how to dye wool roving basic color

This is a short tutorial on how to dye white merino wool roving to a beige color. I needed a beige color for a project that I'll be working on soon and low and behold I didn't have any. I didn't have any money to buy any so I referred to the dying trick. You will need black tea bags I used 4 but you can use less or more depending on the beige darkness or lightness you are wanting. You will also need red jelly crystals, pink would work as well but basically the red hue is to add to the more realistic share that we are after.

wool I used merino wool roving in batting form, this is about 40 grams worth and fit easily into the pot with the help of my trusty wooden spoon. This is pure white merino wool.

Next I added hot boiling water from the kettle to the saucepan and added a pinch of jelly crystals to the water and added the tea bags, waited until the mixture was boiling and bubbling on the stove and added my wool, submerging it with the wooden spoon.


I then had this in the mixture for about fifteen minutes the first ten minutes was bubbling furiously away and then for the last five I reduced the heat a little for it to simmer. I poured the mixture out into the strainer, picked out the tea bags and squeazed excess water. You don't have to rinse this wool any further.

Here is the wool partly dryed