We collaborated with our friend Daughters of the Red Sunset to create this beautiful yarn and eco printed tote. The yarn is our favorite wool alpaca blend, owl. The bundle includes one skein each of Cochineal, Coreopsis and Onion, and Oak Gall and Sumac and one gorgeous eco printed tote in either rose, butterfly peaflower, or coreopsis. The bundle offers a $20 savings on this beautiful set.
A bit about the dye process from Daughters of the Red Sunset:
The process of ecoprinting is one of magical alchemy. An image of a flower or leaf is transferred to fabric, sometimes with all of the details of a petal’s curves and edges or a leaf’s veins, sometimes with the flowing movement of a watercolor painting, and often the results are not the color that one might expect. My process for these sturdy cotton bags begins with a full day in a soy milk bath, in and out multiple times, soaking up the protein that will help the plant colors bond brightly to the fabric. After a 2-week curing period, the bags are mordanted with oak gall tannins, followed by aluminum acetate. It is a long process, but assures the best results. Once the bags are ready, flowers and leaves from my gardens are harvested to decorate the bags. Flowers such as coreopsis, cosmos, chamomile, and scabiosa, and leaves like maple, smoke bush, redbud, and vitex are placed on the bags, wrapped, and bound tightly before they are steamed in a hot pot. The pressure, heat, and water encourage the plants to release their colors into the fabric. Each time I unbundle a bag I am gifted with a unique scene created by the plants. The pictures draw me in like an I Spy puzzle.
Care: Bags can be washed and dried in a machine, with a gentle, non-whitening detergent.
The plants used to create the natural dyes for these yarns are grown in my gardens, nestled in the ancient Blue Ridge Mountains of NC, with a few materials harvested by friends across the globe. The soft, wooly yarns are simmered gently in pots, bathing in the summer abundance of onion skins or marigolds, cochineal, sumac, or oak galls. The yarns then go into a second dye bath where new plants and colors shift and meld with the first, all while the perfumes of the summer gardens drift from the dye vessels. These yarns have soaked up the energy of the plants, and the love and joy of the process!
Care: Yarn should be gently hand washed in warm water with a pH neutral detergent. Strong acidic or basic soaps can change the color and feel of your items. Knitted items should lay flat to dry.
