Marigolds and Queen Anne’s Lace

I love this time of year when all the wildflowers are in bloom and the garden is dotted with color from Cosmos, Calendula, and Marigolds. My children know that I may pull the car over to the side of the road at any moment to stop and pick flowers. Then, whoever happens to be with me at the time will hop out and help pick. Sometimes I am picking flowers to put in a vase to enjoy and sometimes I am picking flowers to use as a natural dye for my yarn.

This week I found a wonderful patch of Queen Anne’s Lace along the road. This flower brings back memories from my childhood and picking it from our fields in the mountains of Virginia. I can’t find it growing on and around our mountain farm now. Perhaps it is because all of the fields around us are hayed twice a year. Queen Anne’s Lace seems to only grow in areas that are left natural and unmowed. When I got home, I put the flowers into the dye pot right away and began steeping the flowers. Queen Anne’s Lace creates a wonderful soft yellow dye. The greenhouse is full of tomato plants and marigolds right now. I couldn’t resist snipping off some of the marigold flowers to put into my dye pot as well. Their lovely shades of yellow, orange, and red, leave my yarn with a rich bright yellow color.

All of these natural dyed yarns will fill my Natural Dye CSA Yarn orders at the end of the summer. I still have a few of these yarn CSAs left!
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