This is my first year to experiment with woad.  It is leafing out nicely but with 100 degree temps here in central Texas I am wondering if I should go ahead and do a small harvest.   I am hoping that the clipping will spur more leaves for later on this fall.  I'd like to let it go longer to see if I get more leaves but I am thinking that the hot temps will wilt the leaves I already have.  I have put some sun cloths up to shield from the noon sun.  This first year is an experiment to see if/how it will grow in my garden and I can live with any result but I am not finding any info out there on hot weather and woad......So any opinions or advice on this?  Deb Mc

Comments

Mon, 08/16/2010 - 22:47

debmcclintock

woah! just ran my first fresh woad dye pot....got a nice pale blue, will keep dipping to see how dark it goes, got about 16 oz of woad leaves....dipping 36 oz of silk, first surprise, skein was white in pot and out of pot, then s..l...o..w..ly turned a sky blue...

here is my blog link with photos of woad!  

Tue, 08/17/2010 - 15:50

Rigana (not verified)

The colour of your woad dyeing is great. It's so great when the yarn changes colour.

This year I had my third attempt in dyeing with woad and with a little help from a friend succeeded finally to achieve several shades of blue.

The first two attempts, done two years ago, failed, mostly because I didn't use enough woad-leaves.

In the meantime, my woad plants have recovered from their harvest and I'm going to dye again this weekend (if my silk yarn arrives in time...).

Here are my shades of blue and green (weld+woad): http://wirweben.myblog.de/wirweben/art/6927871/Waidblau Sorry, the page is in German, but if you need translation, I will help.