Dyer’s chamomile – Anthemis tinctoria – Farvegåseurt

first skeinsCame by my overgrown vegetable garden the other day and discovered the Anthemis in full bloom. Anticipating rain I got a bowl and nicked off all the heads.

So this year I’ll be dyeing with the heads and the leaves separately to see how that goes. First batch ended up getting boiled, and this doesn’t seem to ruin the colour like madder or weld, so I’ve just continued doing that as I forget to watch the kettle anyway. I will try a solar dyed batch just for “science”, though. The leaves were boiled as well.

I ended up with a total of 2000 g of flower heads over several harvests, most have been set out to dry for winter projects. Or to be sold in small dye kits if anyone is interested!

There is an inceredible amount of dyestuff in the flowers, after straining I poured the extra water for the dyebath over the sieve with the boiled flowers and strong yellow just kept coming out of them. So there’s a great opportunity for many shades of yellow here depending on how much wool you put in or using the dyebath several times. You might even boil the flowers several times and combine the results in a bigger dyepot.

Click for more pix and to

First batch, July 1-3

650 g flower heads, 5-6 l. of tap water, my rain water barrel smelled funky. Boiled one hour + steeped 24 hours. Very dark and strong dyebath, even when I had to top it up to cover the wool! Simmered for about an hour or more, then cooled in the dyepot. Total amount of wool 400 g split in 2 sessions.

  1. 2 skeins of alum mordanted generic wool yarn, one with iron alkaline modifier after, 65 g
  2. alum mordanted Dorset fleece, 150 g (yes, same pesky fleece)
  3. unmordanted Dorset fleece, 100 g
  4. 3 more 33 g skeins in the exhaust bath, a. alum/CoT, b. unmordanted, c. tin

After 2 sets the dyebath STILL looks as potent as before! I don’t have any freezer space to preserve it though.

2

3

Second batch, July 5-7

And 3 days later there are just as many flowers as before…. This means it would be easy to get enough for a really large dye project. It’s the 2nd year though, last year they didn’t really bloom much or grow very tall as I remember.

This time I wanted to try an iron mordant but went overboard on the iron – having had no reaction whatsoever from an afterbath in “horse shoe water”. Result, not green, but very brown-green and more pesky Dorset!! Argh. So, gentle on the iron, but use one that works. I’ve used the horse shoes in rain water before, so I have no idea why, or if it was the actual mordanting that gave the result. I’m running out of suitable yarn, so I’ll put further experiments on hold.

At least the fleece doesn’t felt although it looks that way, it combs out very nicely.

Third batch, July 9-10

35 g leaves boiled one hour
35 g wool

Aaaand – not really green, just a pale yellow. I’m guessing we need more than 50/50 weight here, but someone turned on the biggest tap of heaven while I was picking, so that’s what I got. 😉

I’ve been thinking that leaves could be better when the plants are young, as the stalks grow very woodsy and the leaves are sparse and begin to wither as the plants are flowering (and flowering and flowering). This means you’d have to give up flowers, if you harvest the whole young plants though… I might get extra seeds and see what happens when you trim the plants early.

ETA: I briefly dipped one end into my horse shoe bucket, and today after it’s dried there IS a slight difference:

Fourth batch, July xx

I want to do a batch on silk using solar dyeing – but outside circumstances has postponed this part of the experiment. Stay tuned!

Leave a Comment

.

På dansk

Sidste år såede jeg farvegåseurt i min køkkenhave (som efterhånden er en tidselmark), de kom op men blev ikke rigtig til noget, lave og uden blomster, måske fordi jeg såede på friland istedet for at forspire? Men i år har de godt nok taget revanche. Frøene er købt hos Urtegartneriet som har en del farveplanter på repertoiret.

