Wear gloves, double bag 'em and in general be careful until they are boiled. If you get stung, apply mud or even better, if you can find it, some jewel-weed pulp.
Step one, find a friend who has some nettles running amok on their property and become their hero of the day by removing many of the flowering tops of the plants from their property.
Or, find your nearest river flat and look for these tall deep green lovelys in the rich soils of the river banks and alongside paths. I've seen large stands that top 8 feet and their fibers can actually be processed much like flax from what I've read, but that adventure is for another day.
Today they dye... to give me all of their chlorophyll-y goodness to make one of my favorite mossy green colours.
- Harvest flowering and budding nettle tops and leaves (rescue caterpillar)
- weigh out 400 g and stuff into my old aluminum pot
- chop roughly inside of pot with long handled knife till they fit better
- top up with water and set to simmer 1 hr
- discover that you added too much water, clean up floor and dip some water out to add back in later
- simmer and 2 hours more till quite reduced and dark
- skein and wash wool 50g, and cotton 5-10g
- mordant fibers at a low heat, ½ hour with 2 tsp alum
- strain nettles out, add wool and cotton simmer ½ hour
- check colour... shit, not yellow again!!!
- add ¼ tsp iron sulfate coupras... to deaden colour... ah much better a sludgy greyey-greeny hue
- soak over night
- wring out
- dry for a day
- wash
- dry
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