Šentjanževka - tkani kvadratki St. John's wort - woven squares

   

Lani sem nasušila precej šentjanževke, za barvanje, za čaje in za v olje. V suhih cvetovih  je bilo kar nekaj žužkov, zato sem jo še zamrznila. Ker je do letošnje sveže še kar nekaj časa, sem to posušeno in zamrznjeno šentjanževo cvetje uporabila za barvanje volne.
Ni mi bilo do vseh odtenkov, ki jih običajno daje šentjanževka. Drugo barvo - rdečerjavo oziroma vijoličnorjavo  brez galuna - sem želela izpustiti. In sem barvala 50 g volnene preje, čimžane z galunom. Dobila sem pa ravno to rjavkasto. Ko sem barvala naslednjo štrenico, tudi z galunom, se je barva spet kazala kot rjavkasta. Dodala sem še nekaj galuna, kar v barvilno kopel, česar sicer ne delam, in dobila (sivo)zeleno. Tretja štrenica, spet z galunom, je dala pričakovano rumeno, pa tako nepričakovano živo, da je bila mokra videti kar malo fluorescentna.
Prav nepredvidljivi rezultati. Po dosedanjih izkušnjah in tudi po izkušnjah drugih barvilk bi namreč morala prva barva biti zelena, rjava pa samo na volni brez galuna.
Pa razumi, če moreš! 

Last summer I dried quite a lot of St. John's wort, for dyeing, teas and for oil extraction. There were several insects in dried flowers so I put them in the freezer. Since this year fresh flowers can not be expected very soon I decided to use these fried and frozen ones for dyeing wool.

I didn't want all the shades and colours this plant usually produces. I wanted to leave out the second colour, ie reddish-brown or violet-brown obtained without alum. So I set to dyeing 50 gram of alum mordanted wool yarn. What I got was exactly this brownish colour. When dyeing the next skein the colour shown was again the brownish. I added some alum in the dye pot, which I don't usually do, to obtain (greyish)green. The third skein, also alum mordanted, was the expected yellow, but so unexpectedly bright it was almost fluorescent when wet.

These results were quite unexpected. In my experience up till now, as well as in that of other natural dyers, the first colour should be green whereas the brownish would only develop on unmordanted wool.

Who could understand the surprises in natural dyeing!


Fotografije seveda slabo prikazujejo te bavne nianse. Slikala sem z osvetljavo z bliskavico in brez, pa nobena ni čisto realna.
Pa še nekaj dodatnih fotografij:

Of course the photos show the colour shades very poorly. I took pictures both with and without a flash, yet none shows the colours right.
Below are some additional pictures.

 

Šentjanževka - spet enkrat --- St. John's wort - again

Spet sem si izbrala šentjanževko za barvanje, tokrat zmrznjene cvetove. Želela sem primerjati obarvanje različnih voln, ki sem jih pripravila (čimžala in barvala) popolnoma enako.
Na zgornji sliki so vse štiri štrenice 100% volna naše avtohtone jezersko-solčavske ovce.
Na drugi sliki je leva štrenica ista volna, desna pa je ročno predena mešanica volne angleške ovce Cotswold 60%, moherja je 20” in angore 20%. V resnici sta obe štrenici bolj intenzivno zeleni.
Na spodnji sliki so štrenice, barvane s šentjanževko, od spodaj navzgor (kakor sem jih po vrsti barvala v isti barvilni kopeli):

naša jezersko-solčavska ovca - 4 štrenice

bombažni trak - 1 štrenica

Cotswold 60%, moher 20% in angora 20%, ročno predena, v dve nitki - 1 štrenica

ameriška ovca Montadale 100%, ročno predena, enojna - 1 štrenica

Na vrhu je večja štrena ročno predene volne Cotswold 60%, moher 20% in angora 20%, ki sem jo hkrati barvala v treh loncih: šentjanževka, zelene in počrnele orehove lupine in rabarbarine korenine, vse barvilne kopeli že precej izrabljene.

Naša domača volna in Montadale sta prijeli zelo dobro, mešanica z moherjem in angoro pa precej manj, a je preja tako prijetna, da si bom verjetno spletla brezrokavnika
I decided on dyeing with frozen St. John’s wort flowers and wanted to compare different wool yarns prepared (mordanted and dyed) identically.
The four skeins in the pic on top are 100% wool from Slovenian native sheep breed jezersko-solčavska ovca.
In the second picture the skein on the left is the same wool whereas the skein on the right is Cotswold 60%, mohair 20” and angora 20%, handspun. By the way, in reality the yarns are greener.
In the bottom picture the skeins dyed with St. John’s wort follow from bottom up:

• Slovenian native sheep - 4 skeins
• cotton ribbon - 1 skein
• Cotswold 60%, mohair 20” and angora 20% - 1 skein
• Montadale 100%, handspun, single - 1 skein
• The rather large skein on top is Cotswold 60%, mohair 20” and angora 20% that I dyed in three pots simultaneously: St. John’s wort , rhubarb roots and green and blackened walnut hulls, all three baths rather used up.

