Onion-dyed Skein

The weather wasn't optimal for this solar-dyeing experiment, but I am pleased with the results. Ideally, it would have stayed hot for the full period, however, we moved into a cooling trend after just a few days. In all, the dye bath temperature was quite warm (I could still stick my hand in it) for the first 3-4 days of the 11 I left the yarn to steep, cooling to ambient (45-90 degrees) for the remaining time. I left the jar outside overnight, meaning it cooled down substantially and then had to re-warm during daylight hours, a slow process at best. This was 32 grams of handspun wool (Corriedale) with an equivalent amount of onion skins. I remembered to agitate it occasionally (maybe five times at most). Even so, the wool dyed very evenly.

Trying Dyeing

I've been dying to try this, and now I'm trying to dye this! For the last ten days or so, I have been spinning some very fine wool with the thought of solar-dyeing it with onion skins after turning it into a three-ply yarn. The farther I got into the project, the less willing I was becoming to sink it in a dye bath and risk ruining it. Then it occurred to me that I probably had a short skein of white Corriedale somewhere in my stash, and sure enough, I found just what I wanted: 32 grams, 38 yards. I've been saving onion skins for a couple of years (yes, really), so I weighed out an equivalent amount and put them in the "dye jar." I added tepid water to both jars, submerged my skein of wool in the other one, and set them out in the yard on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Once the wool has had an hour or two to hydrate, I'll transfer it to the dye jar. I have not mordanted this skein, but mordanting with alum can give a more vivid (but less permanent) colour. Wool is sensitive to temperature changes, so it's important to let both jars warm up at the same time. Every day for the next 7-14 days, I will slosh the wool gently in the dye bath until it reaches the colour saturation I want (or until no more dye transfers to it). Other colours can be achieved with solar dyeing using various natural materials like black-eyed susan petals, delphinium flowers, marigolds, etc. Some dye sources need for the wool to be mordanted, but the ones I listed do not. Using non-mordanted methods is a good way to break into dyeing.