Ragweed Dye

I had a TON of this common weed growing between the sidewalk and the road.

It grows between 1'-5' tall in a bushy habit.  Has tiny green flowers and propagates by releasing its pollen into the breeze. 

I laid the plants on concrete to dry. I moved them about once or twice a day. It took a few days for them to dry out completely. 

The weather was dry and around 70deg F.

I used pruning sheers to cut the plants into smaller pieces. I cut stems and leaves. I didn't use the woody bottoms. I wrapped the plant matter in some synthetic mosquito netting. 

I ended up with 3 bundles of plant matter, each weighing about 6 oz

I used a stainless steel dye pot (a second hand store find).  I put in enough hot tap water to just submerge the plant matter.  This ended up being 2 gallons of water.

It took about 20 minutes to reach a simmer. Then I simmered it for an hour. I left it covered while simmering. It was very smelly. I left it to cool till lukewarm for a further 4 hours

This is what the dye looked like with the leaves still in there. 

The netting took this lovely yellow color. 

I squeezed as much liquid out of the plant matter as I could. This is what the dye looked like. 

I got about 8 quarts of dye from one of the bundles of plant matter.