happy hunting

madder!

it is rubia peregrina(I think), there's tons of it around, there even is an area called "rizari" -Greek for madder -not very far away from here, near marathon

yes I am happy

it likes growing under other plants, or maybe it is because the sheep can't reach it in there.

the problem is that the roots are all tangled with the other plants' roots

it likes climbing up and getting tangled in the others branches

so it is a very together plant

luckily for me you can easily tell which are its roots from the colour

dark reddish brown on the harder, woody parts and yellowish on the newer softer parts.

there are also some spongy bits which are soaking separately

it took me a very long time to cut them up into small bits

the first water of the roots is orange-brown, I have kept it in a jar

the roots have been soaking for two days now and there was hardly any colour in the water until I started warming them up, no higher than 50 c

now it is brown

all light coloured parts are pink!

I'm improvising, since I won't have any mordanted wool for a few days

they are in 2 jars, the woody roots. one has part of a pillowcase (cotton) soaking in it since last night along with some oak bark. this has gone pinky-dirty-light brown

i'm tinkering, waiting and seeing

and sitting on my hands so I don't tinker too much, also I will wait for the heat to arrive before I gather more roots

Today I went alkanet gathering, from a different place than before

luckily for me Golden Helping Hands Greenfingers were there to help because there were lots

I am letting them dry so that I can knock off most of the earth before washing them tomorrow.

it was a good hunting day