Lady’s Mantle – Alchemilla – Løvefod

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One pot mostly flowers, one pot mostly leaves. Each “cooked” for a couple of hours, strained, wool added.

Very concentrated dyebaths, the leaves a toffee-tea colour, the flowers more towards yellow.

Wool with alum/CoT mordant.

I seem to think I’ve read that this plant gives grey/green, but until I’ve tested for lightfastness I’m not going to experiment with iron and other things. The hank is from the flower pot and the ball is from the leaf pot. No difference, really.

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På dansk

Kogte to gryder, en med mest blomster, en med blade. Uld med alun/vinsten bejse dagen efter. Farvebadene var meget koncentrerede og mørkebrune. En anelse farveforskel, men garnfeddene er stort set ens.

Som regel, når jeg prøver en ny plante som ikke er en sikker vinder, så farver jeg først 1 fed inden jeg begynder at eksperimentere med jern og alt muligt andet. Tror nok jeg har læst et sted at løvefod kan give grå-grønlige nuancer? Det må tiden vise, tror jeg lystester disse først. Mit mål er fremover at primært arbejde med farveægte planter og til specifikke formål, bortset fra småtest af nye ting.

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16 thoughts on “Lady’s Mantle – Alchemilla – Løvefod

  1. Q – Hi Pia, I totally forgot to tell you that you’ve been nominated for the Hang A Star On That One award. It’s given to people who have enriched our “crafting” world and kept the economy alive!

    1. 🙂 My mother hates this plant, as it’s very invasive. But hey, if there’s too much, just pull it out! I really like the leaves.

  2. That is soooo beautiful! So, question for you. We have really great, large fern plants here. Have you ever made a dye bath with ferns?

  3. Alchemilla is one plant that reliably survives in my garden where the soil is heavy clay and ranges from being completely waterlogged to dry and hard like concrete, it seems to be able to cope with anything. And as you say, it does self-seed a lot so I have tons of it, but I don’t mind, it’s such a useful gap-filler and the flowers last ages in a vase too. I didn’t actually realise you can dye with it, so even better – thank you for the tip! 🙂

    1. We have the same type of soil. And yes, they do seem to cover up bare ground well, fewer weeds. I have a few other perennials that thrive in the same way, but haven’t dyed with them.

  4. Opmuntret af denne post, begyndte jeg at farve med løvefod, der også breder sig i min lerjord. Men farven blev ved med at løbe ud i skyllevandet, og blev bare den der gulligt-brun/grønlige, du kalder “mucky fawn” 🙁

    1. prøv med et jernbad, jeg har set fine grå med den metode. Men sært at du ikke fik mere gul…. Måske vandforskel?

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