I love to have braised red cabbage with my Christmas dinner so this week I have been preparing a big pot (and freezing it ready for next week). As it seems so efficient at dyeing my fingers I didn't miss the opportunity to experiment with the unused leaves to see what colour I could coax out of it to prepare some fleece!
My journey started at Clachaig Farm on the road to Kilmory. I love to stop off at the Honesty Box and buy some fresh vegetables grown on the farm ... just look at that kale!
Inside I found what I needed
There were a few (not quite perfect) outer leaves that I peeled off (to use to dye the fleece). Inside was the most perfect cabbage ready for me to slice.
So with a pot of sliced cabbage simmering away with onions, apple, cinnamon, orange zest etc I popped the remaining core and the outer leaves into my dye pot to simmer away for an hour or two. Once it had cooled I popped some Curly locks into the pot and brought it back up to heat. Once it had simmered for a while I left the whole lot to soak overnight.
The result is this beautiful Duck Egg Blue fleece... very happy with this experiment (and nothing went to waste!)
