About a week ago I put aside 2 batches of 3 year madder root (small & large) to “cold” soak in our 80 degree spring weather here in the Texas Hill Country. Actually the water heats to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I checked it not trusting stone/sun overheating potential! If you overheat madder root the red breaks to a brown. Not desirable if one is trying for a red tone.
Yesterday I put 100 grms (3.5 oz) of silk in my batches. Below is the result after 24 hours in the “cold” soak.
The one on the left below is the first & second wash water of the roots before pulverizing the root for the final soak. As expected it pushes more to a muddy yellow orange. This is my Hopi fail silk that needed another color. This will do!
The next two below are the large & small roots which soaked in the sun for a week before I added the silk. There is no discernable difference at this point in color between the large or small root. I expect I won’t see any difference until they are rinsed and dried.
These skeins go back into the dyepot and will hang out in the sun for a couple more days to see what depth of color I can achieve. When fiber is wet it is usually a couple shades lighter when dried. I won’t leave them too long as I don’t want to weaken the silk.
I expect the madder root to shake out easily as the skeins dry. This is one of the beauties of silk. I am curious if I will get any spotting, literature says no, but I am dubious. Time will tell!
debmcclintock 
Looking good!
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