Marigoldilocks

We planted marigolds to line our short front sidewalk last year, and every time I picked spent blossoms off, I thought to myself: I really should save some of these for dye. But I never did.

This summer, Ms New Spinner, fresh from the excitement of trying the wheel, and making her own spindles (and in the middle of reading MG Fantasy V3.1, which heavily features spinning and dyeing), said, "Grandma, can we use some flowers to dye yarn, like they do in Madwyn's village?"

There was only one answer to that question. We picked 20-25 giant marigold blossoms, and Gramma washed out the bugs (Ms New Spinner is fearless with the spindle. Not so much with spiders), and then we both stripped the blossoms and set the brew to simmer for a couple of hours, as the yarn soaked in hot water.

We added alum directly to the dyebath, and then 2 hanks of yarn (one CA Red, and one white Romney- both handspun, and some unknown long-wool roving). And then we let it simmer and steep for a couple more hours.

The above is the result of the first dyepot. But there was a lot of color left, so we soaked and added more white and gray Romney.

This is the final output of the day's dyeing. The hank (gray Romney) on the far left was the last one in the pot, and there was very little color left. The one on the far right (white Romney), ditto. Ms Spinner will take the roving home with her (if she doesn't spin it first here), and the CA red hank. I believe the rest wants to be a winter shawl.