Coffee and Tea Dyeing Sock Yarn

Today was a successful experiment in dyeing naturally using tea and coffee. I have a lot of different types of teas. Yes, I love tea, but there is now way that I could drink all that I own. I had heard of coffee dyeing before and had wanted to try it. Lots of people have dyed successfully using coffee. So why not give it a try?

I had heard before that tea actually stains your teeth worse than coffee. I thought if this were true, it would make a great dye as well. With my unlimited supply of different varieties, I grabbed a couple of bags and went at it using this BLOG POST as a guide to get me started.

I used 10% WOG alum and 5% cream of tarter for each yarn that was soaked in bottled water. (The water here in town is very hard and I didn't want any surprises from it.) After squeezing all the water out, I put them into my tea and coffee solutions to set in my oven at 170 degrees for an hour. Then, after a thorough rinsing, I placed them outside to dry. They aren't very dark, but that's okay. I love the colors. Oh, and let me add it took a lot less tea to dye the yarn than coffee. I used 4 tea bags for 2 hanks versus 4 cups for 3 hanks.



The first photo is coffee and the second is my tea brew experiment. I personally love the tea version. It looks like a granny apple to me. I plan to explore more varieties of tea and see what happens. So stay tuned!