Dyeing Wool with Easter Egg Tablets Experiment

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Dyeing Wool with Easter Egg Tablets Experiment

Easter egg coloring kits were on sale for .60 after Easter so I decided to buy a few and conduct a few experiments. I have seen videos of people dying with Easter egg tablets before but it has usually been skeins or balls of yarn. I wanted to dye a pan of wool roving using every color in the kit. I will say, it turned out much better than I expected and I highly recommend for you to try it!

Below I am providing step by step instructions and have also included a video showing the steps. Have fun!

  1. Soak wool in a water/vinegar mixture for a few mins, and transfer to an oven safe dish. I did just enough water to go to the top of the wool but not submerge it. About 1/2 a cup of vinegar was put into the water.
  • Undyed Merino Wool Roving in Pan of Water
  • Open the tablet packs. Moisten a paper towel and 'draw' a line on the paper towel with the tablets to see what color they are.
  • Testing easter egg tablets on paper towel
  • Drop the Easter Egg tablets in various areas around the wool. If the tablet isn't dissolving put a tbsp of water on top of it, you will see it start bubbling when reacting to the vinegar. Make mindful choices of colors that are next to others... yellow/green/blue mix well as does blue/purple/red/pink. Some colors may turn muddy like green with purple so keep this in mind!
  • Once the tablets are mostly dissolved you can use a spoon to push the wool down and spread the color, or just leave it alone. The color will spread while in the oven.
  • Dissolved dye tablets on merino wool
  • Cover the dish with foil and place into a 350 degree oven. It can be pre-heated or not, if not you'll just need to keep it in longer. Bake until the color runs clear - this means the dye has picked up into the wool. I had to 'bake' this for 30-45 mins until my water ran clear. Don't be afraid if you need to put in for longer.
  • Once removed from the oven just leave to sit until cool. Don't jostle hot/wet wool or it may felt. Let it cool completely, and then you can rinse (gently) or squeeze our excess water.
  • Cooked wool that has soaked in dye
  • You can then hang the wool to dry. I use a hanger and place outside on a sunny day but you can also dry inside it'll just take longer.
  • Finished wool braid dyed with easter egg tablets

A few notes on this process...

  • The finished colors were actually very unexpected, but I love it. You will notice that before entering the oven the colors were super bright and rainbow. Once cooked they looked more jewel toned since some of them blended in the oven. The finished and dried braid is very forest toned.
  • Make sure to not jostle the wool when wet and warm or it may felt. You can push a spoon in, or gently move it to the side, but otherwise leave it untouched until cool.
  • I would definitely use tablets again, it was fun and easy. This time I used all colors, next time I may choose only 3-4 colors that compliment each other.

 


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