if you have bought something from cold and deadly, here are some tips!

PLants

madder (Rubia tinctorum)

Madder plants are pretty dang hardy but they do like to be treated to calcium and nitrogen regularly. If you feed them well, they will stay around the area you treat. Otherwise, they will spread. Keeping them in containers or raised beds is great for preventing spreading, and also to make collecting the roots for dye simpler (no one wants to sort and separate a bunch of different types of roots!) They are rangy, vine-like plants with little grippy hooks on their stems. Wear gloves and longs sleeves when weeding and handling to avoid kitty cat scratches.

It takes a minimum of 3 years to get a full color yield from the roots. Some people even wait up to 5! The harvested roots should be cut up and dried before use for maximum depth of tone. Soak them and simmer to extract, then let the dye bath cool before use. You can put the re-hydrated roots into a blender and chop finely to to extract more color. Leave the roots in the dye bath with your fiber to get the most complex tones; put them in a cheesecloth bag if you’re dyeing yarn, wool fabric, or loose fiber.

dyed/printed cotton goods

Dyed goods can be washed like you wash your own clothing and textile pieces, though I would recommend selecting cold or warm water, with no bleach, and a gentle biodegradable detergent. Line dry if possible, but they can also survive a dryer cycle. Line drying and cool dryer cycles are best for all textile goods, regardless of fiber type or dye stuff, and best for the environment.

Cold and Deadly goods are all printed or dyed using the most permanent dyes and dye processes. Some alum-mordanted dye colors that are rich in tannins, like pomegranate or some versions of madder (which is often paired with tannin in the dyeing process) will darken over time. The backgrounds of the printed pieces with bleach out over time if they are not white when purchased: any initial tone is more of a sophisticated stain than a fixed dye. Exposure to sunlight and repeated washing will remove the stain almost completely over time. In my experience, especially the printed pieces, fade very very rarely, and then only after years of heavy use and aggressive exposure to sunlight and harsh soaps.