The Slovenian wool and Montadale took colour very well while the mixture with mohair and angora took less well, but this yarn is so pleasing I'll probably knit myself a tank top.
 

Poletno barvanje 2 - Summer dyeing 2

Spet šentjanževka, kaj pa! Razen najsvetlejših dveh (na zgornji sliki v sredini spodaj) je vsa volna barvana s šentjanževko, pisana pa še z zelenimi orehi.

St. John's wort again, what else could it be! Except for the lightest skeins (at the bottom in the picture above) all the yarn is dyed with St. John's wort , and the variegated yarn has been dipped also in a walnut dyebath.

Barvala sem volneno in bombažno prejo. Na volni sem dobila tele lepe rjave in rumene tone, na bombažu pa komaj kaj barve (za primerjavo je na njej položena štrenica z nekaj bele niti), zato sem eno pomočila še v železovo vodo za močno sivo barvo.

I dyed wool and cotton yarn. Wool acquired these beautiful brown and yellow colours whereas cotton hardly took any colour (I placed a tiny  skein with some white yarn on top), so I dipped one skein in iron water to get strong grey.     

Rjava ima lep rdečkast pridih in mi je po vsem temnem orehu prav všeč.

Brown has a reddish hue to it which I quite like after all the dark walnut browns.   

 Tole sem barvala kontaktno, se pravi, tesno sem povila cvetove v čimžano prejo in jo po malem parila nekaj ur. Rezultat je prav zadovoljiv. Mogoče si spletem brezrokavnik, zdaj ko imam več štren.
This was contact dyed, that is I wound flowers tightly in skeins of mordanted yarn and steamed for several hours, with some breaks. I may knit a tank top now that I've got several skeins.

 Poskusila sem volno aranžirati na mladem boru, pa sta nastali tidve sliki.
I tried to arrange the wool skeins on a young pine tree, so I took these two pictures.

Poletno barvanje 1 - Summer dyeing 1

Poletje je krasen čas za barvanje z rastlinami. Vse bujno raste, vse cveti, da kar ne vem, s čim začeti ... pa delam vsega po malem.

Summer is the excellent season for natural dyeing. Everything grows abundantly, blooms exuberantly so I just don't know what to start with ...so I use more or less everything.

Rabarbarine korenine sem imela v velikih kosih, pa sem jih tesno povila v štrene oprane volne, dala v velik kozarec, dolila toplo vodo in dala na sonce. Ker je bilo sonca dva tedna res veliko, je dobro opravilo delo - volna je rumena in živo oranžna, drap barva je pa od orehov.
Rhubarb roots I had were in large pieces so I wrapped them tightly in skeins of washed wool, placed them in a large glass jar, poured in warm water and placed in a sunny place. As the last two weeks were really sunny the sun did its job well - the wool yarn is yellow and bright orange, the beige part had been dyed with green walnuts.

Imela sem tri štrenice različnih neizrazitih barv - izčrpana kopel šentjanževke, jelševa skorja in cvetovi kokardije - pa sem polovice namočila še v delno izrabljeno kopel zelenih orehov. Zdaj je preja mnogo zanimivejša!

I had three skeins of various plain colours - an exhausted bath of St. John's wort, another of alder bark and of cocardia flowers - so I dipped halves into a partly exhausted bath of green walnuts. The skeins look much more interesting now!

Tidve štreni, pobarvani na soncu z rabarbaro, sem pomočila še v raztopino zelene galice.
I dipped these two skeins that had been sun dyed with rhubarb roots into a solution of ferrous sulphate. 

Tele nežno zelene štrene mi je v kozarcu z lučnikom in bakrovim acetatom prijazno pobarvalo sonce.
It was the sun that kindly dyed these lovely light green skeins in a glass jar with mullein flowers and copper acetate. 

Zeleni orehi, ki so junija odpadli po vetru in dežju, so dali tole čudovito temno čokoladno rjavo na volni.
Green walnuts that had fallen from branches after rain and wind in June gave this miraculous deep dark chocolate brown on wool yarn.

