Feeling pleased, not blue. Last year I tried the 1-2-3 woad-dyeing method developed by bio-chemist Michael Garcia and failed miserably. Today, I tried again and this time managed to achieve some success. The picture shows some some double dipped wool skeins and also washed but not otherwise processed wool, and, on the far right some seacell fibre.

I really wanted the 1-2-3 method to succeed as it is more environmentally friendly, using only woad/indigo, fructose and calcium hydroxide. The calcium hydroxide is probably the most dodgy thing here but as it is used in pickling foods, perhaps not that bad.

The 1-2-3 method is so-called because it used 1x indigo/woad; 2 x calcium hydroxide and 3 x fructose. More about what I did here.

I had a feeling it might work this time when I saw a metallic sheen and pretty purple ‘flowers’ appear on the top of the vat. Can you see them? The dyeing with woad is truly magical: as you lift the yellowish-cream wool out of the vat, exposure to the air makes it turn blue.