Natural Yarn Dyeing - Red Onion Skin

This and the yellow onion skin dye are so far the easiest and fastest of all the dyes I've tried. Enjoy!

RED ONION SKIN 

PREPARING THE YARN

• I decided to dye 25 grams of wool yarn so keep this in mind when reading all of my other measurements!

1. Soak yarn in room temperature water overnight

2. Rinse yarn with dish soap (I used the brand dawn, which supposedly doesn't change the ph of the yarn as much as other dish soaps) - this step is to clean any oils and such off before dyeing

MORDANT

• To help the dye actually stick to the yarn!

1. Heat 2 cups of Tap water
2. Add 2 grams of cream of tartar + 2 grams of Alum to the 2 cups of hot water from step 1, STIR until mixed in! 
3. Add 6 cups of cool water + water/cream of tartar/alum from step 2 to a stainless steal pot (one that you do not use for cooking).
4. If water is cool enough then add the 25 grams of wet wool yarn to the pot
5. Simmer (do not let it boil) for 45 minutes
6. Set pot with yarn aside to cool, you can take the yarn out of the pot to cool down as well (DO NOT  use cold water to cool the yarn down! This will cause it to felt)
7. Once cool, Rinse yarn well.

PREPARING THE DYE

1. Add 9 cups of water + 10.5 grams of red onion skin to your stainless steel pot
2. Simmer (do not let it boil) for 1 hour
3. Pour the dye liquid into a container, strain out the onion skins (I gave them a squeeze to get the extra liquid out)
4. Allow to cool down!

This is the yarn right when I took it out of the pot. So it's still wet here. Do you see the sort of greenish tint in the bottom area.

On the left is the Yellow onion skin, middle is the dry red onion skin (hot), and the right is the semi-disappointing spinach dye.

DYEING THE YARN!

1. Add 7 cups of dye liquid + wet/mordanted yarn to the stainless steel pot
2. Simmer (do not let it boil) for 1 hour
3. Set aside and allow to cool, you can also take the yarn out of the water to cool (again... don't use cold water to cool it down. Just give it time)
4. Once cool, rinse with dish soap (I used Dawn)
5. Rinse with water until water runs clear
6. Set out of direct sunlight to dry (Sunlight will make the color fade on whichever side is facing the sun!)

After it cooled down and I rinsed it out! Time to hang it up and let it dry.

1. The natural color of the yarn. I used the Knit Picks Bare Wool Yarn. 2. Red Onion Skin Dye Hot (A.KA. This one!) 3. Yellow Onion Skin Dye 4. Red Onion Skin Dye Cold 5. Spinach Dye 6. Black Bean Dye 7. Black Bean Dye with Ammonium 8. Black Bean Dye with Vinegar

HAVE FUN!!!!! SEND ME PICTURES IF YOU END UP TRYING THIS! I'M SO CURIOUS TO SEE HOW OTHER PEOPLE'S WILL TURN OUT!

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