Description

Alkanet Natural Dye

Dyer’s Bugloss – Alkanna Tinctoria

Dye Package Weight: 50 grams
Colours: Lilac Purples, Grey

Alkanet or Alkannin does not dissolve easily in water but needs to be dissolved in an extract of alcohol and water.
Alkanet also needs to be used with metallic salt mordants such as alum in order to fix the colour permanently to textiles.
Alkanet is sensitive to pH. If the dyebath looks brown add some soda ash to raise the pH.

To Dye 100 grams of yarn, I generally use 10 grams of dye powder. For stronger colours, you can add more dye powder. After dyeing the yarn, the dye bath can be used again for lighter shades of colour. The first few dyebaths with Alkanet will give soft purple and lilac shades. Once the purples are exhausted from the dyebath, subsequent dyebaths will produce soft grey shades of colour which can be useful for overdyeing with other colours.
Nothing is wasted.

When dyeing with most natural plant dyes, a mordant must be used to pre-treat all fibres. The mordant allows the fibre to absorb the dye more readily. For animal fibres such as wool, alpaca, silk use a mordant such as alum. Alum is a natural mineral salt and has been used for thousands of years to dye fibres. I use a 10% ratio of alum to fibre. I find that using more than this can result in a harsh texture to the yarn. I also add 5% Cream of Tartar to the mordant bath, as this also helps to soften the texture of the yarn. I re-use the mordant bath several times, adding more water and another 5% of Alum each time I add more fibre. This results in less waste of both water and mordant.
For plant fibres, pre-mordant with a tannin or Aluminum Acetate

Add pre-mordanted yarn or fibre to the warm water dye bath and let this simmer on low for about an hour. Turn off the dyebath and let the yarn soak for several hours or overnight. Natural dyeing is a slow process, not to be rushed.

For more information about Alkanet and other plant dyes, please visit my website at All Fiber Arts.
https://allfiberarts.com