Yellows and Oranges: Goldenrod, Onion Skins, Marigolds

Yellow comes from more plants than any other color. In the USDA bulletin’s index of colors, the yellow list has about twenty entries, from apple bark to zinnias ¹. Three are especially easy to get.

Onion skins

The dry, papery outer skins of onions have long been used to color cloth. On wool, the skins of yellow onions give a burnt orange with an alum mordant, rated fair for fastness ¹. They’re free, they keep, and a kitchen produces them steadily: save them in a paper bag until you have enough.

Burnt orange, for 1 pound of alum-mordanted wool ¹:

1. Boil 10 ounces of dry yellow onion skins in water to cover for 15 minutes.
2. Strain, and add cold water to make 4 to 4½ gallons.
3. Put in the wet, rinsed wool, stir carefully, and boil for 30 minutes. Rinse and dry.

On cotton, onion-skin colors are poor ¹, so save them for wool.

Goldenrod

Goldenrod grows wild in fields and along roadsides. Pick the flowers as they’re coming into bloom and use them fresh ¹.

Here’s the catch. The USDA’s best goldenrod colors, a brass and a yellow-brown fast to light and washing, both used chrome. On alum alone, goldenrod gives a greenish yellow, and the bulletin found that color not fast to light ¹. It’s a cheerful yellow for yarn that stays out of strong sun, and run your own light test before you decide. Its real value is as a base for other colors: goldenrod with indigo gives dark greens, and with madder, terra cotta and rose-brown, all fast to light and washing ¹. The last lesson covers top-dyeing.

Greenish yellow, for 1 pound of alum-mordanted wool, following the USDA’s goldenrod method ¹:

1. Boil 1 to 1½ pecks of fresh goldenrod flowers in water to cover for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Strain, and add cold water to make 4 to 4½ gallons.
3. Put in the wet wool and boil for 20 minutes. Rinse and dry.

Long boiling dulls goldenrod’s yellow ¹, so don’t overdo it.

Marigolds

Garden marigolds (Tagetes) carry a coloring matter similar to that in black oak bark. Fresh or dry flower heads work; if dry, use a third to a half as much ¹. Both of the USDA’s marigold recipes used chrome, either as the mordant or in an afterbath, to get a fast brass and a dark yellow-tan ¹. With alum alone you’re outside the bulletin’s tested recipes, so dye a sample skein, try the light test, and judge for yourself.

Yellows and iron

A pinch of iron shifts yellows toward olive and green. Earth Guild’s method: dye alum-mordanted wool, then add iron to the bath a little at a time, dissolve it, and return the wool. Iron “saddens” colors, and too much hardens wool and makes it streak ².

Try it

Dye one 4-ounce mordanted skein with onion skins, using a quarter of the recipe: 2½ ounces of skins in about a gallon of water. When it’s done, put a few strands in your light-test frame next to a strand of any goldenrod yellow you dye, and see which holds up better.