Two women joined me last week for a workshop on the farm to discover how to release amazing color from wild meadow flowers. We walked through an overgrown meadow where wild flowers grow freely, filling our baskets full of daisies, black-eye susan, St. John’s wort, yarrow, and milkweed. During lunch, our pots brewed filling the barn with the smell of summer flowers. We also prepared dye pots of onion skins, avocado skins, and black walnut.
Once the pots had steamed for an hour, we lowered our wool skeins into the hot dye baths. I had mordanted the yarn and silk the day before so that the colors would adhere to the fibers. After 60 minutes of steeping, the flowers had worked their magic. Each of the women made up a sample card, labeling each color to take home with them. They also had silk scarves, purses, and head bands to take home as well as a new appreciation for the flowers that grow in the fields and along the roadsides.
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| Naturally Dyed Yarn Dries in the Sun |
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| Sample Card of Dyed Skeins |
RMK
Lovely greens from yarrow & black eyed susans!
thecrazysheeplady
Beautiful!