Dyeing Wool with Blackberries

 Our relatively wet summer showed itself this year in the size and volume of wild blackberries. I only travelled a short distance through the brambles and picked several kg of large, fat, juicy berries.

The problem, as ever, is what will I do with them this year.

I tried cordial one year, a non-alcoholic one.  The first attempt was weak and unpleasant.  The second was wonderful but grew a hideous mould fairly quickly and had to be thrown out.

This year, I made some fruit leather with them, but still had heaps left over.  I wondered, could I use it for dyeing my wool?

A quick Google search showed me I could.  To my surprise, the page I found explaining the process showed a lovely blue from dyeing with blackberries.  I was determined to try it. 

The instructions said to gently heat the berries in water.  Not to let it simmer or boil. I didn't have a stick mixer at this point, so once the berries were softened, I mashed them.

I mordanted my yarn, including a scarf I'd recently woven and dyed it.  

My first batch came out a lovely purple, with a pink tone to the purple.  Quite a bit different to the colour shown on the website.

In the dye bath

The scarf drying

I dyed some more yarn using the same dye bath and it came out a different shade of purple, more blue than purple this time. A third batch through the dye bath came out in a silvery grey with faint hint of blue.  Miss Fifteen argues with me about whether there is any blue or purple hint to the grey.

I picked more blackberries to do this some more, but because I was going to be away for a week, I didn't have time to dye any of it, so I froze them until I did have time.

Successive dyeing has turned out quite a range of colours.  No two are quite the same, and sometimes two skeins in the same batch came out in different colours. The batch that accidentally simmered came out with the least amount of colour, even though it was a fresh batch of blackberry dye liquor.

I have to say I haven't been particularly scientific or consistent in this process.  Next summer when the blackberries are fruiting again, I think I will be.  I will pay attention to times and temperatures, to ratios and ripeness and possibly even test the pH levels of my water.

All my different colour results