Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale
Common Dandelion
Description: Yellow flowering plant with deeply notched, sawtooth leaves that can be found in lawns and along roadsides pretty much anywhere in the Midwest (as well as the rest of the United States). I harvested all of my dandelions from my own yard.
Results: The dandelion head results are on the left and the root results are on the right. From left to right of the flower head results are wool with no mordant, wool with Alum mordant, cotton with no mordant, and cotton with Alum mordant. Left to right of the root results are wool with no mordant (and iron afterbath), wool with Alum mordant, cotton with no mordant (and iron afterbath), and cotton with Alum mordant.
For color reference, the background is a white Bounty paper towel.
Plant prep: I picked an ice cream pail full of just the yellow flower heads in early May. Prior to adding to the dye pot, I plucked off any remaining long stems and discarded those (longer than 1/2").
I washed the roots in cold water to remove as much dirt as I could, then sliced them thinly. I found that cutting the small roots lengthwise was far easier than trying to cut a bunch of tiny slices.
Dye process: For both the dandelion heads and the roots, I added the material to my dye pot and enough water that it would easily move around. I boiled the material for an hour, then added my prewetted fiber and boiled another hour. After the second hour, I rinsed the yarn in hot water. For the unmordanted wool and cotton that was dyed with the root, I added the dyed yarn to an iron solution that I had previously made with rusty nails and vinegar water and boiled for 10 minutes. After removing the yarn from this iron afterbath, I again rinsed with hot water.
Notes: I hadn't planned to use the iron solution, however the unmordanted root dye results were so weak that I felt I had nothing to lose. I'm actually quite pleased with how the iron afterbath colored the yarn, and in the future I would probably just use fiber that had already been pre-mordanted with iron.
Taraxacum officinale
Common Dandelion
Description: Yellow flowering plant with deeply notched, sawtooth leaves that can be found in lawns and along roadsides pretty much anywhere in the Midwest (as well as the rest of the United States). I harvested all of my dandelions from my own yard.
Results: The dandelion head results are on the left and the root results are on the right. From left to right of the flower head results are wool with no mordant, wool with Alum mordant, cotton with no mordant, and cotton with Alum mordant. Left to right of the root results are wool with no mordant (and iron afterbath), wool with Alum mordant, cotton with no mordant (and iron afterbath), and cotton with Alum mordant.
For color reference, the background is a white Bounty paper towel.
Plant prep: I picked an ice cream pail full of just the yellow flower heads in early May. Prior to adding to the dye pot, I plucked off any remaining long stems and discarded those (longer than 1/2").
I washed the roots in cold water to remove as much dirt as I could, then sliced them thinly. I found that cutting the small roots lengthwise was far easier than trying to cut a bunch of tiny slices.
Dye process: For both the dandelion heads and the roots, I added the material to my dye pot and enough water that it would easily move around. I boiled the material for an hour, then added my prewetted fiber and boiled another hour. After the second hour, I rinsed the yarn in hot water. For the unmordanted wool and cotton that was dyed with the root, I added the dyed yarn to an iron solution that I had previously made with rusty nails and vinegar water and boiled for 10 minutes. After removing the yarn from this iron afterbath, I again rinsed with hot water.
Notes: I hadn't planned to use the iron solution, however the unmordanted root dye results were so weak that I felt I had nothing to lose. I'm actually quite pleased with how the iron afterbath colored the yarn, and in the future I would probably just use fiber that had already been pre-mordanted with iron.
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