For my first experiment with natural dyes, I picked some goldenrod growing wild in my yard.  I weighed it out to match the weight of my fibers, using mostly the flower tops.

For my fibers to test this on, I used one skein of the Romney I spun, a small sample of my angora, and a small sample of Valley Yarns Northampton in the Natural colorway.

I first soaked the fibers with a touch of Eucalan, mostly because I always include a touch of Eucalan whenever I soak my wool.

I simmered the goldenrod in a large pot of water for 30 minutes, then let it sit for several hours until it was cool, and I was ready to move on.  I removed all the flowers from the pot, so they wouldn’t get all mixed up in my yarn.

I mixed my mordant in with the dye pot, instead of mordanting the yarn separately.  I used alum and cream of tartar.  (My iron and copper alums still aren’t ready.)

I brought the dye pot with the yarn to a simmer for 30 minutes then removed it from the heat and let it cool overnight.  In the morning I soaked it back in that original Eucalan water, but I added a touch of citric acid to it.  I don’t think I needed to with natural dyes, but I did it anyway.

The results turned out very pretty!