Dyeing Wool with Egg Color Dyes

The question of natural dyes had come up at one of the yahoo groups I belong to. I told the group that I sometimes use egg coloring dyes. This is a very safe way to dye wool especially if you are dyeing wool with your children. When I had my junior spinning group we would have dyeing days where the girls would bring their wool and I taught them how to dye. We used the egg colors and the wool came out beautiful. Today I had to custom dye some wool for a customer so I thought since all my dye stuff was already out why not do some egg color dyeing and take pictures of the process to share.

I usually use canning jars when I dye with these dyes but you can use your dye pot for larger quantities.

Step 1: Take a one gallon jug and fill it about 1/4 of the way with vinegar. Fill the remainder of the jug with water.

Step 2: Fill your canning jars about half way with this water/vinegar solution.

Step 3: Add 1 tablet of the color per 1 oz of wool to the jars. I used 4 tablets for 4 ozs of wool. (See picture 1)

Step 4: Add wet wool to the jar until it is full. Top off with the solution. (See picture 2)

Step 5: Place jars into a large pot, add water and bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer about 20 mins. (See picture 3)

Step 6: Let the jars cool before taking out the wool Then rinse the wool in warm water to remove any left over dye.

Step 7: Place wool on a screen to dry. You will have a rainbow of color drying in the sun. (See Pictures 4 and 5)

One of the great things about this kind of dyeing is it is so easy and not messy at all. You can make different colors by ading different tablets. I dyed up some wool using 2 purple and 2 red and got a rasberry like color. I put a green, yellow, orange in a jar and got a khaki color. I used 2 yellow and a green and got a light green. There are so many combinations you can try.

You may wonder if the color will last. Well, I had made a jumper for my daughter back when I discovered all this and she wore it for a long time. The color may have faded a little but no more than any clothing you would buy in a store. I think it depends on how you clean it.

All these fibers will be availale for sale at my website below. Have a great day! Anne

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