Dyed Icelandic Wool

Grazia Morgano 1 February AS XLVIII

Abstract This project includes locks of Icelandic wool totalling 50g. The wool started out as a raw eece, so it was cleaned before being mordanted with alum. The wool was separated out and dyed using two dyes: indigo and madder. Some of the madder-dyed wool was overdyed with indigotin to alter the shade. Madder and indigotin are the most common dyes found in Danish Viking Age wool textiles, along with madder that has been overdyed with indigotin. The source of the indigotin in Danish textiles is unknown (it could be woad or indigo), and indigo was used for this project due to availability. The two types of wool that seemed most appropriate for this project were Icelandic and Splsau. Both are dual-coated breeds dating to the Viking Age. Icelandic has been an isolated breed since the Vikings took sheep with them to Iceland in the tenth century (Robson and Ekarius, 2011, p. 168). Splsau is a breed particularly found in Denmark that dates back to the Viking Age and was used for making sails on Viking ships. It would be tempting to say Splsau was not used because of recent inter-breeding with other breeds meant to improve the breed (make them larger to produce more meat) which means todays sheep have lower quality wool (Robson and Ekarius, 2011, p. 325), but really Splsau wool is not available for purchase anywhere I could nd. Halfway through this project, someone mentioned having spun Splsau before. When asked where she acquired it, the answer was that her Danish friends brought it in their suitcase on their last visit.

Contents
List of Figures 1 Background 2 Dyeing 2.1 Preparation 2.2 Madder . . 2.3 Indigo . . . 2.4 Overdyeing 3 Conclusions 3 5 7 7 9 9 11 14

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A Wool Preparation 15 A.1 Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 A.2 Combing and Carding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Bibliography 17

List of Figures
1.1 Frequency chart of dyestus across the Viking world (Ewing, 2006, p.155)Black represents indigotin, hatching is YellowX, dark grey is madder, and light grey is purple lichen. Barred areas represent overdyeing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Preparing wool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a The rst soak in soapy water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b Wool, looking much cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c Drying wool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Soaking the wool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dyeing with madder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a Wool soaking in madder dyebath . . . . . . . . . . . . b Madder-dyed wool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dyeing with indigo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a A layer of shiny scum oats on top of the dyebath, which is a yellow-green tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b The wool in the dyebath highlights how green the liquid is Rapid oxidization of indigo-dyed wool. Note the bottom-most part of the wool is still green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Overdyeing madder with indigo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a Adding the madder-dyed wool to the indigo dyebath . b The overdyed wool emerges a darker shade of red . . . Drying dyed wool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . From left to right: madder, indigo single dip, indigo double dip, madder with single indigo dip, madder with double indigo dip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 10 10 10 11 12 12 12 12

2.1

2.2 2.3

2.4

2.5 2.6

2.7 2.8

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A.1 Period depictions of textile production . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 3

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Weaving, spinning, and combing ax. MS Fr. 598, f. 70v, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; 15th c. France . . . 16 Weaving, spinning, carding wool, and hackling ax. MS Royal 16 Gv, f. 56, British Library, London; 15th c. France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1. Background
Scandinavian dyers used aluminum from clubmoss for mordanting (Ewing, 2006, p. 156). Today, a commonly available aluminum salt used by dyers is alum. According to Roscoes thesis on the use of color in Icelandic sagas, blue and red are the most commonly referenced colors of dyed clothing (Roscoe, 1992, p. 25). Additionally, Penelope Waltons 1989 chart of the results of dyestu analysis (reproduced in Ewings Viking Clothing, see Figure 1.1) shows indigotin as the most common dyestu found in Denmarks archaeological nds. Indigotin can come from either woad or indigo plants, and telling which is the origin plant is impossible. The red dye shown in Waltons chart as being common in Denmark is madder (Ewing, 2006, p. 155). This is in contrast to Roscoes assertion regarding kermes being much more common than madder in the Viking period and regions (Roscoe, 1992, p. 20). This could be due to Denmarks location on the European continent. According to Waltons chart, there is also a yellow dye known as Yellow-X, an unidentied dyestu, and purple lichen found on Danish textiles. Another purple is also represented: madder overdyed with indigotin (Ewing, 2006, p. 155). Working with indigo is dierent from working with other dyes. It needs to be reduced (deoxygenated). This has traditionally been done via fermentation, often using urea from urine. Urine from drunks and diabetics was preferable, due to the higher urea content, at least in days before diabetes was a treatable condition. The fermented or reduced indigo is known as indigo white (Liles, 1990, p. 7981). There are many types of lichen, producing a wide range of colors depending on the particular variety of colors. I could not nd lichen commercially available for dyeing. It must be gathered from fallen branches, and it needs to steep for 23 months before being used for dyeing (Allen, 2013).

