The colors of the woad dye sort of remind me of baby pink & blue!🍼👼
I am amazed how a plant can produce two beautiful colours. :)
That was great to watch. It must've been so frustrating to see the failed batch after all that hard work but how wonderful to get that rose yarn out of it! Thank you for sharing, swatches and all. =)
What a perfect baby pink!! I loved this video so much, yarn dying chemistry is fascinating, if this is how I was taught chemistry at school, I would have paid more attention 😝
I like seeing your technique, love the 1920s idea.
You are just a great hopeful person and persistent in your trying out new things...thank you for being such an inspiration. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
What a rush to see someone who has the knowledge, skill, and love of these things! I can't help but wonder if you were born in July. It sounds like a silly woo-woo question but we July babies seem to love going back in time with our projects. If I were younger I'd be out looking for dyer's woad in our north west woods. I fiddled with other natural dyes a little in the past. Following you...I'm hooked.
Us July babies are awesome time travellers 😁
Such interesting results! And what a difference in the color of the dye bath the second time! :-)
I was so happy to see the blue come out of the second dye bath, and it is amazing how two different colors can come out of the exact same plant! Thank you :)
I’m weird, I’d have experimented further and seen what I could get by over dyeing the pink with the blue! I’d love to know if that would make a purple of some kind!
That's a great idea! I did see an article saying that purple is very possible with indigo, and maybe they did it by dyeing it once pink then once blue.
Chemistry is basically magic, I like it! I also admire the attitude you had towards the "failed" batch, with accepting the result but also trying again to solve the problem and obtain what you wanted.
Yes! Please! Share your 1920s knit! I just finished a 1918 sweater! It's great fun to see your knitting adventures. Thank you!
I love the dusty pink yarn!
These are so pretty! It's amazing that you can get such different results with one plant! The pink is lovely, but that blue! Oh my gosh! I know there are a lot of exclamation marks but I really am that excited!
I learned this week, (From 6th Century Viking sources,) that a dab of amonia added to the woad, will dye natural materials with a green colour. All interesting to try.
I love the pink color, it's really beautiful!
Also an important pollinator plant for bees 🐝 💟💛
I am such a girly girl, and I absolutely love the pink yarn. It is fascinating to see how the process worked. Yes, you have mentioned at least once previously that you are an engineer, however I don't remember the specifics of what you do.
It's also the infamous blu di genova used to dye the toile de Nîmes, meaning the blue jeans color of denim, that became popular at the end of 19th century
What a fun project! Makes me think of Bob Ross' saying: There are no mistakes, just happy accidents 😊
What a luck mistake! I love that pink as well as the blue!
I spent an hour watching your videos a couple of months back and then I completely forgot your channel name. I stumbled across this by accident and I was so happy to find it again.
Thank you for sharing. I found it fascinating to see the color change. The yellow to pink was incredible for me. Also, are only the plant leaves and stems involved? Are the flower parts ever used and if so, what is that process? Sissy, dear sissy, please where protection for your feet! The scalding water running and dripping so near them gave me the shudders! You are important and you need to take precautions for your safety. Sock would have grabbed the hot water closer and longer against that precious vulnerable skin. Please be prepared rather than just trying to be careful.
Well now you know how to get pink colour!!!🤗
Wow! Beautiful colors!
Love, love love your channel!
Super interesting! How did people actually figure this stuff out back then, history really amazes me! I honestly thought you were going to use the petals lol! Thank you so much for sharing!
Another fantastic video! I would love to see the 1920‘s sweater
So lovely! I liked the rich colour, I tried to dye a fabric for the confection of a corset with vinegar summac. It turned like your dusty light pink. I didn't see anything relate to PH on the site I looked. Take note for the next time! Thanks and yes, I want more video from you :) continue your good work!
Fantastic! A lot of effort but so worth it! Best wishes from Down Under 🇦🇺😎
Thank you, for such an interesting video! I would be up for a 1920 sweater knitting video.
Cochineal is fun like this. Blue, purple, rose, carmine and orange, all from one pigment.
Gorgeous and fascinating
Tha accidental pink is so pretty!
Amazing work, would love to see you make the 1920's sweater!
Wow, what a difference in the two colors! I would not have thought they came from the same plant. It is amazing, isn’t it, when you think about how people developed the dying methods and how long ago it was done. They really came out beautifully.
That’s gorgeous and so fascinating. I’ve just been watching an Arne and Carlos video where they visit a yarn dyer and she’s using indigo too. She dips her wool 3 times.
That sounds like a fascinating video, I'll have to watch it!
So pretty!
i am so excited to see how both of these projects go! team historical knitting go!
Thanks for sharing! I love this kind of historical/teaching video. The yarns are beautiful - can't wait to see what you make!
Re: aeration
You can buy an attachment for power drills that is used for mixing things in buckets. Usually they're used for paint. However you'd want the bucket half full as the vortex pushes liquid up the sides.
I would love to see you knit the dusty pink article. Thank you for all your sharing in your videos. I really enjoy watching your processes and following your thought processes.
Beautiful results! I specially love the darker blue! Also, I would love a video of the making of that basket. Loved it!
I agree with the basket making request. Shows the quality of the creator that she would make a basket 🧺 in order to collect the leaves.
1920s sweater, please :-) Thanks for sharing this video. It was very interesting.
That was lovely! Thank you for sharing!
Honestly I think this is historically accurate, even if indigo dye was commercially available at the time there were sure to be more than a few people who would go for free dye from local plants, especially out in the countryside where commercial dyes weren’t as easily available as plants in the fields.
A large paint stirrer on a drill would be a good stirrer maybe?
