This post marks the first in a series I plan to write highlighting the various dyestuffs that I use. I get asked about the dyes that I use all the time, so this is a way to share about the individual dyestuffs and my experience working with each of them.
Let me begin by saying that being a natural dyer means that I am always learning. I have been dyeing yarn naturally for over a year now, but that is a relatively short time in the grand scheme of things, and I am far from mastering this craft. What I am about to share is the knowledge I have gleaned from my own personal study and experience. That said, I can’t wait to share with you about the amazing dyes that nature grows and how I have been using them.
Mulberry Leaf Extract
The first dye I would like to highlight for you is mulberry leaf extract. Unlike some natural dyes, the name is pretty self-explanatory with this one. Mulberry leaf extract comes from (you guessed it!) mulberry leaves.
Now when we’re talking about natural dyes, we’re talking about extracting color, or pigment, from a natural material, like a leaf, root, bark, bug, etc. When we extract color from mulberry leaves, we get a green pigment that comes from the chlorophyll in the leaves. This is the same chlorophyll that you learned about in grade school that gives leaves their green color.
Now, in its natural state, chlorophyll is not a very stable pigment, and it easily loses its characteristic green color through exposure to sunlight, oxygen, or acids. So to create a dye that is more reliable, the chlorophyll is extracted from the leaves and converted into chlorophyllin, a more stable form of chlorophyll.
This conversion is accomplished by boiling the dried green plant matter in a weak copper sulfate solution and then adding a tiny amount of lye to saponify it. Now, I looked up what saponification is, and all the explanations I could find included a lot more chemistry than this humanities major was able to understand. If you’ve ever heard the term before, it was likely in the context of soap making. The short version is that it’s a process to convert fat or oil into soap and glycerin by causing them to react with an alkali.
This process results in a dye extract that is much more lightfast than unconverted chlorophyll and not susceptible to changes in pH. So let’s look at how I have used this dye in my natural dyeing practice.
Dyeing Yarn with Mulberry Leaf Extract
I have been using mulberry leaf extract for over a year now. I currently use it for three of the colorways in my core colorway collection: The Party Tree, Sprout, and Lagoon. I use a different technique to achieve each of these colorways, so let’s dive into how I get these colors.
Since mulberry leaf extract is not pH reactive, I don’t have to worry about testing for or adjusting the pH of my dye bath before dyeing. The way that I get different shades is by adjusting the ratio of dye to fiber or mixing with other colors.
So let’s dive into the colors I get with this dye! I share about some of my core colorways and then some experiments I’ve done that were one-offs.
When dyeing with mulberry leaf extract, I scour my yarns as I normally do, and mordant with aluminium triformate.
The Party Tree
This colorway is dyed at 10% WOG. So if I’m dyeing 500g of yarn, I weigh out 50g of extract for my dye bath. This color is pretty reliable for me, and it’s such a nice green.
Sprout
At this point, this colorway is the result of a technique known as an exhaust bath. After dyeing The Party Tree, I simply add another batch of yarn to the dye pot to use up whatever dye is left. My goal sometime is to figure out how much dye I would need to dye this colorway as a standalone color, because I don’t want to have to dye The Party Tree every time I want a batch of Sprout.
Lagoon
This colorway is a recent addition to my colorway catalog, dyed first for Nash Yarn Fest this past March. This colorway is dyed with a mix of mulberry leaf extract and logwood extract. The two dyes are mixed in the same dyebath to create a wonderful tonal blue.
Sea Glass
I dyed one skein of this colorway a long time ago and have not since tried to recreate it. This one is dyed first with 5% WOG mulberry leaft extract and then overdyed with indigo. The result is a lovely teal color that I would like to try to recreate at some point.
Pine and Lt. Pine
These colorways were experiments that I am not planning to recreate, since they are so similar to The Party Tree. I don’t remember what % WOG I used for either.
Seaweed (variegated)
This is the only variegated colorway I have ever dyed and it was an experiement. For this colorway, I first dyed a tonal base with mulberry leaf extract. Then after the first dyebath, I rinsed the yarn and put it into a new clean bath. Then I prepared a solution of cape jasmine extract and poured this into the second bath while stirring. This cause the color to come into contact with the yarn in some places but not in others. The result was a lovely green/blue variegated yarn. I will probably try this technique again sometime, though I’m not sure how practical it is for creating repeatable colorways.
Iron experiment
I don’t have a photo of this single skein experiment that didn’t turn out how I expected. Iron can get really dramatic effects either as a mordant or a modifier. I have never used iron as a mordant, but I use it for several of my colorways as a modifier. Often, green or yellow dyes can be modified, or saddened, using an iron afterbath. My Wine, Peat, and Smoke colorways are examples of how iron can modify color. I decided to try an iron afterbath on a skein dyed with mulberry leaf extract to see what would happen. There was almost no shift in the color. The result was a skein of saddish looking green. I won’t be trying this again.
So there you have it. This is all the ways I have used mulberry leaf extract so far in my own natural dyeing practice. I have lots of ideas for other ways I would like to experiment with this dye.
That’s one of the things that’s so wonderful about natural dyes–there are endless ways to experiment and endless things to learn.
Have you dyed with mulberry leaf extract? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this dye. Feel free to comment with any advice or questions you might have.
Want to get one of these colorways onto your needles, hook, or loom? I currently have in stock
- “The Party Tree” on Rivendell DK and Hobbiton Sport
- “Sprout” on Rivendell Fingering
- “Lagoon” on Breeland Sport
- “Pine” and “Lt. Pine” on Hobbiton Sport
I have also been dyeing up more of several of these colorways for an upcoming trunk show at Cream City Yarn on June 20-22, and whatever doesn’t sell at the trunk show will be going up in my webshop afterwards.
