Every fall I trim my Crepe Myrtle tree because it grows so fast. This year I decided I would dye with the flowers, leaves and small branches.
After I had created a big pile of trimmings, I dehydrated everything for a few days until it was all crispy and stored it away for a couple of weeks until I was able to have some yarn come in. Once the yarn was mordanted and ready to dye, I started off with putting as much trimmings I could fit in the pot. This was a true experiment.
I brought the water up to just under a simmer, since I was not sure how long or how hot to have the water. For trees and flowers, the water is typically around 150 degrees. After some assistance from my hubby, I filtered out the bits and buds and I was left with pretty pink water. I totally expected to have some light pink or purple yarn. I added 2 skeins of the sock yarn and I couldn't believe my eyes. Green! It wasn't a powerful green but it was green. It really blew me away. It turned out to be a sage green more than anything, I would love to make a more intense green than what it is. This is motivations to start trimming other trees within the city.
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