This is really cool!
I really liked both colours you achieved! And it's lovely to come across another Chemical Engineer who knits and sews :)
Amazing experiment! ⚗️
Thank you! It took more than one try, but I'm so happy both colors look great!
That pink is beautiful!
Beautiful! I wonder if that plant is what we call “mustard” here in the Eastern US.
Love all the explaining, also that your first step in gathering woad was to weave a basket 😂
Great vid.. Love your socks style. 😍😊
The blue in the swedish flag is from woad!
These are, to me, the 2 typical "grandma's knitting" colors.
Watch Ruth Goodman in “Can We Build A Castle with Medieval Tools?” Secrets of the Castle. She dyes with woad! And it’s a great series!
Hi, i loved your video, please can you explain - Why the dyeing of the wool was successful the second time, what was the difference ?
These are beautiful! (I've always wanted to try indigo dyeing but I'm way to lazy/tired for messy/heavy stuff, I think I just want to find a workshop someday... so I'm super impressed by your efforts!)
I just finished listening to the Indigo Girl today which is a fictionalized story of indigo being brought to South Carolina. You should check it out!
I just looked up the synopsis and this looks exactly like that kind of audiobook I've been looking for! Thank you so much for the suggestion!
stunning! so happy for you and what a great video^^
Please try one pattern from the 1655 knit book( it will be an interesting experiment)
Did the pink survive through time? I'm really curious as to what it really is and how it behaves :3
This was amazing to watch and learn. Thanks for sharing
this is so cool!!!
You can also use woad and weld to make Robinhood green. That's the specific combination used for making Robinhood's cloak when you're trying to make a robinhood costume. Kind of like how mercury green is the only correct shade for the mad hatter's hat.
I'm really curious about the chemistry of alum and other mordants contaminating food containers. Just how far can you push that with food grade alum? I'm also curious about why hibiscus dye starts magenta and turns blue over time when exposed to oxygen. Its very strange. I used Hibiscus tea for red hibiscus syriacus.
also for aerating, how about using one of those bubble pump things for aquariums. That way you don't have to drive yourself insane trying to aerate your dye manually.
part of the difference could be time of the year or weather. one thing I've learned about herbs is that the hotter and drier the weather is, the more concentrated the flavor and/or medicinal properties are. Mint is a great plant to demonstrate this with. The other important thing to think about is the plant's life cycle. I made two batches of rhododendron and iron dye, which makes a mossy green. However the green tone only came out in the batch I made in winter. when i made a batch in spring it came out grey. It could be something ticked over in the plant's lifecycle where it hadn't had indigo in it before, but when you went back it had.
Personally, I would experiment to try and get that pink replicable. And to see what other colors can be made.
I found an article from someone more experienced who was able to make blue, pink, purple and more from indigo, it would be fascinating to try!
Wow, its so beautiful
Where do you live? Looks like Montana? I'm from CO, but got priced out, currently in OR. Nice to see some high country!
How hot is the dye water when you put the yarn in? I worry about putting wool into hot water.
Wow! That is some beautiful colours! Was it a smelly process? Traditionally woad was processed outside of towns because it was too smelly to be inside them.
Also - I'd love to see the 20s sweater, but is there a video about the 40s sweater you wore to collect the plants?
I could look this up, but I'm just going to rely on my -terrible- memory, dying and tanning were traditionally outside towns because urine (for woad) and excrement (for tanning) were a main componant in the process, I think.
Thank you so much! It was quite a strong smell, I am glad I kept the leaves steeping outside, they smelled somewhat like a very strong tea, mixed with earth. It isn't too unpleasant, in my opinion, but very very strong.
I sadly didn't make a video on my 40s sweater, I worked on knitting that here and there between other projects. If you're interested in a few more photos I have them up on instagram!
makes me wonder what weeds in my area could be used on cotton....
One of my kids are named Vejde (Woad in Swedish) :)
Those are some pretty impressive results, though I noticed that you decided to skip the traditional dying ingredient of stale urine.
😅 If the dyeing process was any smellier, I think I would have been kicked out of the house!
if i heard right you mentioned that for the first batch you took several days to collect your woad, but for the second you were able to collect all you needed quickly. i was wondering: do you think the freshness of the greens had any influence on how they broke down into dye? or was it solely to to with the amount of that one agent you added, that you think you overdid in the first batch?
I do think the freshness of the greens had something to do with the first batch failing! I read more on saving indigo batches after my first one turned out differently than I'd hoped and one resource mentioned that indigo can break down quite easily if not dried properly.
I also had a lot of sediment in my bucket the first time around, so if any indigo was present it would have preferred to precipitate out onto the sediment rather than my yarn, I also read.
So I think there were quite a few things I did imperfectly the first time! Thankfully, I fixed them all enough the second time around!
@@EngineeringKnits there are sooo many variables! and it's fascinating how they can add up to such a wide spectrum of results. that pink looks perfect-- you'd never know you weren't actually going for that color!
How could you tell what the ph was if the strip was dyed blue?
So where did the pink come from?
Where does the indigo come from that is so dark has urine in it that is the mordant of course?
👌👌👌
11:38 please do not handle big pots of boiling water in your socks. Even a small splash of boiling water on your foot can make you flinch, and when you flinch you risk losing control of the pot of boiling water and ending up with the whole lot on your feet.
A cheap pair of rubber boots kept in the house for this sort of work will cost a lot less than the consequences of boiling water all over your feet.
are you telling me the yellow and green plant gives you blue and pink dyes? 0.0
And the last step of course is to knit a trans pride flag. Fabulous!
It looks like spaghetti!