Creating your own hand dyed wool is not difficult and can be fun. With a little practice, you will make a beautiful and unique thread. Here is a recipe with grape juice. With wool you will get a powdery pink color, with cotton you will get a soft lavender.

The following yarn dye is made from frozen juice that you can buy at your local grocery store. You will also need some salt.

First of all, you need to select the yarn to be dyed by hand. Different fibers take dye differently. Wool yarn, such as Lion Wool, takes color much more easily than other fibers. Cotton takes on very subtle pastel shades when dyed by hand. In fact, you will find that using the same dye on a wool fiber and a cotton fiber can produce different colored fibers.

All the equipment you need to dye yarn is in the kitchen. Until very recently, dyeing yarn by hand was a fairly common activity in most kitchens. The following items are what you will need.

1. A good knife and cutting board.

2. Stainless steel or enamel pots. Do not use those that are coated with non-stick materials.

3. A stove, of course.

4. A timer – not an egg timer but something that lasts for a period of time; a watch will suffice.

5. You need flip flops or spoons to handle the yarn. If you are doing more than one color at a time, you need to use different utensils.

6. You need a clothesline or some other place to allow your yarn to dry.

7. Take notes. If you do a color you like you will want to repeat it; detailed notes on amounts and timing will help you repeat the process.

Make the Grape Juice Dye

This amount is enough to make 2 balls of wool or cotton: 2 large cans of frozen grape juice; you can use fresh grapes; 4 tablespoons of salt; 4 cans of water.

Bring the above to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Tie the yarn for dyeing into a skein. It should be rolled loosely so that the dye can circulate freely, but also secured so that it doesn’t tangle; you don’t want to spend a lot of time untangling it when it’s wet. Tying is particularly important for wool yarn, which will feel together if allowed to move during dyeing. Here is how to make the packages:

Wrap the yarn into a large loop. You can do this in a snap; wrapping it around the back of a chair; wrapping it around his forearm with his fingers; under your elbow and back up.

Secure the coiled yarn by tying it loosely in two places using short sections.

If your pot is small, double the loop, twist it into a smaller circle, and secure with two more short pieces of twine.

You help to spread the dye evenly but first you moisten the wool.

Carefully lower the wool into the dye bath.

Cook the thread for 1 hour. If the liquid evaporates below the height of the thread, you can add more water.

Test the color by taking a small section and rinsing it. If you like the color you can remove the wool or leave it longer so that it takes on more color.

After an hour, remove the thread from the bath and rinse it under cold water. Rinse the yarn until the water runs clear. DO NOT throw away the dye bath until the wool has completely dried and you know you are happy with the color. Find out if your yarn is colorfast by rinsing it with soap and water. It’s better to find out now before turning the thread into something.

Drain the thread.

Cut the second set of loops in the thread, but leave the first ones so that the thread is in one large loop.

When dyeing wool, put it back on the swift or meat or whatever you used when you first wound it. Rewind the yarn into a ball, and then rewind it into your loop. This will help remove some of the threads that may have felted a bit. Wool is much easier to untangle when it is wet.

Hang the thread to dry naturally.