Losing Patience

 The weather has been changeable - to say the least! It was cool, thundery with hail, occasionally, and sunny. So I decided that I really didn't want to leave the fabric in the solution with the stink lilies any longer. 

I got them out and had some trouble with knowing what was what, plant or fabric. The colour has leeched out of the petals and looked a bit like the fabric, big thick petals.  

I rinsed it out, put the leftover flowers into the new green waste bin we have, and have now put the fabric on the line to dry - under cover and in the wind. 

Some of the fabrics took the purple, others have done more traditional (in my mind) eco dyeing. The one on the end is a piece of old underwear, pure silk, that already had colour, so I am not too disappointed that it didn't take the purple, it is still rather interesting. 

The two pieces that took the colour best are the lightest weight silk, the others are bits and pieces I had, don't really know what silk they are, just that they are silk. 

At the moment, I see a cloudy sky in the making, with the various greys and purples. Not sure what to do with the browner noil silk but I'm sure it will come in handy. 

Also, the date is 12/12/22. Not fabulous but ok. 

Some Success

 Today had a slightly more positive outcome. 

I had left some silk fabric in a jar, just sitting in the glasshouse. As our weather has been unseasonably cold and wet, the jar has not heated up a lot. But there has been sunshine, so it has had some warmth. 

I took the fabric out today - some colour!!

And there was a little dye bath left. So I have put some of the failed-to-dye fabric in the jar with the plant leftover which still has colour in it. 

I am hoping something will happen but am not being very scientific about it.

The stink lilies were still flowering but today's high winds and heavy rain broke some of the plants so I have taken the stamens out and pulled the flowers off. I will try, yet again, to get some fabric coloured. But this time I won't bother heating it artificially, I'll let the sun do the work - if is shines. 

Waiting, waiting.

 I went out to the glasshouse this evening. The pot that I let simmer for a while yesterday has some colour in the water and the fabric. Not a lot but some. The plant-stuff has totally lost its colour. I threw that out. 

Then I looked at the pot that was simply soaking one piece of velvet silk - no colour in the water or fabric. So that one is now simmering - with all the fabrics from the other pot as well. The water is actually looking quite dark but I am not assuming that the fabric will take it up. 

The jar looked promising, colour in the water and the fabric appeared coloured. Not so! When I lifted the fabric out, it had taken no colour.

 I will leave it for a while, until we get some warm weather again (28° a few days ago, 13° today, as the high!!). It is not forecast for a few days yet but, seeing the weather has changed so dramatically in the last two weeks, I will not worry about it. It is only a small amount of fabric and I can leave it for months - especially if I forget about it.