Review: Dyeing Yarn Naturally

As I was reading Dyeing Yarn Naturally by Ria Burns, I realized I’ve actually dyed more yarn in my career as a knitter than I generally think about. I’ve used Kool-Aid, Easter egg dye, tie dye and natural dye from a kit. I’ve also dyed yarn with dandelions from my yard and strawberries left in the fridge a bit too long.

Every time I read about dyeing I want to do more of it, and this book is definitely inspiring and approachable when it comes to dyeing techniques you can use with materials you can grow, forage or buy.

The book begins with the basic techniques of yarn preparation: making the yarn into a hank, scouring and mordanting. It explores general methods for using natural materials to dye with, either by putting the flowers, roots or other materials directly in the pot with the yarn, extracting the color and using that liquid to dye the yarn, as well as other techniques like solar dyeing, indigo preparations (which get their own chapter) and bundle dyeing.

Methods such as dip dyeing, tie dyeing and using additives to change the color in the yarn are also discussed.

Best of all, the book includes “recipes” or guidelines for using different common natural materials (only plants, not animal-based dyes), from onion skins and avocado stones to madder, coreopsis and marigold, ivy to walnuts. If you’re at all inclined to try natural dyeing you’ll probably be thinking, “oh, I can get that” as you read. (Example: we have black walnut trees in our yard and you can dye with the husks, which the squirrels are happy to leave lying around.)

There’s also information on growing and processing your own plants for dye making and tips on testing for light fastness, reusing dye liquid, dyeing finished objects and more.

Dyeing Yarn Naturally is a great general overview of the process of dyeing yarn with natural materials. The author is English, so the focus is on materials available there, but you can always scour your own yard and public spaces (if foraging is allowed) to find the dye plants that are local to you.

About the book: 96 pages, paperback, 25 plant profiles. Published 2023 by the Crowood Press. Suggested retail price $19.99.

Tutorial – Dying Yarn with Koolaid….

Try Something New: Dyeing Yarn with Natural Colors

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

Have you read?