It's been nearly two months since I visited this field of gold, sunny prairie coneflowers. It felt like the field of poppies in the Wizard of Oz... except... they weren't poppies. And I didn't feel compelled to take a nap. So maybe it wasn't anything like that, except for my overwhelming awe at the seemingly solid blanket of color. After collecting a huge bouquet I started a solar dye jar that afternoon, as you may have read about here. The dye stuff included seed heads and petals, with mordants of alum and vinegar. One of the best parts about the solar dyeing process is watching the transformation take place, first of the water's hue and then of the yarn itself. I half expected a yellow shade to develop, or at least a yellow-green. Instead, after a week or two it became apparent that the dye stuff exuded more of a bluish-green, sagey tone. Here is the result:

Faint, but lovely. The gold splotches, I believe, came from dyestuff residue on the sides of the jar where the yarn was pressed up against it. I may have been able to remove the yarn a couple of weeks earlier than I did, which could have prevented this. It adds character though, which I am all about. So... in case you ever thought about dyeing with coneflower, this is what you might get! What should I make with it?