Natural dyeing experiments: Will Purple Sweet Potatoes dye? (Heavy on the LOTR puns) 

So who is your LOTR crush/favourite character?

Mythbuster vibes intensifying...

I laughed out loud. You're absolutely right. Your mental health can be affected by natural dyeing. I've been dyeing for 8 years and tried a lot. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I wait every year for my grape hyacinths to bloom and for the very young horse chestnuts to fall off the tree. I've had some lovely results from them. But sometimes the same plants give a hmmmm color ;-) Why I don't know, but it is so nice to try them all. I don't want to send you down another rabbit hole but you can make an Indigo vat with sweet potatoes! A warning though if natural dyeing is impacting your mental health Indigo will do that x10. An indigo vat will turn out to be a living breathing organism on its own, that can test you to the max, but it is so worth it when it works :-)

As a botanist, I have an unfair advantage, so I'm not voting. I know anthocyanins the blue/purple pigments in plants are fun to play with using pH,like red cabbage, blue corn, etc. in an edible context.

With little children i was always looking for save dyestuff. Eastereggcolors (all kind of bright colors), Avocadoshells (light rose), Calendulaflowers (yellow). Sometimes i experimented with plants from the garden ( lovely sad beige 😂).

there are some purple leafed cherry plumb trees in my city which I was curious about both the fruit and the leaves. the fruit did not dye (though the dyebath itself turned a gorgeous fuscia when the alum mordanted wool was added) but the leaves made a pretty dirty beige which turned green in an iron after bath.

I fell in love with Haldir and cried at his death at Helms Deep.

My new favorite late night show! Also, totally Sam. Dependable, snuggly, cute.

Yay, I guessed right! Proving my worth as a regular watcher of Will It Dye Also can I say I absolutely love your outfit this episode? The yellow shirt with colourful sweater... Wonderful. Cheered me right up. Good week to you and your curly potato boy.

Last year I deadheaded my mum’s dahlias and took all of the flowers. I used alum for mordant and the result was a lovely peach leaning orange colour. I would definitely do it again! I also love dyeing with indigo. I want to try growing my own

Hi Jente, Avocado skins will give a pleasant pink colour which is light safe when mordanted. Cheers-Laura

I love the Ents

I dyed some yarn with Dahlia flowers on the weekend

Hi. I enjoy your channel and your enthusiasm! I would like to see how you made your niddy noddy and how you take the yarn off.

thank you for the inspiration. I have a garden, and thought trying black currents to see if i can make a hot pink or magenta

Aragorn girlie 100%. He was so kind with animals. T^T

You are a riot

I dyed some wool in onion peels and lots of acorns. Turned out dark yellow beige. Not bad for a first try.

As a general non scientific rule very little food will dye fibers. If it dyes anything usually they fade quickly. You forgot the mystery yellow as a common dye color. Keep up the fun videos.

Galadriel. Ok but also gollum. And I predict sad gray beige

Hi Jente, I hope you and Dries are both OK xx ❣️❣️❣️ Thankyou so much for sharing this video podcast. Great Intro !!!!😂😂 I love your Dying experiments,🥔🌟 I wasn't sure what colou the purple potato skins would yield. I'm afraid that I didn't get the right answer. 😮 I can't wait to see what you're going to be using in your next experiment.🌟🌟🤔 Happy Dying Fibre Friend Take care and stay safe Lots of love and Big Hugs to you both Jen xxxx ❤️❤️❤️❤️🫂🫂🫂🫂🐕

bLack bean broth (water) dyes a nice sage green.

Unashamedly Aragorn, mm mm mmmmm !!! And I must admit to one of the bad guy elephant riders catching my eye - everytime I watch the movies (every year between my birthday and new year, for the last 20 yrs I think - thats when my son bought me the Box set Extended Version with hours and hours of extra's) Yup I am a Hobbit and LOTR geek, from when I first read the books (which I still have) at the age of 17 and watching the animated movie that was made in 1978, which miraculously was showing in a tiny little movie theatre in Hillbrow, Johannesburg for my 21st birthday, 39 yrs ago.

As noted in a comment elsewhere, I tried red hibiscus flowers. Since I didn't have any alum I just threw in some salt. The dye bath was a nice dark purply-red but the result was more of a mauve-greige. (I did also dab a little vinegar on the little scraps of cotton and linen I threw in with the wool after I removed them. The vinegar made them go slightly greenish but they dried grey with only a memory of green left behind.) When the hibiscus flowers drop off the bushes and land on the path and decay they go a very deep bluish-purple (and really slimy and nasty!) and I had been hoping to capture that colour when I tried dyeing with them. Now I am wondering if I could ferment them and then see if that would get that colour. I also need to invest in some alum - but I need my knee to be up to driving so I can go to the shop that has alum. If we're talking about vegetable dyes, has anyone tried beetroot? A couple of people have mentioned anthocyanins in red vegetables - so that might be relevant for beetroot.

Super cool expriment! I'm a bit sad that it didn't dye pink/purple though, that would have been amazing! My favourite was always Legolas, I have a huge weak spot for wise old characters, and for people fighting with bow and arrow... (Did you ever read the Ranger's Apprentice/Grijze Jager series? I feel like they might have been your jam, but I don't know if they were as popular in Belgium as they were in the Netherlands)

Try using the peels fresh or freeze them to prevent them from oxidising. Then steep in a very acidic solution to liberate the anthocyanins. This way, you wont need the alum mordant on wool and no, I wont spoil the surprise and talk about the possible colours. Iron, tin and copper can all be used as modifiers to alter the colour. Heb een lieve dag, Jente.

Boromir was my lotr crush. I can fix him :)

This video reminds me of when we got purple cauliflower in the mystery vegetable box that my husband and I did last summer! We made cauliflower pizza dough which involved squeezing the cooked and blended cauliflower in a dish towel. The cloth turned a beautiful purple color that unfortunately washed out completely. I can't remember whether I tried to steam set it or simmer it in alum solution but since it didn't stain even a little bit I doubt it would work at all. So if you get purple cauliflower and end up with some pretty purple liquid, I would suggest avoiding the temptation. Purple vegetables seem to have a lot of color to give off, but the dye is so fugitive it will fade in less time it took to dye the material!

There is a Smeagol in all of us.

I blame you entirely for me throwing some scoured wool into my cooking pot after I had been cooking red cabbage (I didn't mordant it though, so just got very pale blue on the rinse)

Time for a Lord of the Rings spinning/knitting marathon with all your patrons!

Maybe purple carrots will work better. Orange carrot works passably well.

My guess is it will not dye. I’ve never had purple sweet potatoes change the color of my food or stain my cutting board. But I am not a dyer so who knows if I’ll be right!

Did the potatoes stain your hands while peeling them? Maybe they don't have enough pigment, but good experiment❤

FARAMIR 4 EVER!!!!

…Would you hate me if I admitted that I’ve never seen LOTR 🫣