partially successful

The week before last I received a shipment of fabric that I ordered.  I want to play with plant dye more but it did not make sense to buy locally.  Prices for white fabric were double what I could pay online at Dharma Trading Company.  And since I am playing, I waited for the order.

I was too ambitious.  I cut a two yard bit of linen and a two yard bit of a cotton/silk blend.  Simmered them in alum for an hour and then put them in a pot of strained red cabbage juice.

That was Sunday and I had a chance to open the pot today after gardening.

Any day I am home I pull weeds.  Mostly grass.  I do think I have some zinnias coming up under the squashes and between the mint.

After rinsing, and soaking six inches of my gardening dress, I hung the fabric.  The two darker pieces have silk in them and seemed to take to the cabbage juice very well.  I have read that protein fibers actually take dye better.  The linen not so much.  Not even the lavender blue I have seen with red cabbage.  I am going to buy two more cabbages on my errands today and try again once this drys.  

I want to play with the marigold dye I bought this weekend.  I am going to start haunting some of the garden and hardware stores in the area to see when the marigolds and chysanthemums come out.  I am planning to buy bunches and plant them in the yard.  I am already ready for autumn so the colours will sooth but then I am also thinking about my dye pots.  Grow my own.  I can see my garden becoming a dye garden with not too many vegetables.

I cannot dig up the backyard.  The boyos use is for motorbike runs.  They pretend they are prestigious dirtbikers.  My life.  Maybe I should by an empty lot for gardening.  It is a thought.