Filed under: To dye for
The amaryllis dyebath having been great fun, I went searching to see if I could do much with my fading Mother’s Day roses, too. Hey, what say we make a whole wardrobe of shawls out of flowers.
The site I found advocated doubling the water to the amount of rose petals and adding mint and lemon juice; it promised me I could enjoy it as pink lemonade when I was done!
Oh joy.
Trader Joe’s had large basil plants yesterday for about a dollar and a half more than buying the same amount of basil leaves picked and dead; was this a trick question? So let’s see, basil is a member of the mint family, right? Nah, we’ll just skip that part… I squeezed a lemon into the pot after stripping the bouquet, which was well past its prime.
Bright pink. I wanted to ask whoever wrote that, wait a minute! Roses come in all kinds of colors! These were deep red almost to black, with small, vivid gold stripes, very striking, very regal looking; who knows what I’d get?
Next time I do this, I want to buy some cheesecloth first, definitely: the amaryllis flowers mostly stayed intact, but those roses had far more pieces and petals and even seeds to deal with. The bath they created was deeply golden at first, not pink at all, and I had visions of Jason and the Golden Fleece. Gradually, though, as I kept the roses boiling away for an hour, the reddishness came out. It looked like it would produce pink or maybe burgundy after all once I added the wool.
My daughter came by the kitchen and when she saw what I was doing, groaned, “You are SO weird!” just like she did when she was a teenager. I laughed and told her she was right. (So there.)
Notice that the last bit of stuff that I couldn’t quite seem to get out floated nicely to the top as soon as I got the pot back up to a boil, making it easy to skim off right after this pot shot was taken.
But you know? I do draw the line somewhere. I don’t care what that site said. I refuse to drink my sheep.
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That is a GREAT color! I wonder if it’s lightfast? I have a lot of roses right now. (see my blog for details on that one!)
Comment by Joanne 05.21.08 @ 3:39 pmI’m going to have a hard time downing any pink lemonade in the near future.
Comment by Momo Fali 05.21.08 @ 4:15 pmOh ACK, I hear you… not something I’d drink, even on the rocks.
It is a pretty colour…
Cool! I love the dyebath! Who’d a thought it, red roses making a gold dye. Oh, hasn’t daughter heard that weird is totally cool? 😉
Comment by Toni Smoky-Mountains 05.21.08 @ 5:29 pmNot pink but a very pretty colour. Weird is good by the way. It just means you are on a different creative wave length to others. Einstein was weird too, you are in good ocmpany.
Comment by Vicki 05.21.08 @ 5:58 pmhmmmm wonder if the petals were closer to beginning of their life instead of the end if the color would have been more intense — but it is still a pretty color 😉 and weird is good you know
Comment by rho 05.21.08 @ 6:54 pmLovely color. Pinky-goldy-beige? I like.
I think “weird is good” is a major understatement.
Weird is all the rage. Weird is the spice of life. Weird gives me hope for the world and enables me to keep on keepin’ on.
Weird is SURVIVAL.
I feel kinda sorry for folks who aren’t, nor care to be, weird in any way. Except, of course, when I am too preoccupied with my own weirdness to think about others’ lack thereof. Tee-hee!
Hmmmmm….guess this signifies that I am in an especially weird mood today. Co-workers, beware! Or at the very least, pass me some chocolate…
Comment by Paula 05.22.08 @ 5:02 amVery pretty! Am glad your Rose experiment came out better than my Iris experiment did 🙂
Comment by Danielle from SW MO 05.22.08 @ 6:51 amWay to keep on enjoying those flowers forever! Beats just pressing and drying them, by a long shot.
Comment by Channon 05.22.08 @ 7:24 amThe rosepetal mush turned pinker overnight, sitting there. I’m debating throwing the yarn back in to sit to see if it gets redder by simply soaking.
Comment by AlisonH 05.22.08 @ 11:44 amAt least YOUR daughter was pretty sure it wasn’t dinner. (After all, you don’t drink your own sheep.) My kids aren’t always sure if we’re going to expect them to EAT the weird things we’re doing in the kitchen.
Comment by Laura 05.22.08 @ 12:28 pmLeave a comment
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