Natural Dyes

I have been spinning and now I think I'll try dying the yarn.  All of the roving that I have is white and I'd like to experiment with plant dyes. 

First I need to soak the yarn in a fixative and simmer for an hour.  I'm going to try rasberry dye.  It's supposed to make a red dye.  To use rasberries I need to use salt for a fixative.  Other plants I might try are onion skins for orange, coffee grounds for brown, strawberries for pink, blueberries for blue, beets for a deep red, spinach or nettles for green.  These are all plants that I have around here.  There are a lot of plants that can be used for dyes and  a lot of information out there on dying.

I saw some of you have dyed yarn with kool-aid.  The colors are so beautiful.  How do you set the colors?  Do you have to do anything special?

Have a great week-end.

From Glory Farm