It is just past midsummer and the plants are beginning to bloom. This year I am not planning to pick the flowers but will rather use the plant tops.

I cut the plants into pieces as small as I have patience for and then fill the pot with tap water (minerals are good). It simmers for about an hour.

It smells wonderful (to me) as it cooks; when it’s done it’s pretty murky.

I invariably spill when I strain, so this step is done outside. You can re-cook the greens for another dye batch, but I usually compost them after the first go.

Here’s the dye, ready for mordanted yarn. The color is a deep brownish red.

The yarn just went in and the dye will be heated very slowly to a simmer.

The cooking portion of the day is nearly complete. I like to let my yarn sit in the dye overnight.

After a night in the dyebath, I left the top skein as it was, but I put the other skein in an iron mordant bath. About five minutes in that bath produced the green skein below.

The second exhaust with St. John's Wort can give great (and often different) colors. I mordanted this Paton's sock yarn with alum and cream of tartar and then put it in the same dye pot that I used above, and then I followed the dyeing with an iron mordant.

I mordanted it with alum and cream of tartar and dyed it with late summer St John's Wort flower heads. The left skein I left alone but with the skein on the right I followed the dyeing with an iron mordant and got the happy brown.