Ragweed, bindweed

 Got two dye baths going at the moment. Needed to clean up the yard, so I took the opportunity to gather a bunch of ragweed - that innocent looking weed that gives people hay fever. I have no issue with the plant itself, other than it's proliferation and the fact that people blame goldenrod for their hay fever instead of ragweed. Ragweed is wind-pollinated, which is how you breath it in and it causes a histamine reaction. Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) is insect pollinated, which means that the pollen is too heavy for the wind to blow it and the plants rely on insects like bees to pollinate. 

So, while I was out gathering ragweed, I came across some bindweed in one of my garden beds. Mother bucking bindweed. Bindweed gets its common name from the fact that it tightly coils around anything it can - often other plants - and will tightly bind that plant. It's a right pain. Especially since it will often pull a plant down, cut off the plant's ability to get nutrition, and is just a pain.

Bindweed, left, and Ragweed, right

I picked plenty of both plants to do some dyeing. I mordanted 8 oz of wool to do several batches of dyeing. I originally was going to do 2 oz for goldenrod, bindweed, ragweed, and another plant. (Which one, I can't remember at the moment. Probably the avocado that I've got in the freezer, but that's skins and pits...) In the end, I said "what the hell" and through four ounces of wool into each of them. (I should note: It was a random "white wool" with no specific breed or type given, other than it was good for beginning spinners. And now I need to order more of that as it is a nice wool to spin.)

For the ragweed (Ambrosia spp. possibly A. artemisiifolia or common ragweed) I had 1 lb 11.5 oz of plant matter. 
For the bindweed (Convolulus spp of some sort) I had 12.1 oz of plant matter.

Essentially, way more plant than I really needed, especially for the ragweed. I probably could have picked more for the bindweed. I tend to follow the 4:1 ratio for fresh plant matter to weight of wool. 

Over the years I've used the following ratio for mordating wool: 
For 4 oz of wool - 1 T alum, 2 t Cream of Tartar

Because I was doing 8 oz of wool, I doubled that amount.

Pot of bindweed, cooking away

For each dye bath, I put the plant matter into a stainless steel pot, filled it with water, and turned the stove on low to med-low. Once I saw steam, I let it go for about an hour, then turned off the burner and let it sit for as long as I could (overnight, if possible). 

So, normally, I let the plant matter cool over night. I didn't do that with the bindweed, because I was in a bit of a time crunch, and would be busy the next three days, so if I didn't do that tonight, it wouldn't get done. I took the plant matter out, and tried to get as much bits out, but in the end, put the wool into a Dollar Store lingerie bag and put that into the dye bath. 

I heated the dye bath to steaming, but not boiling, let it stay there for about an hour, and then shut the heat off and let it cool. 

I'm expecting yellow from both of them, but what type and how deep is going to be the question. 

Wool in ragweed dyebath

So, one thing I learned from this is that I should cover the pot when I'm extracting dye from ragweed. Had quite a headache and dealt with a hell of a stuffy nose. 

Another thing I learned is that it's possible to have too big a pot. If you use your largest pot, you have nothing to pour it into when straining out the dye stuff. Things you learn.