Dyeing with Wine

I tried something new this week....at least, new to me.  I tried dyeing yarn with wine.   I had some old wine that I was going to dump out, but I decided to try dyeing with it instead.  I'd heard that you could dye with yarn, so I figured, why not give it a try!



I started with some Patons Wool in natural.  I wound it into a skein and tied it to keep it from tangling.   I then soaked it in water with a bit of vinegar to prep it.







In the crockpot, I put 3 bottles of wine....one of Cabernet Savignon and two of Merlot.   They were starting to turn, so they were a bit brownish, but still maintained a lot of the purple color.  (The DEFINITELY were no good for drinking!)  I heated the wine on high to prepare it for the yarn.

 

I then added the yarn, leaving the crock pot on high for about an hour and then turned it down to low for another couple of additional hours.

I rinsed it well and found that instead of a purple or pink, it dyed the yarn in a nice tan...with a slight dusty pink hue.   I like the color it produced, but it definitely wasn't the color I was expecting!