I have been wanting to add some other colours to my collection of natural dyed yarn, which is predominantly shades of yellow and brown. In particular I wanted some blues and greens, but the two natural dyes most commonly and successfully used to achieve these colours are indigo and woad (by themselves for shades of blue, and used as an over- or under-dye with yellow for green shades). Both are very ancient dyes -in fact indigo is said to be the oldest dye – but unfortunately the process of extracting the blue pigment is not as straightforward as just boiling or soaking the plant material.

Indigo has to be fermented in a dye vat to remove the oxygen from its molecules and requires the use of either some hard-to-get chemicals or stale urine. This is fine if you have a workshop or outhouse to keep the vat in, but not something you want stinking up a corner of the kitchen! Woad is less icky to deal with, but requires a precise pH and has to be aerated to introduce oxygen which causes the blue pigment to precipitate, which then has to be filtered off.

So I went for the easiest of all natural dyeing methods – I cheated and bought a bottle of Saxon Blue liquid indigo! This is a non-toxic solution of natural indigo in sulfuric acid which was created in Germany in the 1740s as a more convenient and reliable alternative. It gives a gorgeous rich cornflower blue colour on wool, slightly greener than traditional vatted indigo, and can be used in combination with a yellow dye to create a range of teals and greens.

The skein at the top is dyed with Saxon Blue, the one below is was dyed first with ivy (pale yellow) and overdyed to produce Saxon Green.

While I want to continue experimenting with the leaves, flowers and other natural materials I can find in the garden or countryside, I’m very glad to get able to get my hands on a few natural dye extracts for a wider range of colours. I got my Saxon blue from DT Craft and Design.