common alder et le gris

We're making a clearing in our small woods, in order to make room for a couple of beehives.
Some common alder trees was cut down, and I went in search of cones for the dye pot. To my surprise there wasn't any. Considering the fact, that you can dye with leaves, as well as bark and cones, I figured he-flowers and stems would work too. And it did. It's funny, how cutting down a tree can lead to a 'new' coat.

Perhaps grey isn't the colour one long for the most, when it seems like the sky haven't had any other colour for the last six months or so. Yet I find natural dyed grey so much more interesting than the synthetic ditto. It accentuates and enhances all other natural dyed colours.

When the urge for grey suddenly hit me, there was snow up to my knees, so I had to dig into the stock of dried stuff and oddities. I found a bag of logwood - another surprise, since I prefer my dye stuff to be local, not imported - tossed it in a pot, also tossed in all sorts of things: woollen socks, a thrifted table runner, a pair of silk trousers, yarn and bits and bobs (unmordanted). Subsequently dipped in iron soup - et voila; le gris!

Makes my japanese indigo dyed yarn look just a bit more indigo!