(Spet) šentjanževka in zeleni orehi (spet) - (Again) St. John's wort and green walnuts (again)

... tokrat pa skupaj. Zaželela sem si teh dveh mojih priljubljenih materialov na isti štreni volne. Barvanja sem se lotila s posušenimi cvetovi šentjanževke in svežimi zelenimi orehovimi lupinami. Ker je bilo materiala veliko, so barve močne, presenetila pa me je zamolklost šentjanževkine barve: no, čisto sem spregledala, da posušene dajo te zamolkle barve, računala pa sem na sveže barve šentjanževke in temne orehove. Saj ne rečem, da mi ne bi bile všeč...


... together this time. I wished to produce the colours of my two favourite dyeing materials on the same skein of wool. I set to dyeing with dried St. John's wort flowers and fresh green walnut hulls. I had plenty of material so the colours are intense but the dullness of St. John's wort colours surprised me. Well, I quite forgot that the dried flowers give these dull colours, I had fresh, more pastel St. John's wort colours in mind, combined with intense dark walnut . I can't say I don't like them though...

Šentjanževka je carica - (2) - St. John's wort rules

Kot sem omenila v zadnji objavi, še ni bilo konec mojega ekperimentiranja s šentjanževko. Še naprej sem uporabljala isto barvilno kopel, delno do zelo izrabljeno. Barvala sem bombažno, volneno in laneno prejo. Enobarvno prejo sem dobila z barvanjem cele štrenice v kopeli, melirane pa sem dobila tako, da sem vlažno štrenico obesila nad lonec in v takočino potopila samo tretjino. Različna barvila, ki jih vsebujejo cvetki šentjanževke, so potovala novzgor po preji 24 do 48 ur in se ustavila različno visoko. Najbolj je bilo to opazno na volneni preji, kjer so nekatera mesta vijolična in zelenkasta (samo kaj ko se na sliki to ne vidi). Idejo sem dobila pri ascendentni kromatografiji - uf, kako znanstveno to zveni, mar ne! Žal pa vsi ti poskusi niso ponovljivi - preprosto povedano, iste barve lahko ponovno dobim zgolj slučajno - adijo znanstvenost :-( As I said in my last post that was not yet an end to my experimentation. Using the same, partly to very exhausted dyeing bath from St. John's wort flowers I dyed some cotton, wool and flax yarns. The solid colours were obtained by immersion dyeing while the variegated colours were obtained by suspending moist yarn over the pot, with the lower third of the skein immersed. I let the different colours climb up the moist yarn over 24 to 48 hours: they fixed at differing spots, which may be seen on the wool yarn with purplish and greenish spots (but the photo fails to show it). I was inspired by ascending chromatography - wow, this does sound scientific, doesn't it! Alas these experiments are failing in repeatability - saying in plain words, I can't obtain the same colours except by chance - very unscientific:-( Nadaljevala sem z isto delno izrabljeno barvilno kopeljo iz cvetov šentjanževke. Od leve desne si sledijo: bež bombažna prejica za vezenje, bela bombažna prejica za vezenje, bel lanen sukanec za klekljanje, bela bombažna prejica za vezenje, bela bombažna prejica za vezenje, +železova kopel, Vse so bile čimžane z galunom+pralno sodo (skupaj). bež bombažna prejica za vezenje, čimžana s taninom, bež bombažna prejica za vezenje, čimžana z galunom+pralno sodo, +železova kopel. Eksperimentiranje mi je bilo v užitek prav toliko kot sem vesela rezultatov. Vedno mi je hudo, da ne morem pokazati pravih barv: imam dobro kamero, a kaj ko so barve varljive, naravne pa še toliko bolj. Kar ne morem nehati ekperimentirati s šentjanževko. Verjetno bom septembra eksperimentirala z zrelimi rastlinami, z bunkicami s semeni in s posušenimi rožami. I went on with the same partly exhausted dyeing bath from St. John's wort flowers. From left to right they are: beige cotton yarn for stitching, white cotton yarn for stitching, white flax yarn for bobbin lace, white cotton yarn for stitching, white cotton yarn for stitching with iron afterbath, All were mordanted in alum and washing soda (together). beige cotton yarn for stitching mordanted with tanin, beige cotton yarn for stitching, mordanted in alum and washing soda, with an iron afterbath. I enjoyed the experimentation as much as I love the results. It always hurts me I can't show the real colours - the camera is a good one but the colours are tricky, and the natural colours even more so. I can hardly make myself stop experimenting with St. John's wort. I believe in September I'm going to experiment with mature plants, with seed balls and with dried material.