Så jeg valgte først at farve kun med hovederne, 650 gram og i første omgang 300 g uld, farven blev så kraftig at jeg puttede 100 g mere i bagefter og det blev stadig meget meget flot, så man kan helt sikkert udnytte selv små mængder plante. Eller bruge farvebadet flere gange for at få mange gule nuancer og styrker. Da jeg siede de første blomsterhoveder behøvede jeg mere vand til at dække ulden med, så jeg hældte det gennem sien og blomsterne, og der blev bare ved med at komme gul farve ud af dem! (check den engelske tekst for billeder)

Farven tager tilsyneladende ikke skade af at blive kogt, ligesom Vau eller Kraprod, og det er jo nemt når man ikke altid husker at holde øje. Jeg vil dog teste “kold”farvning også bare for at sammenligne.

Og kun 4 dage efter jeg havde taget alle blomster, var der sprunget dobbelt så mange knopper ud, virkelig effektivt må man sige! Jeg regner med at tørre de hoveder jeg ikke bruger, da jeg ikke har et reelt strikkeprojekt til det, og så ville jeg prøve at farve med blade/stængler separat, da det skulle give en mere grønlig farve.

Jeg var lidt spændt på Dorset ulden, da jeg jo ikke havde så gode resultater med den tidligere. Men det blev rigtig pænt, omend ikke så kraftigt i farven som garnet. Én portion alunbejset, én portion ubejset men med et godt varmt sæbebad først til at tage evt. lanolinrester som kunne forstyrre optagelsen af farve.

Uden bejse giver det en pæn lys gul, med Alun/vinsten giver det safran, basisk efterbad gør denne safran dybere og med Alun/tinbejse får man en flot, dyb orange!

Jernbejse (garn tidligere alun/vinstenbejset): Ehm, ja, brugte lidt for meget jernvitriol så garnet allerede inden farvning var let rustfarvet og endte med en mosebrun farve, Dorset ulden blev kommunefarvet. Jeg havde forsøgt mig med min jernspand på et af de færdigfarvede bundter, dvs. en spand som står udenfor med regnvand og hestesko, den har virket før, men, nå, ja… For lidt og for meget er lige skidt. Ulden ser filtet ud, men det er den altså ikke, man kan snildt ordne lokkerne med en kam (så får man også alt plantefnuller fra fårestalden drysset ud).

Kold-farvning på silke må vente pga “livets genvordigheder” 😉 Der kommer en opdatering senere.

Farvning med blade: 35 g + 35 g – bladene bliver lidt kedelige mens planterne blomstrer, de er mere frodige om foråret og stænglerne bløde istedet for træagtige. Men høster man dem der, får man jo ingen blomster! Der skal nok lidt (meget) mere plantevægt i forhold til garn, men jeg rendte ind i et skybrud mens jeg plukkede, så det var hvad det blev til. Ikke imponerende, det bliver nok farvet igen med noget andet.

Der er i alt 2000 g blomster til tørring indtil videre og flere på vej hvis vi får mere sol, så jeg regner med at evt. sælge lidt ud af det i små portioner, hvis nogen skulle have lyst til at forsøge sig.

8 thoughts on “Dyer’s chamomile – Anthemis tinctoria – Farvegåseurt

    1. Hej och välkommen! Kul att få besök och kommentarer. Min blog är ny, men hoppas att den ska bli intressant för nån efterhand som jag fyller på. 🙂

  1. Wonderful to read about your experiences with dyer’s chamomile – I am growing it this year for the first time and so far I’ve just been picking and drying the flowers but haven’t had a chance to dye any wool with it, so it was nice to see some photos of your results!

    So your chamomile was sowed last year was it? I didn’t know it survives the winter, but if it does, that’s great news, saves me some work next year 🙂

    Heidi

    1. As far as I remember it lives for two years. I’m letting some flowers remain on the plants, hoping they’ll sow themselves for next year. I love the yellow I got from them, a much warmer shade than weld for instance. My weld plants haven’t done super well (I’m struggling with weeds), so those I’ve been drying and saving, only trying a small batch last year.

Leave a Reply to PiaCancel reply