Hi Creative Mamas! I am excited to share with you one of my favorite creative ways to hand dye yarn using natural dyes and different dye techniques…I am talking about dyeing yarns using natural dyes to create a variegated effect so that you have different ways of applying natural dyes.
Hand Dyed Yarns Using Natural Dyes
Creating beautiful natural bright pinks, purples, reds and yellows, even greys and charcoals, is possible when you know how to prepare your yarns correctly prior to dyeing.
For more information about naturally dyeing wool, please read this tutorial in which I go through a step by step process on how to hand dye wool yarn using natural dyes.
When you understand how to prepare your yarns and which natural dyes to use, you can start creating the kind of bright lasting solid color as illustrated in the photo below.
For these wool hand-dyed yarns (photo above), I used madder root (red) and logwood (purple)…and the fun and exciting thing is that you can combine different dye pots that contain different color dye baths to create a variegated pattern for your yarns.
But you can also hand dye cotton yarns and obtain beautiful lighter color results using natural dyes as illustrated in the photo below.
For this cotton yarn I used onion skins (yellow) and a third exhaust of logwood (light purple)and it resulted in a beautiful ombre yarn.
Wool Yarn
As a protein fiber, wool reacts beautifully with natural dyes, allowing for a deep and lastingbond between the dye and the yarn.
Preparing the wool yarn involves going through the scouring process and the mordanting process. For a detailed guide on how to prepare wool correctly for natural dyeing you can go through this article.
Avoiding wool felting
Temperature control cannot be overstated in importance. Too high, and the wool may felt, losing its softness and elasticity.
Keeping the dye bath at a gentle simmer allows the color to develop gradually, ensuring an even and saturated hue. This gentle transfer of color into the fiber is what makes dyeing wool with natural substances a truly rewarding experience.
PRO TIP: Start by soaking the yarn in cold water and gradually add warm tap water so that the yarn doesn’t get shocked when its immersed inside the warm dye bath.
Cotton yarns
Unlike its wool or synthetic counterparts, cotton yarn demands patience and a bit of care.
Cotton fibers are not as willingly absorbent as wool, making the process a little bit longer but you can achieve amazing results on cottons and linens if you prepare these cellulose fibers correctly.
In this post I am focusing on the actual dyeing steps to achieve a variegated effect so I am not going to go through the preparation but just bare in mind that the prep work is crucial.
Soaking your cotton yarn in hot water mixed with a bit of synthrapol removes any oils or impurities and prepares the cotton fibers to welcome the dye. This little step makes a significant difference compared to dyeing wool yarn, which, with its natural lanolin, interacts differently with dyes.
How to dye variegated yarn tutorial
In this tutorial I will show you how you can easily create this exciting variegated pattern on wool yarn using natural dyes such as cochineal, logwood and onion skins.
You can also extract color from dyes such as goldenrod, marigold, acorns, tea and mate.
The photos below illustrates the results that I got from dyeing 50 grams of New Zealand merino wool (8 ply).
I couldn’t help myself and I created little crochet samples to show my students the type of patterns they can create by simply getting creative at the dyeing stage.
Equipment & materials
- Wool skein (needs to be scoured and mordanted)
- Three different natural dye baths (I used cochineal dye, onion skins dye and logwood dye)
- Stainless steel pot for the different dye baths
Step 1: How to Make a Skein of Yarn
Lay your wool flat and gently begin to wind, creating a looped bundle. Once you have your yarn in a loose, large loop, secure it at different areas of the yarn with cotton twine or use scrap yarn.
This step is vital as it prevents tangling during the dyeing process and ensures that dye can reach different sections for that variegated effect we all love.
After that, you will need to scour and mordant the yarn in preparation for the next steps. Your yarn is ready to dye!
Step 2: Immersion dyeing or dip dyeing
I want to mention that most people are familiar with hand painting techniques when it comes to creating variegated effects on yarns.
In hand painting, you would normally use squeeze bottles or spray bottles to apply acid dye directly onto the damp, untwisted skein of yarn, allowing for precise control over the different colors and how they blend together.
This method allows you to experiment with different shades and tonal variations, but it’s not viable when working with natural dyes.
When using natural dyes, we need to allow for the fibers to be immersed inside a dye bath for at least one hour so that the dye transfers and bonds onto the fibers.
So, let’s dive right in and let’s get started!
The first step is to have your dye baths ready to go. So at this stage you would have extracted the color from your natural dyes.
For information about how to extract color from natural dyes please read this blog post.
Divide the wool skein into 3 sections by folding it in half.
Immerse the first section of the wool skein inside the cochineal dye bath. This is the first color.
Immerse it well and make sure there is plenty of room inside the dye bath for the fiber to move freely. Also be aware that the dye bath temperature should not exceed simmering point to avoid wool felting.
Moving quickly, immerse the other extreme of the wool skein inside the logwood dye bath.
Simmer for 1 hour without moving or handling the wool skein.
After approximately 1 hour the wool skeins would be fully dyed in both extremes and the dye would have travelled through the undyed middle as shown in the photo below.
At this stage you can remove the skein from both dye baths.
Place it inside an empty pot and pad dry so that it doesn’t leak excess water or dye liquid during the next step.
Place the middle of the wool skein inside the third dye bath. In this case I am using an onion skin dye bath and let it dye for 1 hour.
After 1 hour remove from the onion skin dye pot. Rinse well until water runs clear and wash wool yarn using a gentle wool soap.
This is the final result after the yarn was rinsed and washed.
When you transfer the wool skein into a wool ball you will be able to see the variegated effect quite well as in the photos below.
Some further thoughts:
Please be mindful that the amount of dye needs to be considered in relation to the weight of goods, but its a good idea to experiment with less dye to check out the different tonal yarn that you can get.
Also the remaining dye can be used and re used many times after the dyeing process to make the most of the excess dye. The second time you use a dye bath will result in a medium shade of the color.
There is no right yarn to use..you can use cotton yarn, wool yarn of any kind, even silk yarn. As long as it’s 100% natural fiber.
You can achieve many different dye styles by combining different natural dyes and different techniques. You can create all sorts of gradient yarn by using a different base color, a different tonal variation or even finer fibers. The sky is the limit!
I hope you have enjoyed this new way of dyeing wool yarn using natural dyes in a creative way! Also you can read here for lots of step-by-step tutorials on natural dyeing and eco printing.
