Pokeberry Adventures Continued!

 Pokeberry adventure UPDATE!!

As promised, the picture of the yarn in the pumpkin! The pumpkin yarn is the darker yarn while the redder yarn was the pokeberry in vinegar. The light yellow is the pokeberry with lime.

The color of the pokeberry has been so fascinating to us, that we dipped a few of the reeds used for baskets in the dye. A lovely shade of pinky-red occurred depending on the species of the reed dipped. Then, upon moving a few artifact baskets around, our Curator discovered the same pinky-red, now faded except in the recesses of the insides of two of these baskets!

One is a small round basket that opens in the middle. The color is all over the inside of it, so we are curious, was it totally pink at one time? It has a hole in one end and was likely used to hold a ball of string or yarn. Perhaps even while knitting as in this lovely painting of Mary Isabella Grant:

The second basket is a workbasket with decorative ash curls. Here they are next to a modern piece of ash dyed with the pokeberry:

See how similar the colors are?

 So, were THEY using pokeberries to dye decorative elements of their baskets? The color is remarkably similar, and it has obviously faded over time as we have been warned the pokeberry will do, but is it the same dye-stuff? A mystery is afoot! Does anybody have any clues they can share?

Dyeing with Pokeberries

Although pokeberry dye is a fugitive dye and will eventually fade, we have heard many reports from diaries and contemporary publications that women loved the color so much, that they were willing to have to re-dye every few years. When we read this, we just HAD to find out why this color was loved so much to go through all the trouble.

We tried a few variations. First was the straight pokeberry juice with the wool yarn simmered and mordanted with vinegar. 

The yellow color is pokeberry mordanted with vinegar, and then baking soda simmered with it in lieu of lime, to turn it to "solferino". The yarn first turned a honey-carmel color and then changed into a brighter yellow as time went on.

Our third experiment with pokeberries is a receipt from the New England Farmer in 1824 that says to put it in a pumpkin shell for nine days to produce a crimson color. This advice was again repeated by Godey's in 1866. "One old lady made a really brilliant dye by dipping wool in pokeberry juice, and then inclosing (sic) it for several days where Peter put his wife-in a pumpkin shell. The color obtained was a brilliant red."

Well, it's in there! We'll find out on the 10th what color it will become!

We also had to do a bit of silk:

Just stunning! We're curious how long the color will last.