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Figure 1.1: Frequency chart of dyestus across the Viking world (Ewing, 2006, p.155)Black represents indigotin, hatching is Yellow-X, dark grey is madder, and light grey is purple lichen. Barred areas represent overdyeing.

2. Dyeing
2.1 Preparation

This yarn was produced from raw eece purchased online, meaning the wool was dirty and full of vegetable matter (see Figure 2.1a). The rst step was to wash the wool. This was done in a bath tub with Dawn detergent. The wool was soaked in soapy water three times, and then it was rinsed. The wool was then laid out to dry for a couple days. For information on how wool would have been cleaned in period, see A.1. First, 12g of madder was soaked in hot water overnight. Likewise, 0.5oz of indigo (by weight) was soaked overnight in hot water. The wool was rst soaked in cold water for an hour to ensure the mordanting process would occur evenly. The wool was mordanted1 using alum, an aluminum salt. This approximates the results of using clubmoss, a plant which accumulates aluminum and was used in Scandinavia (Ewing, 2006, p. 156). The wool was soaked for one hour in a gallon of hot water containing 12g of alum.

a chemical reaction that makes the ber take up the dye better and makes the dye more permanent, usually using metallic salts

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(a) The rst soak in soapy (b) Wool, water cleaner

looking much

(c) Drying wool Figure 2.1: Preparing wool

Figure 2.2: Soaking the wool

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2.2

Madder

The wool was roughly divided into thirds. Two thirds of the wool was soaked for one hour in a gallon of hot water with the 12g of soaked madder added, for a total of 1gal 2c water (see Figure 2.3a). The wool was then rinsed in cold water and set aside.

(a) Wool soaking in madder dyebath

(b) Madder-dyed wool

Figure 2.3: Dyeing with madder

2.3

Indigo

I followed Dharma Tradings instructions for making a dyebath that can dye up to 1lb of ber. I decided I would store the dyebath for later use, having been previously taught by Mistress Brienna Lindsay how to recharge an old indigo dyebath. Dharmas instructions for an indigo dyebath call for 23gal water, 0.5oz indigo, 0.5oz dye remover (with a note to start with 0.25oz and add more if necessary) and 0.5oz soda ash (also called laundry soda or washing soda). Soda ash naturally occurs as wood ash, which pushes the pH of a solution in the basic direction (Liles, 1990, p. 55). The call for dye remover is really for Thiourea dioxide (Trading, 2013). Thiourea dioxide naturally comes from the urea in urine, present in large amounts in those who have gout. The oldest recorded indigo dyeing includes stale urine for this purpose (Liles, 1990). The reason for the Thiourea dioxide is to reduce the solution. That is, it removes the oxygen from solution (Trading, 2013). This is a synthetic version of the urea which would naturally occur in the historically-used urine.

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The soda ash, indigo, and 2gal of hot water were mixed together in a 5gal bucket. This was allowed to steep for 1520 minutes. Knowing the package of Spectralite-brand Thiourea dioxide contains 2oz and that I needed to start with about 0.25oz, or just enough for the solution to reduce, I sprinkled a little bit on and mixed it in gently. The visible eects of the expected chemical reaction is for the liquid to turn yellow-green and develop a scum on top, as shown in Figure 2.4a. This is known as indigo white (Liles, 1990, p. 55). The wool initially turns green with submersion (see Figure 2.4b).

(a) A layer of shiny (b) The wool in the scum oats on top of dyebath highlights how the dyebath, which is a green the liquid is yellow-green tone Figure 2.4: Dyeing with indigo

When the wool is pulled out of the dyebath, oxidization occurs. Because oxidization is the mechanism of coloring the ber, indigo does not behave like an ordinary dye in that concentration and time result in a permanently darker color. Rather, multiple dye baths with time for oxidization in between is what is needed for a darker result (Trading, 2013). The oxidization process is visible as the wool changes from green to blue before the observers eyes. The change is rapid, with the wool at the top of the pile turning blue by the time the bottom-most wool emerges from the water, still green (see Figure 2.5). Some of the wool was placed back into the dyebath for a few minutes to try for a darker color.

