Naturaldyesproduceanextraordinarydiversityofrichand.doc

Natural dyes produce an extraordinary diversity of rich and complex colours as well as unexpected results, making them exciting to use. It is easy to design using natural colours as they complement each other well and rarely clash. Synthetic dyes, on the other hand, often look bright and garish and they require more skill in colour matching. 天然染料能产生非常丰富多彩的颜色，也会出现意想不到的结果，这使人们对使用天然染料感到兴奋。用天然色素很容易装饰图案，因为天然色素能取长补短，很少出现色彩不调和的情况。而另一方面，合成染料，往往看起来色彩亮丽，鲜艳夺目，但合成染料需要更多的配色技巧。 Naturally dyed yarns are full of pleasant surprises as well as being great motivators. You will find that you cannot wait to get back to work on your knitted jumper, cotton quilt or woven cushion and you will probably end up with very few unfinished or abandoned projects. Another advantage is that leftover yarn from one project can easily be incorporated into the next, avoiding a stash of unwanted yarns. 用天然染料染的纱线令人充满惊喜，也给人们很大的动力。你会发现，你会迫不急待地想重新回到织毛衣，织棉被或编织座垫的工作中去，你可能很少会有未完成的或放弃的编织物。另一个优点是，剩余的线可以很容易地被用到下一个编织物中去，不需要贮存不用的线。 Where do they come from? 那天然染料是从何而来呢？ Most natural dyes come from dye plants, the best-known ones being woad, weld and madder from Europe, and brazilwood, logwood and indigo from the tropics. Some, such as cochineal, come from insects and a small number, including iron and copper salts, come from mineral sources. 大多数的天然染料来源于含有颜料的植物，其中最名的莫过于来自欧洲的靛蓝木犀草茜草 Plant dyes may contain several compounds and their proportions vary with the type of soil and the climate where the plants were grown. A yarn dyed with madder roots has a wealth of colour variation, whilst the same yarn dyed with its synthetic equivalent, alizarin, lacks this subtle variation in colour and can look very uniform. 植物染料可能包含一些化合物，而且他们的比例是随着不同类型的土壤和植物生长地的不同气候而不同的。例如，一根用茜草茜素 How permanent are they? 天然染料的颜色能持续多久呢？ Some people think that plants produce only pale colours and that these colours fade quickly. Several plants do indeed yield fugitive or pale colours but traditional dye plants produce vibrant blues, greens, reds and yell