It’s Goldenrod Season Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) is a member of the aster family. There are many solidago species native to North America, and they can also be found in other parts of the world. 

Here is a quick guide to natural dyeing with goldenrod flowers. 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.nancystoreonline.com

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