How to Dye Wool with Rit

Written by faithfamilyfiber

The internet is full of ways to dye wool naturally.

I must gather bushels of flower heads or something similar, use mordants, and simmer for hours.

Interesting, yes, but very time consuming. And where do I find the materials?

So I chose to dye my wool with easy to use, inexpensive, readily available Rit dye!

This one I found on clearance at JoAnn Fabrics.

I gathered my materials.

  • large pot
  • long wooden spoon
  • scale
  • vinegar
  • Rit dye

Oh yes, and lots of lovely wool.

This wool has previously been washed and is dry.

I placed my pot on the scale and adjusted it back to zero. That way I knew the weight of the wool I was adding without concerning myself with the weight of the pot.

One pound of wool. It will fit when it’s wet!

Once I had weighed one pound of wool, I took it out of the pot and set it aside.

I set the pot on the stove and added three gallons of hot water and one cup of white vinegar. Then I took two cups of hot water and mixed in the dye powder.

I added it to the pot of water and turned on the burner.

I stirred a bit to make sure the dye and vinegar were mixed in well.

Then I added the wool, pressing it under the water with the wooden spoon.

See, it does fit!

I stirred it around a bit while I brought the dye water to a simmer. Once simmering, I set a timer for 30 minutes and cleaned up my kitchen 😄, stopping to stir the wool around every few minutes.

Here is my wool after 30 minutes.

I lifted the wool out of the dye water with the spoon and put it in a bucket, rinsed it with warm water, and dumped it into my washing machine to spin out.

After a couple of times through the spin cycle I spread it out on an old sheet to dry.

There it is! Beautifully dyed wool!

It is quick and easy to dye wool with Rit dye. And fun too! But one thing I want to mention is that I am using the wool from my Horned Dorset sheep. It does not felt easily at all. If you have a fleece that felts easily, I suggest being very gentle and avoiding sudden temperature changes when rinsing.

Now go ahead and dye that wool!