Comfrey for natural dyeing

Comfrey is a plant that I have tried to eradicate from one of my garden areas but it came back this year . . . it must have been "meant to be" because a few days ago I found myself looking for a plant that would give me green dye and, behold, comfrey seemed to fit the bill.

I used Jenny Dean's Botanical Colours as my reference and proceeded to cut up the leaves before pouring boiling water over them. After leaving the leaves overnight and then simmering the dye pot the next morning I removed the leaves (and later put them on my garden as green mulch) and put shibori raw silk into the pot.  The dye became a dark olive green very quickly but I decided to let it sit for eight hours before removing it and rinsing as I knew it would lighten up considerably.

I am delighted with the result after washing, which is a beautiful yellow-green ... just what I was hoping for!