I wove this woolen cloth a few months ago during the cold months and am planning to dye it this summer.

It is mid-May and the marauding asters are growing well. I should have plenty of dye for my roll of fabric.

I’m going to make the dye from both the flowers and the plant parts. The color they give is a soft yellow and when treated with ion mordant, it changes to a soft gray-green.

The flowers are just beginning to show, so I think that now would be a good time to get started. As you can see, quite a few aster plants have surrounded my baby flax bed, so they are going to be the first to go.

I have way too much fabric to fit into my dye pots, so I’m going to have to cut my friend in half, and will dye it in two pots. I know, this will make two “dye lots”, but it can’t be helped. There is so much fabric here that it might be enough for two different articles of clothing anyway.

I used 100g of alum and 42g of cream of tartar. I can be less careful about heating this fabric than I am when I mordant and dye yarn; I don’t have to worry that I might felt the wool with too much sudden heat - it’s already felted, and the tighter it gets, the better.

I generally only use as much dye material as fiber (by weight), but I have so very many of these plants that I went a bit overboard. I’ll bring the pots (for I have two) to a simmer and will hold them at that simmer for about an hour.

It is raining today but that never kept anyone from dyeing fabric, right?

I use the cooked plants as compost, but the real gold is here in the bucket.

I just strained the right pot, which is why it’s so foamy. But we’re ready to go!

The dye must be very strong, because it turned the fabric yellow immediately. The gloves, by the way, are useful when removing the fiber from the mordant. It can be quite astringent.

I heated the dye to nearly a simmer and kept it more or less at the same temperature for about an hour. Then it sat overnight.

The color looks much stronger when the fabric is immersed in the dye, but it is paler in the common light of common day.

I dissolved about 2 tbsp of powdered iron mordant in boiling water and then poured it right into my vat - this pot is my “iron” pot, so I wasn’t worried about contaminating it. For the record, this pot and my regular dye pot produced fabric that had the same color (to my eyes, anyway); there was no iron “taint” until I added the iron myself.

I left the fabric in the iron for about a half hour - longer than I usually do, but I was cutting the grass and got distracted by weeds. The fiber is still rather yellowish, but it will become greener as the minutes tick by.

The mordanted fabric’s color is still developing, but the difference between it and the fresh-faced yellow is stark. I’m going to mordant the second piece in my designated “iron mordanting” pot (which is, conveniently, already full of mordanted dye). This might be a mistake, as I don’t know how potent the iron is - this is more or less an exhaust batch - but we shall see.

Both pieces are done now. The second piece is darker than the first. I succumbed to my mordanting insecurity and added a bit more iron to the pot a few minutes before I removed the fabric. That was unnecessary and from now on I promise not to second guess myself.

And wear those gloves. I soaped and rinsed the fabric three times and then ran it through a cold cycle (with plant-based detergent) in the washing machine. It will full a bit more, but that will be welcome.

And here they are, all beautifully dyed and dried. One is definitely darker, but that will make my garment more interesting. I’m now pondering making a jacket for wet days. The final measurements (both pieces of fabric) are 20.5”/52cm wide by 4.8yds/4.4m.