Yarn and curry soup

Today I went out to nearly every thrift store I could think of to find a pot to use for dyeing for cheap. I ended up having to go to Dollar General, but I got a nice dutch oven for $10 and it holds a little over a gallon of liquid. So it's the perfect size for the amount of fiber I usually dye.

Most of the recipes out there for natural dyeing (at least the ones I found) are for dyeing an entire pound of fiber. While that's not particularly difficult for pre-made fabric, it's a bit more difficult to dye a pound of yarn. I usually dye around 3 or 4 oz. at a time and that's it!

Once I finally GOT the pot (around 3pm...I went out at 11ish!) I searched online for several recipes. I wasn't really sure how to mordant fiber. I had a basic idea, but didn't have precise measurements. They all seem to say about 10-25% of the weight of the fiber you are dyeing is how much alum (mordant) you use. (Note: I was only looking at alum recipes since that's all I have right now)

Since I had decided I wanted to attempt dyeing with curry powder, I read a few recipes on it first. I discovered that curry (or turmeric) is one of the few natural dyes that sticks to cotton (or cellulose) WITHOUT a mordant. So I was able to save myself a step and just get straight to dyeing.

My lovely red dye pot. I'm so happy it's red.

Yarn soup. Yup. Pretty much.

I must admit I'm pretty excited to see how it looks once the yarn is washed, dried and ready to use!

That's it for now. The yarn is currently in the dryer. From what I've read, cellulose usually dries several shades lighter. It didn't really loose much color in the rinsing process though. I'll post pictures of the results later. :)
~JoAnna