Most easily available natural dyestuffs give beige gold or beige.

So discovering something that gives blue is a very useful event.

Black beans. Ordinary ones, from the local supermarket.

They went into the jars of water at the beginning of September, and produced a surprising amount of colour by the following day.

After a few weeks of rather disappointing autumn weather, the scarves I put in were a lovely pale blue.

So the next tasks on the to do list are:

• Try the same beans with electric power in the slow cookers. This may produce a darker colour.
• Try over dyeing fabric that has already been dyed gold. Logically that should come out a nice green. If the blue tint is overpowered by the gold, that one may not work.

Rubber bands wrapped round the whole width

Rubber bands round ceramic baking beans

More baking beans