Dyeing with Weeds

Summer is in full tilt here now! My yard is chock full of weeds - I get this question every year - and want to know if I can dye with them or not???

Permalink Reply by kimberly baxter packwood on June 27, 2008 at 1:22pm: The anwser is YES you can dye with weeds, remember a weed is a plant that is where you don't want it to be. Now will you get dynamic color from your weeds? It all depends on the weed, most plants yeild yellows and beige, many more yeild orange, green, blue or even red, and sometimes even a black, purple, or brown.

Do you have weeds in your yard you want to try for dyeing? If so let us know and we'll discuss your weed. You can put photos of your weeds in the plant picture folder, if you are not sure what it is and someone here will help in identification. Usually the weed we think the least of yeilds the best colors.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kris Nardello on March 13, 2009 at 5:27pm: I've just uploaded two photos of the results of oxalis ssp.(common name sour grass) that I used yesterday to dye some handspun wool. Wool roving and yarn were first mordanted with alum and cream of tartar, then into the dye pot. The contents of that were about 4 cups of fresh sour grass flowers to about a gallon of tapwater, simmered for an hour before straining and adding the wool. The variation in the intensity of the color is due to using an ammonia rinse on the two brightest skeins and tapwater on the yellower ones. I've just run a second pot and the colors continue to be strong, and I will try a third pot tonight with mordanted roving to make some yarn that goes from bright orange to pale yellow. Our neighborhood is full of this "weed" and it is also found growing in orchards. Some say it contains nitrogen fixing bacteria so is good as green mulch when it is plowed under in a few months. (I live near Monterey Bay and about 80 miles south of San Francisco.) Anyone else dyeing with spring "weeds" yet?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by kimberly baxter packwood on March 13, 2009 at 8:18pm: Not yet everything is still brown here from winter. I'm going out in the morning to see what lichens and other fungi are ready as there are some that do very well with cold temps. Where did you post your pictures at? I would love to see the colors I've never heard of sour grass before.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ricky on March 19, 2009 at 10:04am: I would love to know the results of using weeds to make dye.
We have an over abundance of Scotch Thistle growing in the yard and all around us. Lovely shaggy purple flowers, but are they good for dyeing.??
Ricky in Winnipeg; ▶ Reply to This