my first dye job

last night i put my white cotton scarf into a mordant bath of alum, and left it to soak over night. this evening i chopped well over a dozen fresh beets, threw them in a large pot and covered them with water, and added salt. I let them simmer for a couple of hours to extract the beet red dye. Then i strained the dye into a separate pot - straining out as much of the beet debris as i could (i strained it twice, the second time with a fine mesh strainer). i did add some white vinegar to the dye too - i've read that it can help it adhere better. lets hope that's true! Below is a picture of my chopped, cooked beets, after straining off the beet red dye.

The next photo shows my two dyeing pots - the one on the left held my alum mordant bath, and the one on the right is full of freshly strained beet red dye!

...and finally, below is a photo of my hand knit cotton scarf sitting in my pot of freshly strained beet red dye. It'll stay here over night to allow it to absorb as much of the red dye as possible. Tomorrow morning I'll rinse it and hang it to dry. I'll post photos of the results tomorrow! :)

...stay tuned for more of the saga of my beet red scarf experiment!