Trees galore (part 1)

No shortage of trees around me to sample, but I picked those with blossom first of all - 

Horse chestnut

Gorgeous examples around both with white and pink blossom.   I wondered if this colour difference would be reflected in the dye produced.  I collected about 150g of each type - cut up the florets into a bucket, covered with hot water and left overnight.  I brought back to simmer for 30mins in the morning, strained out the plant veg and simmered fibre (alum mordanted) in each dyepot for 1 hour, left overnight to cool.

The white blossom gave a muted yellow (top yarn) while the pink blossom (bottom yarn) which i expected to be very similar was distinctively quite a bright green. Both yarns were mordanted with alum. The un mordanted wool gauze were equally different.

Oak

I hadn't read of getting much dye from oak leaves so I concentrated on the bark.  Searching under this wonderful tree by the public footpath, I found some old fallen branches and stripped bark, as well as some acorn tops from last year.
The bark I broke up as best I could and let it steep in water at room temperature for 10 days along with a hank of yarn.  Bark and yarn then removed, and the dye liquid heated to a simmer for 1 hour.   Yarn and gauze were added to this pot, simmered for a further hour, then cooled.

I steeped the acorn tops (30g) and un mordanted yarn initially in freshly boiled water. After 4 days they smelt horrible so I didn't feel like heating them up further.  The yarn hadn't appeared to change in colour after this time, unlike the sample in steeped bark after 4 of the 10 days

(from top to bottom) no mordant in cold oak bark dye for 10 days, no mordant heated oak bark dye, copper mordant heated oak bark dye, no mordant cold acorn dye 4 days

Considering I was extracting dye from very little bark the warm brown produced, particularly when the wool was premordanted with copper, would make this worth repeating.