Dyeing yarn with tea and other friday joys

Hello dear friends! This week I have been dyeing yarn with tea. Heavenly fun, let me tell you. I was like a child when I peeked into my dyeing kettle over and over again and wanted to see the colour to transform from white to this glorious autumnal shade of orange/brown .

If you want to try this you need:
150 g wool yarn (little skeins are best)
4 dl vinegar
4 dl water
a bowl
a kettle full of water
8 tea bags (assam for instance)

This is my white yarn

First I soaked yarn in a mixture of vinegar and water for 20 minutes. While the yarn was in the water vinegar bowl I heated  water with tea bags in a huge kettle. I did not let it boil but it needs to be almost boiling. Then I squeezed vinegar and water off from the yarn and put some of the yarn in to the tea kettle (some I put later for getting a lighter shade of orange). I turned heat off and put a lid on the kettle and left the yarn there for several hours. Then I washed the yarn and hung it to dry.
If you string the skeins tight enough you will have almost white stripes to those parts of the skeins. In my case I noticed this only when dyeing proces was finished but actually I love this kind of imperfection. There is a feel of handwork in those skeins.

I think this dyed yarn goes so beautifully together with Onion wool I bought from a yarn shop. It is 70 % organic wool and 30 % nettle fibers.

This evening I am knitting with jumbo knitting needles and having tea and cinnamon buns because today is a cinnamon bun day (in Sweden but I think days like that are ment to be celebrated everywhere :)) . Fun and relaxing!

I am wishing you a lovely weekend.
Hugs,
Anu