Šentjanževka je carica - St. John's wort rules

Spet sem nabirala cvetje šentjanževke - na maminem vrtu, ob poljskih poteh, na travnikih, v hribih, na zapuščenih zaraslih zemljiščih... Letos sem jih dobila izredno veliko in sem tudi barvala z njimi izredno veliko. Na volni sem dobila standardne barvne serije zeleno-vijolično-rjavo-zlato rumeno-limonino rumeno, z vršički s popki tik pred začetkom cvetenja pa tudi izjemno oranžne odtenke. I collected St. John's wort flowers again - in Mum's garden, along field paths, in meadows, in the mountains, in waste areas... This year I got extreme quantities and also did extremely much dyeing with it. On wool it gave the standard colour series green - violet-brown - golden yellow - lemon yellow, but also extraordinary orange hues with tops with buds just prior to blooming. Ker sem imela tako veliko materiala, sem se odločila za eksperimentiranje. Posebej sem barvala s cvetki (in popki), posebej z zeljo-listki in posebej z oskubljenimi stebli. Presenečena sem ugotovila, da barvilo vsebujejo prav vsi deli (samo korenina ne, kar sem ugotovila lani), seveda pa ga je zdaleč največ v cvetkih, skoraj nič manj v popkih, tudi zel ima precej barvila, pa celo oskubljena stebla. Kdo bi si mislil! Pa sem mislila, da so samo cvetki kaj vredni za barvanje. Na spodnji sliki je volna, barvana samo z zeljo. Realna barva je bolj v zgornjem delu slike oziroma, bolje rečeno - volna sploh ni lisasta, ampak lepo enakomerno obarvana. Since I had so much material at hand I decided to experiment. I used separately flowers (with buds), separately the green parts without stems, and separately stems without flowers or leaves. I was surprised to find out that all the parts of the plant contain the dyeing substance (with the exception of roots, hich I found out last year), flowers being the richest in it, of course. The buds are almost as rich in dye, the leaves also contain much dye, and even the bare stems have some. Who would have thought it! And I was led to believe only the flowers are worth using for dyeing. The picture below shows wool yarn dyed with green leaves only. The colour is more realistic in the upper section of the picture - or, to be more precise, the yarn is not variegated, the colour is solid. Nato sem se pogumno lotila barvanja bombažne preje za pletenje in vezenje ter bombažne in lanene prejice za klekljanje. Za to nisem nikjer dobila nobenih navodil, pa imam kar nekaj knjig o barvanju z rastlinami. Nekaj prejice za klekljanje sem barvala s šentjanževko že prejšnja leta, pa sem dobila tako različne rezultate, da nisem vedela, pri čem sem. In me je res hudo presenetila. Medtem ko na volni po navadi daje standardne barvne serije, je na bombažu in lanu povsem nepredvidljiva. Najbolj me je zanimala barva prve kopeli, ki na volni daje tako lepo zeleno. Na bombažu in lanu daje vse od zlato zelene, močne rumene, modrikasto zelene (prva slika levo), sive (druga slika desno). I was encouraged and tackled dyeing cotton yarn for knitting and stitching and cotton/linen yarn for bobbin lace. I 'd found no instructions or description although I do possess a few books on natural dyeing. I had dyed some yarn for bobbin lace in previous years only to get results that were so inconsistent that left me perplexed. I was perplexed again. While it yields standard colour sets on wool St. John's wort is quite unpredictable on cotton and linen. I was mostly interested in the first dyeing in fresh dyeing bath that gives such a lovely green on wool. And what does it give - or at least gabe me - on cotton and linen: everything from golden green, intense yellow, bluish green (first pisture left corner) and grey (secong picture right corner). Tudi barva kopeli se je letos obnašala čudno - pri eni seriji je po prvem barvanju z galunom čimžane preje kopel postala zelene barve in je taka ostala ves čas, pa sem pomakala in namakala kar precej prejic. Druga kopel, tudi prvo kuhanje samo cvetkov, pa ne !?! The colour of the dyeing bath itself also behaved in a strange way this year: in one batch it turned green after the first dyeing of alum mordanted yarn and remained green throughout the dyeing session, and believe I did dip and soak and cook many a little skein of yarn. The other byth, also obtained by the first cooking of flowers only did not shift to green !?! No, roke sem imela pa takele - ampak to nič ne boli in nič ne škodi in se v enem dnevu izmije. And my hands looked like this - I didn't mind, it doesn't hurt nor damage the skin and is washed off within one day. To še ni konec dosedanjega eksperimentiranja, ampak blog je že tako predolg, se bojim, da mi jo bo blogger kaj zagodel, zato raje objavim... This is not yet an end to my experimentation - only my writing is too long already and I'm afraid the Blogger may play a nasty trick on me so I'm posting it...

