Dyeing Yarn Naturally with Eucalyptus Bark, A Tutorial

Early this morning, while walking in our garden, I could feel the slow approach of Autumn. The air was crisp and cool and sunsets seem to arrive earlier each day now… I thought today would be a lovely day to take a step towards Autumn and dye some Boucle’ mohair yarn in this lovely Autumn shade. I really do enjoy Autumn, it is my favourite season…

I am going to share a tutorial here with you of how I dyed my yarn, I am dyeing this yarn especially for Waldorf doll hair as I thought it would be a lovely addition to my shop… Quite a few months ago our family went on a bike ride together and we rested for a while in a park. The park had so many Eucalyptus trees and there was so much bark lying all over the grass. We collected some and brought it home and it does dye up so beautifully. I was amazed at how the water changed from clear to a delightful red brown as soon as the bark heated up in the water…

This is some of the Eucalyptus bark I used, 100 grams / 3.5 ounces dyes up 100 grams / 3.5 ounces of yarn. I broke the bark into small pieces and added it to the water and heated the pot until steaming and let it heat for about an hour.

Then turn off the heat and let it stand for about 12 hours, ensuring your bark is wonderfully wet and has let out most of its colour. When you are ready to dye your yarn, don’t let the water boil or it can change the water to a brown colour instead of the lovely red brown.

While the dye bath was heating up again slowly after standing for 12 hours or so, the boucle mohair yarn was soaking in water for about 20 minutes.  

This is the lovely red brown colour… Then, when the dye bath was warm, I strained it and just used the lovely rich liquid…

I squeezed out the excess water from the mohair yarn and added it to the warm dye bath. I let it steam, not boil, on a medium heat for about an hour. Then I let it cool down and rinsed the yarn out until there was no brown run off and the rinse water was clear.

I hung it out to dry.

It dried to a beautiful golden brown colour…