In which I find out some interesting things about dying with dahlias

So, before the 'hoards' descend on the school again tomorrow, I decided to try dying some yarn with dahlias as they are blooming right now. So, first I went out and harvested 28 flower heads (no particular reason--that's just how many red and pink ones I felt I could get away with cutting). Into a pot they went to start being simmered for their dye.

After about half an hour, the dahlias were all bleached of color, and the water was a nice Kool-aid colored orange.

After soaking my yarn mordanted (pre-treated) with alum, I got the bright idea to throw a little alum into the dye pot to see if it darkened the color. Oh, boy, did it ever!

Oops. Well, after all that I decided to put the yarn in anyway even though a quick paper towel test revealed a rather nasty yellow was actually the color the yarn would end up. Sure enough, despite the merlot colored dye, the yarn went a rather limp hay yellow. I think I'll over-dye it after it dries...

I was rather interested to see how unexahusted the dye in the pot was, and that it had returned to something close to the previous orange color. (The picture makes it look more red than it really was) Another paper towel test revealed that it would still be yellow, so I dumped it out rather than use it again.

So, now I know that alum creates shocking and drastic color changes when dying with dahlias, that dahlias look really gross when all their color has been extracted, and that I should have left well enough alone. Who knows what I'll find out next year?