Episode 10: What's A Madder You? (with Laura Fry)
This episode we hear more listener stories, chat with talented Canadian weaver, Laura Fry, review her book Magic in the Water, enjoy good and humorous music, then I relate my misadventures harvesting madder. See the picture? That's the total harvest after four years of cultivation.
Resources (mentioned during the show)
Musical Guests
Resources (mentioned during the show)Musical Guests
- Coffee Song, by Francisco Duam from his album Geek Entertainment TV
- Woad, by Fugli
Download Episode 10: What's A Madder You? (with Laura Fry)
Read Transcript
posted by Syne Mitchell at 12:34 AM
12 Comments:
I just received my madder roots. Thank you so much! I've never dyed anything before, but I shall have to give it a try. Plus, I usually don't make things in the color red, so that will encourage me to branch out.
I'm not sure exactly where in Washington you live, but I hope the recent floods haven't affected you too much.
Hi Matt:
I'm glad they got there. I'm not so much a Madder-red either, I prefer the blue-red of Cochineal, but I haven't figured out how to fram cactus in the PNW. ;>
Thanks for your concern. I wasn't aware the floods made national news. Our town did experience some rather dramatic flooding. Our house remained dry. Kai's preschool missed flooding by a gnat's wing. They emailed home a picture of his teacher riding an inner tube in front of his school. The water came up to the threshold, but luckily did not go inside.
Other schools weren't so lucky, and the community is pitching in to help.
So when I say that madder was wet when I harvested it, I mean wet.
hi Syne
thanks for another great weavecast,I was really excited to hear about your harvest of madder roots I have some seeds and I am hoping to plant them out soon.
there is a lovely book
A dyer's garden from plant to pot growing dyes for natural fibre
by Rita Buchanan
on the madder page is says "madder grows in any garden soil, but produces the best roots with the most dye if planted in deep,fertile well-drained soil amended with plenty of ground limestone if your soil is on the acid side" it goes on into more details of growing and how to dye with it,
it also has cool dye card showing what colours you get with what mordant. it also has the yield: roots from 2 plants can dye 4 ounces of wool.
have fun dying your wool and fibre.
wendy
Wendy,
Aha, lime! I'll have to try that. My soil is fairly acidic. Thanks for the tip.
Good luck with growing your madder!
Syne
Too bad about your spindly madder harvest. Maybe I'll have better luck here in San Francisco (the city built upon sand dunes). When I was a kid, I used to drive my dad nuts by jamming a garden hose into a hole in the ground and turning it on, just so I could see all the lovely brown sand bubble up into a nice mound. And this is 4 miles inland, mind you.
Thanks for the seeds!
I thoroughly enjoyed your interview with Laura Fry. Not being a weaver or fluent in the language of weaving, a lot of the specifics went a bit over my head. But I really appreciated her take on things, and am always excited to hear about someone's attention to detail and finishing. I know that in knitting it's those finishing steps that turn your pile of knitted fabric into a garment, and I'd never considered the finishing one has to do to a rectangle of woven stuff to turn it into a piece of cloth. I can't wait to check out her website when I'm on a more stable internet connection.
Out of curiosity, do you have any recommendations for weaving blogs or project-oriented websites that would provide some additional inspiration and weaving-fluency boosts to us knitters (and other crafters) who are weaving wanna-bes?
Sorry about your disappointing madder. Well, I feel less bad about not leaving you a voicemail or writing an essay last month. 'Cause if I'd been on the ball, that little bit of madder would have had to be split up even further. Procrastination is a wonderful thing! ;-)
Hi Syne,
Any more madder seed available? Or do you know where to get some? And maybe where you found the Japanese Indigo? I've had delusions of a dyeing garden too. I'm down in Portland and haven't seen any here, but Seattle isn't too far.
May I just say that I LOVE your show. I look forward to every episode and constantly going on your website to find out if you have a new one up. My favorites so far are sleying the reed, the halloween one and this current episode. Everyone of them are amazing to listen to. I love listening to your voice, and listening to what you have to say. I have never dyed with natural dyes and was wondering in your opinion what's a good plant to start with. Thank you for keeping me informed about weaving, I love it!!!
Karoline in New Jersey
Hmm, Blogger hasn't been sending me comment notification when new comments come in. I think it's because they're embroiled with the migration to their new version, so let me catch up a little.
Nancy:
What a cool image (bubbling sand.) Good luck with your madder!
Rebekkah:
I did a podcast "Episode 1.5: Weaving for Knitters" to try and help bridge the jargon gap. Handwoven Magazine (and the Interweave Press Website) is full of great information. Laura Fry's Web site is chock full of great articles, for folks at every level. And you might try clicking through the WeaveRing links (shuttle icon on the home page) to check out some other weaving-related blogs.
Ana:
I DO have more madder seeds available. Send a SASE (with two stamps) to the mailing addy on my contact page and I'll hook you up (please also include a wee note that I'm supposed to be sending you madder seeds. I'd hate to forget between now and then and be standing in the Post Office holding a pre-stamped envelope and scratching my head...) A couple of years ago I great a bumper crop of Japanese Indigo (there are still a few escapees in my garden) so it does do well in the PNW. I also have found Richters Herbs (http://www.richters.com/) to be a great resource for dye plants.
Karoline:
Thanks for the great comments! The #1 best dye plant for beginning natural dyers is onion skins. Non-toxic and they provide a rich array of golds, oranges, and reds. Just use the papery outer skin which falls off the onion. Which if you don't mind looking a bit weird you can "clean up" the loose skins in the onion bins at your local grocery store. Most stores will happily let you do this and take them for free. I've never had anyone give me trouble, but I always figured that if someone did, I could just shove all the skins I'd collected in a plastic bag, let them weigh them, and pay whatever. (They're so light, a bag would be I dunno, a quarter?) Use the darkest skins you can find, and don't forget to mordant your fiber beforehand. I reccommend Alum for this (also available at the grocery stare and/or pharmancy.)
Ana,
I live in Portland and I have some Japanese indigo seeds if you would like them. I have been growing them in my garden for a few years now. If you tell me your email I will contact you about getting some.
Carolyn
Any chance of a few madder and indigo seeds left? I'm just starting out my dye garden also. Will Indigo grow in Zone 4? Jewelweed is wonderful for soft pumpkin and grows wild. My MIL has saved some cochineal from her Mexico trip for us to try.
Sharon
Hi Syne,
I've just been pointed at your weavecast by a friend and am catching up .. I just had to say ... Wow! the Woad song, I haven't heard that for more than 40 years!!!!
Chris
ps The weavecasts are great, I'm saving all my comments until I'm up to date!
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