There’s a pine tree outside my house. I don’t know what species of pine tree, although I know that it makes tiny pine cones that are really cute.

At the beginning of fall when the weather started changing, they looked like berries and I thought “ooh, I wonder what color those will make!” Well, by the time I got around to actually picking some, they’d turned into Proper Pine Cones, so I’ll just have to wait until next year to pick them early and see if the color is different.

Did you know that the smell of pine cones simmering on the stove is absolutely heavenly? It’s worth the sap just to smell that for an afternoon or two.

The first thing I dyed was a yard of wool-silk blend fabric, and it came out this absolutely stunning toffee color. The next round of pine cone picking didn’t happen for a few more weeks, and with that vat I dyed a special skein of yarn that I was gifted from a friend’s coworker’s sheep and a couple yards of cotton that I think I’m going to use for a quilt back.

A skein of toffee-brown yarn lays on a light brown piece of cotton and a slightly darker brown piece of wool-silk.

They all came out the perfect colors, exactly what I didn’t know I wanted when I started out. I knew putting the cotton in after the yarn would make it lighter, and I think it’ll pair perfectly with the half-square triangle diamond quilt top that I pieced earlier this year.

A skein of toffee-brown yarn dyed with pinecones.

A crumpled piece of toffee-brown wool-silk that has been dyed with pinecones.

Have you dyed with pine cones? What did you get?