Review by Colleen Kindt

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We have a small book in our library called "Weeds, A Guide for Dyers and Herbalists", written by Anne Bliss, Drawings by Jean Hurley

 

This book covers 50 easily recognized, very common and extremely successful plants that happen to grow in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like Plantain, which were once prized for bandages and burn remedies. It is also good to chew a plantain leaf and put the pulp on a bee sting, it will kill pain, and is antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and anti itch.

The book talks about variations with fibers and baths when using weeds as Dyestuff. It has instructions for scouring the wool to be dyed and mordanting, then dyeing. 

The author stresses the importance of record keeping when dyeing, and gives the lightfastness in wool of each plant dye after exposure to 100 hours of direct sunlight at 5,300 feet above sea level. 

Some of the weeds covered are dandelion, plantain, storksbill, sow thistle, sunflower, dogbane, milkweed, redroot pigweed, burdock, black-eyed Susan, buttercup, snow on the mountain, sage, Russian thistle, and purslane. 

It's always interesting to learn about what is growing around us.  

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