Cornus Midwinter Fire

The Cornus needed pruning and a quick Google search says that Dogwoods give a blue dye.

Well not Cornus sanguinea “Midwinter Fire” I couldn’t find out which Cornus gives blue but I’ll guess at Cornus florida, Cornus sanguinea gives yellow. Well it did for me.

I chopped the stems in to 3cm ish sections and stripped the bark off of any thicker bits. Covered with rain water and then heated to simmering for one hour.

Before heating

Left to stand outside for four days.

and then strained.

It is very yellow.

As I think I might end up with quite a lot of yellows from this experiment I just tried two 20g BFL super wash mini skeins this time, one treated with alum and the other just soaked overnight in water. Then heated to 85ºC for 45 minutes and allowed to cool in the pan.

Untreated BFL on the left and treated with Alum on the rightPerkins chewing on a stick.