I will be hand-dyeing the wool for this sweater… I’ve been meaning to try the process, and working in a lab with all the dyes available makes it extra plausible.

Photos from top:

1. The colours are here!
2. wool all divvied up for dyeing - there are two sets for each stripe as we are two ladies knitting the top
3. After scouring with very effective lab soap - Neutracon. We tagged each mini-skein with plastic tabs so that we can track them throughout - the dry weight of the wool being indicated with differently shaped tags
4. Mordanting with alum
5. After mordanting, the wool is to be kept moist for 24-48 hrs
6. In the meantime, the weld is abrewin’
7. Weld bath! It’s milky due to added chalk to harden the water
8. The first dyed skeins - the furthest on the right is weld only, centre and left had some madder added to the beakers
9. A few random tests - logwood on top, madder dip followed by weld in middle, and weld with a few drops of logwood
10. The madder is abrewin’ for tomorrow!
11. Madder bath!
12. Yellow made more golden with a bit of quercitron; orange from consecutive dips in weld, madder, weld+quercitron; straight-up madder red
13. We decided to go for the ‘organic fermented indigo vat’ with dates… I have to say it is a finicky business.
14. The indigo ‘vat’/beaker. As you can see, the indigo which is normally a blue powder suspension has been reduced by the date-fructose and base (calcium hydroxide) to a clear yellow solution. The foam on top includes dye that has been oxidised back to blue in the air.
15. The first batch of blues and greens… We hope to attain a few deeper blues tomorrow with strawberry-flavoured high fructose corn syrup.
16. Finally getting the hang of the indigo vat. Jeez, what a pain in the butt.