Borovnice in šentjanževka - Blueberries and St. John's wort

Le kje se mudi pomlad??!! V moji vazi je takorekoč že poletje, saj borovnice ne samo zelenijo, ampak tudi že cvetijo - tile mali snežnobeli cvetki so borovnice, ki so vzcvetele v cvetličarskem šopku od začetka februarja. But where is spring lingering??!! There is summer in my vase, so to say, since the bluberries are not only leafy but already in flowers - the small snowwhite flowers are blueberries that started to bloom in a florist bouquet since beginning of February. Da laže čakam na bolj svetle, tople, sončne in barvite dni, si pomagam z lepimi volnami, pobarvanimi s cvetjem šentjanževke (sliki zgoraj in spodaj). Te barve me res razveselijo vsakič, ko jih pogledam! To make my waiting for brighter, warmer, sunnier and more colourful days easier I have recourse to my lovely wool yarns dyed with St. John's wort flowers (see the picture above and below). These colours make me happy every time I watch them!

Večbarvno barvanje volnene preje - Multicolour wool yarn dyeing

Našla sem novo rastišče šentjanževke, precej blizu doma, le nekaj kilometrov stran. Volneno prejo sem pobarvala kontaktno samo s cvetki. Rezultat me je tako navdušil, da sem morala slikati še mokro volno, čeprav sem vedela, da posušena ne bo več tako živih barv. I found a new growing area of St. John's wort, quite near my home, not more than a couple of kilometers away. I contact-dyed wool yarn with flowers only. The result filled me with such enthusiasm that I just had to take a picture of wet yarn although I knew well it won't keep the vivid colours when dried.

Res barve niso več tako žive, vijolična je šla proti rjavi (pa ne toliko, kot je videti na sliki), ampak volna je še vedno čudovita.

Indeed, the colours are not so vivid any more, the burgundy-purple shifted towards brown (not as much as in the picture, though), but the wool is still marvelous.

Navila sem jo še z malo napravico, da lahko nit vlečem iz sredine klobke.

I wound it using a small appliance to be able to pull the yarn from the middle of the ball.

Takole je videti spletena, gladko desne na licu.

This is how it looks when knit, stockinette stich.

Pred nekaj tedni me je premamil blog Helen Melvin, ki je dobila zanimivo barvo z zlato rozgo tik pred cvetenjem. Rezultat je bilo razočaranje - nezanimiva rumena (razen prvega barvanja, ki je dalo močno živorumeno). Odločila sem se, da bom volno prebarvala po delih. Del sem pobarvala z izrabljeno barvilno kopeljo iz rabarbarinih listov in del z izrabljeno kopeljo zelenih orehov. Barve sicer niso ravno moje najljubše, kombinacija pa mi je zelo všeč in sem zdaj prav zadovoljna z rezultatom barvanja, pa še izrabljene barvilne kopeli sem karseda porabila.

Some weeks ago I was tempted by Helen Melvin's report of an interesting colour obtained from goldenrod just prior to bloom. My result was a disappointment - an uninteresting yellow (except for the first dyeing which gave a vivid and strong yellow) so I decided to partly overdye the skeins. I used a rhubarb leaves exhaust bath and a green walnuts exhaust bath for parts of the skein. Although the colours are not just my choice I like their combination very much and am quite happy with the result now. In addition, I made utmost use of my exhaust dyebaths.

Šentjanževka - St. John's Wort

Prvi cvet šentjanževke letos - vsaj na mojem balkonu. Nisem si mogla kaj, pa sem jo malo nasadila v cvetlični lonec. Saj vem, da je ne bo dovolj za barvanje, je pa lepa in trpežna, prav primerna za vroč in vetroven balkon. The first flower of St. John's Wort this year - at least in my balcony. I just couldn't help planting it in a flower pot. Yes, I do know it won't be enough for any dyeing but it is beautiful and insensitive to the hot and windy conditions in my balcony.

Še preden je začela cveteti, sem pobarvala nekaj štren bele volne kontaktno, da sem dobila takole pisano volno. Prav privlačna sprememba od vseh prejšnjih enobarvnih nians! Before it started blooming I contact-dyed a couple of skeins of white yarn and obtained this multicolour result. An attracting variation of all previous single-colour skeins!