Thursday, June 28, 2012

Natural dyed yarn

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I picked up this yarn at a farmer's market, it was so pretty, hand-spun and ready to be dyed whatever beautiful color I chose.
I found this really helpful tutorial online and thought I would try to dye my yarn with red cabbage and blueberries. 
I started by soaking my yarn in lukewarm water.
Then I chopped up the cabbage in my food processor, until it was really fine and boiled it for 45 minutes with 2Tbs of salt and 1.5Tbs of baking soda.
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Then I strained the cabbage and let the yarn boil for about an hour.
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Next I boiled 1/2c of blueberries for 30 minutes with 2Tbs of salt

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Then I boiled 1/3 of the yarn in with the blueberries (I didn't strain so the yarn would have a deeper color and it's easy to pick the berry skins out of the yarn)

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I put the opposite 1/3 in a bowl with the cabbage water. I let this sit overnight.

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I put the skien in our bathroom to dry.
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It took almost two days to dry completely.
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Here's the finished yarn! It didn't come out exactly how I thought it would, but it was really exciting to see how I could change the colors by adding salt or baking soda. 

Have you ever made natural dye?

5 comments:

emilyclare said...

I think its a lovely hue all the same! I have made natural dye for fabric in the past from saffron, turmeric for yellow and beetroots for a reddy-purple. I'd love to try dyeing some yarn though... apparently nettles are good for dyeing too.

Lovely blog by the by, I found you via the beautiful K's Kalanagknit.

tiff@thecoffeehouse said...

whoa. that is impressive! however, I have to admit, I would probably rather eat the blueberries. :)

Sharmaine Ruth said...

oh wow! that's really clever! i'm so going to do this now :)

<3 Sharmaine Ruth
underpeachtrees.blogspot.com

alex said...

This IS exciting. I need to try it, I have never made natural dye!

Talia Jensen said...

this is so fun to dye it yourself! i'm all over it