- Forest Floor Blanket
My dear friend and wonderful weaver, Deanna Pilling, unveiled her Forest Floor plaid at today’s Guild meeting (Sunshine Coast Spinners and Weavers). The narrow pink and orange stripes are of yarn I dyed with mushrooms; the lighter middle stripe came from blackberry leaves and berries and was dyed by another weaver.
Deanna spent a lot of time deciding on the rest of the colours that make up this plaid; together they represent our rainforest with the rich hues of cedar, arbutus and soft green moss.
Lovely!
SHROOMWORKS 
WOW!!! I love that forest floor blanket. I am new to the whole world of spinning, weaving and dying with mushrooms. I have collected a nice bunch of shelf fungus, I believe I have five types to experiment with from northern PA. I cant wait to get started. Your postings are inspiring me to go! Once I read more through my books before I ruin something that is!
Good luck with your dyeing experiments – there’s not a lot that can go wrong as long as you handle the fibre with care. It’s great to know there’s another mushroom dyer out there!
I want to do something with the bracket fungus I have collected. I am not sure where to start. Just chop them up, one species at a time, through in a pot and start simmering?
That would be the best way to start. Do you have an idea what kind of fungus it is? When I’m trying something new, I usually simmer a bit of the mushroom with a few strands of white wool (treated with various mordants) to see if there’s any hope of obtaining colour. If I like the results, I’ll go ahead and process more. Good luck! (And let me know what you get!)