One of my favorite dye techniques to date is dip-dyeing. I love self-striping yarns for socks, but dip-dyeing can also be used for subtler effects.
There are a couple of ways to do this depending on which colors you are combining and how you want the final yarn to turn out. In this example I’ll discuss the various combinations of madder (red/coral) plus osage orange (gold / yellow) but you can apply these same ideas to other color combinations.
Option 1:
Dip half of the skein in osage orange and leave the other half out of the pot. Wait 30 minutes. Add the entire skein to the madder pot and leave overnight. Result: tangerine and dark coral stripes.
Option 2:
Dip half the skein in madder and leave the other half out of the pot. Wait 30 minutes. Add the entire skein to the osage orange pot and leave overnight. Result: peach and yellow stripes.
Option 3:
Place the entire skein in the osage orange pot and wait 30 minutes. Then dip half of the skein into the madder pot and leave overnight. Result: peach and dark coral stripes.
Option 4:
Place the entire skein in the madder vat and leave for 30 minutes. Dip half the skein in the osage orange vat and leave overnight. Result: pink coral stripes with a slightly darker peach accent stripe.
If you are trying your hand at natural dyeing please let us know your results!
