Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Weeds are beautiful..



Naturally dyed yarn created with Queen Anne's Lace.

From Wiki:

It is so called because the flower resembles lace; the red flower in the center is thought to represent a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked herself with a needle when she was making the lace. The function of the tiny red flowes to attract insects.

My go-to natural dye book so far has been Jenny Dean's 'Wild Color'


Currently reading this one from the library..


It has me thinking about japanese maple leaves, red cabbage, and coffee!

Too bad the USDA considers Queen Anne's Lace a 'noxious weed'.

I think weeds can be beautiful.

~

Joining Ginny.



22 comments:

  1. I'm wanting to learn to do this as well! Thanks for the book recommendations!

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  2. I love your top photo! The color of the yarn is beautiful! :)

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  3. Love that little story! You've arrange the yarn and plants beautifully :)

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  4. Success! So pretty Leigh- love that it's all natural too.

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  5. I checked out Wild Color this past spring, thinking I would begin a new chapter in knitting and start dying my own yarn. I ultimately decided that there were too many pretty yarns already dyed and I should just let others do it. Yours are very pretty.

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  6. I used to love dying Queen Anne's Lace with just plain ol' food coloring. It never occurred to me that it could create such a pretty color! How cool!

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  7. We have a bunch of Queen Ann's lace growing in front of my office. The landscaper was just about to trim it all and I yelled at him and said "NO! I want to clip it and save it to dye yarn." He thought I was nuts. I love how yours turned out!

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  8. They certainly are beautiful and what a gorgeous color you and the "weeds" have created.

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  9. I love Queen Anne's lace, and that yarn is just beautiful! :)

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  10. That color is amazing...

    I used to dye muslin and paper using coffee, tea (of course) and onion skins. I used a leaf of some sort, too, but forgot which one now...it's been over 10 years. I never knew you could use Japanese maple leaves...I may have to give that one a try. I have three of them!

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  11. The colour of the yarn is delightful.

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  12. I always thought of Queen Anne's lace as a flower. I didn't realize it was considered a weed. It certainly makes a beautiful dye.

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  13. Beautiful! I wanted to experiment with dying this year ... it's not going to happen this summer though, hopefully next year. :)

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  14. I've always loved Queen Anne's lace. What a pretty extension of such a pretty weed!

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  15. hold on , what? QALace colours yellow?? oh my. love, i want that book =)

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  16. I love the shade of yellow the flower makes.

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  17. Hello

    I love the colour that your yarn has become.
    Wishing you a happy weekend.

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