A Dyeing Diversion

I noticed that yellow oxalis (oxalis pes-caprae) flowers were popping up around the place, along with all the other weeds that are taking advantage of the slightly warmer weather and thought I had read that you could dye with them. Of course when I tried to find some information I could only find a few mentions online with not a lot of detail so I decided to just go ahead and play. I picked a bunch of flowers while out walking my dog, put them in a jar and poured hot water from the tap on them. At first the colour of the solution was a very bright yellow but it changed over time to a red colour.

The jar sat on the kitchen bench for 8 days and mould had started to grow on top so I strained the solution and poured it into a dye pot. I added some more water and then 100g of merino yarn. I didn’t find any information about whether to mordant or not so I decided to just go ahead and not bother, thinking that the worst case is that the yarn wouldn’t take up any colour. In the dye pot the colour of the yarn appeared as a light, bright yellow that I quite liked. I simmered the yarn for a while, then removed it and hung the yarn up outside to dry a little while I did some other jobs. Later in the day I washed the yarn in warm water with a little detergent. Not much colour rinsed off during washing but the yarn colour deepened/darkened which was a surprise.