Dyeing with oak leaves.

Jeg har farget ullgarn med eik for første gang.

Det er bladene av sommereik som jeg har brukt til fargingene.

Utifra det jeg hadde lest og hørt om farging med eik skulle man få brun eller grå farge på garnet, så jeg forventet absolutt ikke det resultatet som jeg satt med etter tre ulike farginger.

I have now dyed wool yarn with oak for the first time, using the leaves of the summer oak tree.

From what I had seen and read about dyeing with oak leaves, the wool yarn was supposed dye brown or grey, so I did not expect the result I got.

The photos show the results from three different dyes.

Første fargegryte jeg lagde farget garnet lilla. Mørk lilla i første dypp, og lysere lilla i andre fargedypp.

Jeg ble helt fascinert, for det var et veldig uventet resultat, og det var så vakre lillafarger.

Så plukket jeg en ny haug med blader og lagde ny fargekok.

Denne gangen fikk garnet en slags gammelrosa farge.

Igjen et uventet resultat.

Enda en gang plukket jeg flere eikeblader og kokte nytt fargebad, ettersom jeg så gjerne ville farge mer lilla garn...

Men tredje gang ble resultatet en gyllen farge, helt uten tegn til rosa eller lilla.

Veldig spesielt med tre så forskjellige fargetoner fra samme type blader, selv om alle fargene er helt nydelige.

The first dyeing pot I prepared dyed the yarn purple. A dark purple colour from the first dye, and a lighter purple from the second dye from the same pot.

I was absolutely stunned, as this was such an unexpected result, and from the beautiful colours of the yarn.

So I picked one more pile of oak leaves and made a second dye pot.

This time the yarn dyed a dirty pink colour.

In fact this was yet another unexpected result.

Once more I went off to pick more oak leves, as I really wanted one more purple dye...

The result of the third dye was a golden colour tone. These skeins got no purple or pinkish tone at all.

I find it rather unusual to achieve three such different colours from dyeing with the same kinds of leaves, however all the colours are lovely.

Etter at bildene ble tatt har jeg rukket å farge enda en gang med eikeblader. Jeg var nysgjerrig på hvilken farge garnet ville ende opp med da, og da ble resultatet igjen den gammelrosa fargen fra andre farging.

Jeg syntes dette var spennende, så jeg kommer til å farge flere ganger med eik.

Kanskje det blir andre farger når bladene plukkes senere på sesongen eller om de plukkes på andre plasser??

Når man farger med eik behøves ingen beising av garnet. Eikebladene må trekke noe lenger enn andre planter for å få ut nok farge.

After these photos were taken I did one more oak leaves dye, as I was curious about how the colour would turn out. The result of that dye was similar to the pinkish colour from the second dye.

I find this to be interesting, so I will definately dye more with oak leaves.

Perhaps leaves picked later in the year or in different places will give other different colours??

When dyeing with oak leaves there is no need for a mordant. The oak leaves need to simmer longer to extract the colour than other dye plants do.

 Post update:

The summer oak tree can be recognized by the leaves that are attatched directly to the twig.

(While the leaves of the winter oak tree have a stem).

Here's my little oak tree (more like a bush) next to my house where I picked the leaves.

I dyed with a mix of the green oak leaves and  the red/brown young newly opened leaves.

The first dye pot in the making.

The oak leaves are a mix of grown green leaves and the red/brown young newly opened leaves.

The leaves simmered for over three hours.

This is the first oak leaves dye, the one that dyed the yarn dark purple.

The yarn was rinsed in water and added to the pot. No mordant.

Oak leaves dye number 4. Two separate dyes using the same dye pot.