Natural Dyeing with Dandelions

If you are interested in dyeing yarn with foraged plants and other botanicals, I run online yarn dyeing workshops where I will show you how to dye British wool yarn a range of vibrant colours. Cick here to read more!

On my drive to Sion Hill I drive past thousands of dandelions on Lansdown Road. One day, I pulled over and picked a good clump to see if they could dye wool the same sunny yellow that the flowers produce.

Using the same extraction method as for dried plants- I soaked the flowers and stalks for a few hours in cold water before heating for an hour and leaving to cool. Then I strained the liquid and added the alum mordanted yarn (at a ratio of one part yarn and three parts dye stuff) and heated for an hour, leaving to cool overnight.

The resulting yarn colour was a buttery yellow - not as vivid as I was hoping, but not a bad colour considering the materials were free and in abundance!

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