Tea-dyed Yarn

A few weeks ago I saw this pattern from Knitspot, and although I've got waaaaaaaay too many projects going right now, I just had to purchase it immediately. I blame it on pre-delivery depression, therefore the cost is accrued to therapy expenses. Completely understandable.

I love colors, but for a shawl I think I prefer something that will match with everything. Therefore, I opted to purchase some lovely 100% Merino Skacel laceweight yarn in a solid white color and tea-dye it for a semi-solid affect (MUCH cheaper than purchasing it that way already).

To do this, I first soaked the skein in cold water for 30 minutes until it was well saturated. Then, I gently wrung it out and put it in my kitchen sink. (My sink was semi-clean. Ahhhhh, just notice and admire. This will most likely not happen again.)

While the skein was soaking, I boiled a pot of very strong black tea. I drank some. Then I drank some more. When I felt happy with life, I took out the tea bags. By this time, the tea was cool enough to pour over the skein with no danger of felting the wool.

Since I'm going for a semi-solid affect, I only poured the tea in three spots on the skein, each spot about 4 inches wide. I poured enough tea over these spots until all the yarn in that area was well saturated.

When I was satisfied with the saturation, I gently wrung it out. I had to be careful not to let the tea sections bleed into the un-dyed sections. Then, I just hung the skein outside in the sun to dry.

"Ahhhh, what a nice warm day to get a tan . . ."

Here's the finished skein, all bundled up and pretty-looking.

"Why thank you! I'm a natural semi-solid, I can assure you!"

Wool is such a diva.