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Figure 2.5: Rapid oxidization of indigo-dyed wool. Note the bottom-most part of the wool is still green

2.4

Overdyeing

Next, some of the madder-dyed wool was dipped into the indigo dyebath (see Figure 2.6a). When the wool emerged, it was a much darker shade of red, debatably a purple or dark rust shade (see Figure 2.6b). This wool was then divided and some was placed back into the indigo dyebath to see if a second, darker shade was available. The wool bundles were all rinsed in cold water and allowed to hang to dry.

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(a) Adding the madder-dyed (b) The overdyed wool wool to the indigo dyebath emerges a darker shade of red Figure 2.6: Overdyeing madder with indigo

Figure 2.7: Drying dyed wool

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Figure 2.8: From left to right: madder, indigo single dip, indigo double dip, madder with single indigo dip, madder with double indigo dip

3. Conclusions
This was my rst time dyeing wool and my rst hands-on experience with indigo. I have dyed silk using madder before, so I knew it would make a warm red tone. This result seems to be a bit more orange than on the silk. I expected the overdyed wool to be a hue closer to what is commonly referred to as purple today. This was in part because I have seen the results of overdyeing cochineal red with indigotin before. Instead, the warm red of madder made a deep rust hue. I was unsatised with the results of doing a second dip in the indigo bath. In future, when attempting to achieve a darker result with indigo, I will allow more time between dips into the dyebath for the oxidation to complete, and possibly conduct a rinse in between dips, to ensure the blue is deposited in multiple layers. Scraps of this wool will be kept with notes about the dyeing in a binder with my previous experiments dyeing silk.

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A. Wool Preparation
A.1 Cleaning

Wool, fresh o the sheep, is full of yolk, a combination of grease (lanolin) and suint (sweat). There also tends to be bits of grass and other plant matter stuck in the eece. It is possible to spin in the grease, but if there is too much yolk, the wool can clump up (Baines, c. 1977, p. 28). Ammonia has been a common cleaner for millenia, so it is no surprise that 18th century instructions for scouring a eece call for urine as a source of ammonia in cleaning the wool (Baines, c. 1977, p. 30).

A.2

Combing and Carding

Oil would be added back to the wool once it was cleaned to make combing and spinning easier (Baines, c. 1977, p. 30). According to Robin Russo the oiling is to make the resulting combed top smoother and keep static from forming during the combing process (Russo, 2012). Butter, olive oil, and animal fat are all period lubricants for wool combing (Crowfoot et al., 2006, p. 1516). Both combing and carding bers were done in the Renaissance. Combing involves moving two combs with a row or several of long teeth against each other in perpendicular directions to transfer the ber from one comb to the other. This can be seen in Figure A.1a on page 16. Combing would separate the longer bers from the short ones, leaving little tufts of fuzz. The long combed bers were pulled from the combs into a long rope of ber called a sliver through a ring called a diz (Baines, c. 1977, p. 34). The long bers could be spun as is, while the short ones would then be carded to prepare them for spinning. Carding involves scraping the short bres with wire tools 15

Grazia Morgano (Hale, 1965, p. 79). Carding can be seen in Figure A.1b on page 16.

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(a) Weaving, spinning, and combing ax. MS (b) Weaving, spinning, carding Fr. 598, f. 70v, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; wool, and hackling ax. MS Royal 15th c. France 16 Gv, f. 56, British Library, London; 15th c. France Figure A.1: Period depictions of textile production

Bibliography
Alissa Allen. Lichen dyes. http://mycopigments.com/lichen-dyes/, 2013. Patricia Baines. Spinning Wheels: Spinners and Spinning. Robin and Russ Handweavers, c. 1977. E. Crowfoot, F. Pritchard, and K. Staniland. Textiles and Clothing, C.1150-c.1450. Medieval nds from excavations in London. Boydell, 2006. ISBN 9781843832393. URL http://books.google.com/books?id= CY-8T59wHHUC. Thor Ewing. Viking clothing. 9780752435879. Tempus, 2006. ISBN 0752435876

John Rigby Hale. Renaissance. Time, Inc., 1965. J.N. Liles. The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing: Traditional Recipes for Modern Use. University of Tennessee Press, 1990. ISBN 9780870496707. URL http://books.google.com/books?id=VUW-l1Wg1wYC. Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius. The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. Storey, 2011. Jane Christine Roscoe. The literary signicance of clothing in the icelandic family sagas. Masters thesis, University of Durham, 1992. Robin Russo. Combing ber. DVD, 2012. Dharma Trading. How to use natural dyes. http://www.dharmatrading. com/dyes/natural-dyes-from-plants-and-insects.html, 2013.

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