Dyeing Lately

I harvested some woad on Tuesday with the intention of dyeing my project toque & a homespun skein of Shetland 2 ply wool yarn.
This was my first woad attempt & I have to say it was unsuccessful. I got a dull pink colour. Here is what I mean:

Woad unsuccessful attempt.

That is the undyed leftover yarn between the hat & skein. The hat is made of Clun Forest wool & a dark grey Romney wool. The skein pictured is a 2 ply homespun Shetland wool.

I also took the leftover woad leaves, after the extraction & simmered the dye liquor with sample skeins mordanted in alum, iron, and alum & iron. This is the result:

Dyed with mordanted wool in woad leaves after indigo extraction.

From the left: no mordant, alum mordant, alum & iron mordant, iron mordant.

Today I picked 2 lbs. of woad again & tried one more time:

2nd Woad dyeing attempt. A very pale blue.

These are the same articles dyed again. The sample skein on the left is Clun Forest 2 ply dyed on the natural white base. The 2 on the right were pinkish to start. I have to say it is again only a small success.

On a better note, my wonderful husband prepared my new dye garden which is a raised bed behind the building where we house our hobby shops. The size is 6'x24'. I have new plants started just waiting to go in.

New Dye Garden (no soil, no plants, just building it)

It should be finished & planted next week.

That's all for now.