Curly Dock

So, I've had curly dock (Rumex crispus) growing in my garden.  Been meaning to pull it for a while, but then decided to check and see if it's something people have used to dye with. And the answer is yes, apparently they have.

Curly dock seems to be native to Eurasia and, according to illinoiswildflowers.info, was first observed in the US in the 18th century. Apparently, the young leaves can be eaten and are reportedly rich in vits C and A. (I make note of this for my friends who like to know such things. They like to know that for when the zombies attack or the world ends.)

I'm going to try to do two baths - one with the leaves, the other with the roots. If I'm ambitious enough, I may even try a dye bath using the inflorescence. 

After having a look through the books, Wild Color said equal weight dye material and yarn for dock, regardless of if leaf or root. I'm going to stick with my normal 4 oz of wool that'll be mordanted with alum and CoT.

The leaves I gathered weighted about 6 oz.   While I'm mordanting the wool, I'll go rinse off the roots and set them aside.  Natural Color by Ira G. mentioned that the root color will still be good if the root dries, so that will be less of a concern. 

Off to mordant some wool.

So far:

6oz of curly dock leaves were put into a crock pot with about 1 gal of filtered water. Set to "high".