Today’s topic is all about overdyeing and modifying yarn colors you don’t like. Let’s talk about what you can do when you are not content with the yarn color you created.
With natural dyeing, you never completely know how the final colorway is going to look like. To me, personally, this is part of the beauty of dyeing with natural materials. But it also carries an element of risk. What do you do when you obtain a colorway that is not appealing to you? Force yourself to use it anyway? Give it away?
Especially if sustainability is of importance to you, you naturally want to make sure that you cherish and use your hand dyed yarns. Luckily, there are different possibilities to adapt a colorway that didn’t turn out as expected. Let’s have a look at the options.
If you want to learn how to dye yarn with natural dyes, you can check out this step by step tutorial on my Youtube channel:
#1 Overdyeing Yarn Colors
If you are not happy with the colorway you received, placing the yarn in another dye bath and simply overdyeing the first color is a great option. This will be easiest with lighter colored yarns. But you can also try it out with darker yarns. Overdyeing darker colors works best if you are looking for a subtle shift of the hue rather than a complete color change.
For this method, you should have a look at the color wheel to find out what color you need to overdye the yarn with in order to create the colorway you are looking for. For example, in the left picture above you can see a yarn I created from a nearly exhausted dye bath. The colorway was too soft and not convincing enough for my taste. I decided to overdye it with indigo in order to achieve a light mint colorway (right picture).
#2 Modifying Yarn Colors
Another wonderful and simple option is to modify the colorway with iron sulfate after the dyeing process is complete. I have described my process for using iron sulfate as a modifier in this blog post. In short, place the scoured yarn in an iron sulfate bath and let it sit for about 30 minutes without applying any heat. This is usually sufficient to encourage a color change. If the color hasn’t really changed after half an hour, I allow the yarn to sit in the iron sulfate bath for up to one hour total.
The only downside is the fact that using iron sulfate as a modifier doesn’t work with every dyestuff. For example, placing a yarn that has been dyed with cochineal in an iron bath doesn’t change the hue of the color.
On the other hand, I have had great success with modifying yarns that have been dyed with rosemary, pine needles, nettles and rose petals. All of the colorways changed significantly and beautifully. Avocado, lavender and eucalyptus are also good choices for being modified with iron sulfate. Here is an overview on the colorways you can create with iron sulfate and different plant materials:
| Plant Material | Color after Natural Dyeing | Color after Modifying with FeSO4 |
| Avocado | dusty pink | dusty purple |
| Roses | beige or yellow (depending on the rose) | grey/green |
| Eucalyptus | beige | grey |
| Lavender | beige | grey |
| Elder Leaves | yellow | green |
| Pine Needles | yellow | green |
| Nettles | soft yellow/beige | dusty green |
| Rosemary | yellow/light brown | green |
#3 Partially Adding More Color
Yet another way to change the color of a yarn you created is the option of adding additional color to parts of the yarn. This can be as simple as adding some speckles. You can also create a variegated yarn by only allowing part of the yarn to get in contact with the second dye bath.
Here is an example of one of my favorite colorways that started out as one of those “ugly skeins”. Unfortunately I don’t have a before picture to show you. But let me explain the process. First, I dyed the yarn in a rose petals dye bath with only parts of the yarn being touched by the dye solution. The result was a rather unimpressive lightly variegated yarn in natural and beige hues. Then I decided to add some speckles using cochineal. Since the yarn still didn’t look “finished” to me, I decided to emerge it in an iron sulfate bath. This did the trick and the former beige spots turned into a lovely shade of green while the pink cochineal speckles maintained their color. I liked the colorway so much that I decided to name it “Secret Garden” after one of my favorite childhood books.
I hope these three options gave you some inspiration of how you can adapt a colorway if you are not happy with the result of your natural dyeing endeavor in the first place. Do you have any other recommendations of how to change yarn colors you don’t like? Come share in the comments, I would love to know.
Pin It For Later: Overdyeing And Modifying Yarn Colors You Don’t Like
Want to learn how to dye yarn using natural dyes?
I have created a beginner’s guide to natural dyeing that contains everything you need to know to get started. And the best thing: it is available for free!
