Clothing ourselves beautifully
Often when I think about a natural dyer’s garden, I think in terms of colors for the dye vat. Sometimes, I think in terms of garden beauty, ease of cultivation, or hardiness for my zone. But, I hadn’t thought of creating a bee friendly dyer’s garden to help save the bees, particularly the wild varieties. […]
Woad is adaptable, and can sometimes give very interesting surprises. This characteristic, besides it’s awesome colors, is one of the reasons that woad is my favorite plant. Seriously, it’s versatility is amazing. Three years ago, I planted some hybrid woad seed and only one plant germinated. Carefully, I tended it through the summer and made […]
Happy Summer (almost fall)! While I’m normally a winter knitter, I’ve had to pull out the needles to give my hands something to do. So, I decided it was time to work on my 2nd sweater. Yep, I think I may be addicted to knitting sweaters now… oopsies. I like this particular sweater technique because, […]
Woad is one of the most amazing plants. Not only because of its dye content, but its herbal abilities, and its ability to thrive even in face of sub-prime growing conditions like marginal soils and summer frost. At the same time, many people do not want woad to grow or thrive in their areas. Termed […]
Historically speaking, dye plants and medicinal herbs often overlapped. A prime example is yarrow, a plant that will dry wounds and halt bleeding, and that doubles as a yellow dye. As time progressed and aleopathic medicine came into precedence, many herbs lost favour as their benefits “had not been tested.” In herbalism, preparations often include […]
The traditional indigo extraction method for woad, resulted in a product known as “woad balls.” Well, we’ve talked about growing woad, planting woad, woad’s history, and even talked about its amazing and unique color. So, now I guess we get to talk about woad balls! Woad extractions are fun, magical, and have just enough science to […]
