purchase this yarn at my store nancystoreonline.com
Goldenrod Flower Pima Cotton Yarn DK Weight
Goldenrod flower dye vat with mercerized pima cotton yarn and Pearl Ex.
Here in New York, goldenrod matures and blooms from July to October. I carefully harvest the flower fronds, trying not to pick too many leaves or stems in the process then gathered enough to fill my dye pot 3/4 full.
I used for the mordant aluminum acetate and a tiny rust (iron) from the bottom of the enamel vat, perhaps making it a little hint of green. We will see what it looks like when finished. I use a 10% by a weight-of-goods proportion of alum to cotton, checkout tutorial on mordanting by Botanical Colors it has a great tutorial on mordanting. 1 teaspoon of Pearl Ex Interference Gold check out the video so sparkly. I kept it on the stove to a simmer (not a boil unless you want a deep russet color) for 3 hours.
Soaked my mercerized cotton overnight in tap water at room temperature. I placed it in the simmering vat for 1hr making sure it was mostly submerged. After an hour I removed and used the towel dry method for the yarn let dry, then rinsed 3 times, created a soaking bath for 1/2hr with cedar essential oil, rinsed again toweled dry and hung up to dry. The Pearl Ex is still visible after 4 washings. Goldenrod definitely brought the sunshine it came out great.
solidago virgaurea
