Fun With Flowers
A couple of weeks ago, I was reading through Heidi's blog and saw that she had done some dying in her studio with goldenrod. Liking what I saw, I decided to give it a try myself! It turned out to be super easy and quite a bit of fun actually.
The first step was to run around the yard collecting my dying material. No sweat - there is an abundance of goldenrod around these parts.
Into the pot it goes... (I just filled my stock pot - not sure how much water this was - it wasn't a very scientific experiment - if I had to guess I'd say it was about 2 gallons.) The information I found online suggested 1 pound of goldenrod to 4 gallons of water to 4 TBSP of alum.
After about 30 minutes of simmering the goldenrod, I strained out the plant material, added about 2 tablespoons of alum and let that heat for 15 mins. Yarn time! I only had one skein to dye and I let it simmer for a little over an 1 hour.
The resulting color is not a bad yellow at all. Inside near the lamp, it has a warm, golden hue.
Outside in the sunshine, it has cooler tones...
Either way, I'm pleased with the result and can't wait to knit me up some yellow socks!
Thanks to Janine once again for gifting me this Knit Picks "color your own" skein!!
The first step was to run around the yard collecting my dying material. No sweat - there is an abundance of goldenrod around these parts.
Into the pot it goes... (I just filled my stock pot - not sure how much water this was - it wasn't a very scientific experiment - if I had to guess I'd say it was about 2 gallons.) The information I found online suggested 1 pound of goldenrod to 4 gallons of water to 4 TBSP of alum.
After about 30 minutes of simmering the goldenrod, I strained out the plant material, added about 2 tablespoons of alum and let that heat for 15 mins. Yarn time! I only had one skein to dye and I let it simmer for a little over an 1 hour.
The resulting color is not a bad yellow at all. Inside near the lamp, it has a warm, golden hue.
Outside in the sunshine, it has cooler tones...
Either way, I'm pleased with the result and can't wait to knit me up some yellow socks!
Thanks to Janine once again for gifting me this Knit Picks "color your own" skein!!
posted by KnittenKnots at 8:15 AM
7 Comments:
I like knowing that goldnrod has some purpose other than torturing my sinuses.
I am very impressed at your industriousness! There was a display at AgriFest on dye plants but I didn't get a chance to look. Hmm. Perhaps I need a dye garden next summer.
what a lovely yellow! you'll have another gorgeous pair of yellow socks - so cheerful
What a lovely delicate colour, i love natural dyes. What pattern are you going to knit with it ?
I love the color, how gorgeous!!
very cool! What a perfect color for you ... I love it!
I have some color your own that I have been planning on dying for a while but I could never figure out what color to dye it! I was just going to do a kool-aid dye but maybe I should rethink that and find some natural dye to use. Too bad I used up those blueberries I had in the fridge. I'll have to go hunting for something in the woods :)
I love this yellow yarn, how clever!! Can't wait to see the finished project.
Post a Comment
<< Home