Olive, colour not tree

Last spring I took a wonderful course at Maiwa School of Textiles called Design Studio from Eleanor Hannan at which I learned all manners of interesting things.  Highly recommend and would take again.

But one of the things I learned, almost by accident, was how the mix Olive Green.  It's a mix of black and yellow, this greatly puzzles me,  I think it should be a dull yellow or an ugly brownish black.

Using several methods of dyeing and several types fibre I got all these different olive greens

The two rolled balls of roving were dyed in a crowded pot, a crock pot on the balcony.

The boucle on the left and the wool yarn in the middle were done in a jar, also on the balcony. Day one above, put black dye powder maybe 3 g. in the bottom, half filled with hot water, pushed 3 skeins, plain wool, wool boucle and some of world's ugliest mohair in, sprinkled yellow on to and added hot water to the top of the jar.

Day three of the jar dyeing, I thought it would all be quite dark but when it was pulled out, rinsed and dried, I had this.


I just left it in the sun on a south facing balcony until the dye was exhausted.  Never checked the water temperature, next time.

Then there is creating colour by blending on drumcarder, this is my favourite method