What is the onion skin dye and how can you use it?
Believe it or not, the onion skin dye is one of the best natural dyes out there. The thing to keep in mind is that you can create this type of dye at home, and you can feel free to customize it and adapt it to your own needs. There are always challenges when it comes to tackling and adapting the onion skin the best way that you can. It really is a great opportunity to consider and one that can pay off bit time.
How can you prepare the onion skin dye?
You will first need to collect onion skins. You need 25g per every 100g of wool. This will help you get started quickly and it will make it easy for you to acquire the nuance and coloring you want. The yellow onion skins will offer a rich gold yellow to pumpkin shade. You can also go with red onion skins, but these will offer brown and greenish coloring. Sticking to either one or the other can be a really good idea.
Also, when you prepare the onion skin dye you will need a stainless steel pan that will fit your yarn, a fine sieve and 10g of salt per 100g of yarn. It’s a good idea to use superwash yarn in case you are new to this. Even if you aren’t, this approach will deliver a great result while also keeping you from major downsides.
Preparing the onion skin dye
You will need to place the onion skins in a stainless steel pan, you need to have enough water to cover it. Let it simmer for 30 minutes. Now that you have colored liquid, simmer that with the sieve and return it to the pan, add some salt and stir until the salt is dissolved.
You will have to squeeze that extra liquid from the yarn, add the yarn to the dye bath and stir it really well. Bring it to the boiling point and simmer for 30 minutes, you can stir from time to time too. The liquid will become clear and the dye will be absorbed. Let it reduce the temperature naturally, don’t rush it.
And that’s all there is to it when it comes to creating the onion skin dye. Yes, it’s not a simple process and it has its fair share of challenge. But it can work great if you adapt it to your own requirements and you will be quite happy with it and the way it works for sure.
We encourage you to use the onion skin dye approach if you want a natural dye that you can create and use on your own. While the process can take a bit of getting used to, the onion skin dye is amazing and it really works in masterful ways. Just consider giving it a shot and the experience will be a great one in the end. The results can be well worth it in the end!