Fresh Out of the Dye Pot

My yard is covered with dry Oak leaves. They have blown into the garage as well.

I was sweeping them up a month or two ago and stuffed a bunch of them in my "dye" crock pot

along with a piece of iron. There they stayed, soaking in water (I honestly don't remember adding the water) for many weeks. A couple of days ago, I bundled up some muslin and dropped it in. It took on a nice dark color right away, but I left it there for a day or two. Finally, I decided to turn the crock pot on. I "cooked" it for about an hour yesterday, then turned it off and let it sit until this morning. When I took it out and rinsed it, it was purple. Really pretty, but the purple left somewhere in the rinsing process. I was left with the piece you see on the bottom left and the upper right. Do you see the heart? There are actually two of them, but one is perfect.

Next to that fabric in the same picture, is a strip of muslin dyed in red food coloring, the professional kind. I wrapped the fabric around a stick and left it in the jar for several weeks. Look at that red!  Too cool.

Then, while I was messing around with all that, I thought I should see about the jars I have on the Solar dyeing shelf in the garage. I hadn't messed with them for a while and I was pretty sure they were empty. Surprise! An oak leaf and copper scrap one that has been there for months had a rather large piece of fabric in it. I had forgotten all about it and it was quite dark. I think it is the darkest thing I have dyed with plant dyes. It is apparently a good idea to forget about them. (I hope that bodes well for the avocado and silk I have buried in a flower pot). Anyway, this was a piece of muslin that I tied in knots on the diagonal, wrapped in bailing wire and the circle was made by tying around the plastic cap off a spice jar. If you look closely, you can see the shaker holes. I think I will change my plans for the day and do some more dyeing.