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.