Boom yeah: blog post done!
Hmmm, well maybe just one or two more details would be helpful...
So I was just
I snipped the whole plant minus the bottom third of the stalks, roots and root ball into small pieces, straight into a large glass pitcher along with 1/2 cup salt, half filled the pitcher with water, and stirred it around pretty vigorously to dissolve the salt. Then added my yarn, which I'd loosely tied in a skein to guard against knots.
And, ta da!
Notes for next time; picking out the organic material takes ages and is a bit of a pain. I'm toying with how to keep the plant matter and fibre separate next time, so as to avoid a gazzilion squishy rotting bits of plant muck stuck tight to my wool everywhere. Maybe with a very loose-weave synthetic gauze "bag" for the plant matter. I'm not sure if this would reduce the effectiveness of the dye though... but will give it some thought and a shot.
This is not going to be my only experiment with natural dyeing either; I've bought some indigo seeds and am raring to see that experiment come to fruition as well...