Dyeing wool yarn naturally with the red yeast rice

Natural yarn dyeing with red yeast rice

red yeast rice
yarn dye

Here is a video of how I dyed my wool yarn with red yeast rice. I have some red yeast rice leftover from the Wu Jia Pi winemaking project (see another post). It gives the medicinal wine a deep red tint. I thought it might give the wool yarn some degree of color too. The result is a light red, peachy color. I will try to experiment with different herbs for different colors next time.

I also showed you in the video how I wind the yarn into a skein first with the back of a stool, in case you do not have a yarn swift.

The ingredient is simple: Red yeast rice is available online or from some Chinese supermarket. White vineger to prepare the yarn set the color, and glass container that is microwave safe. You can also cook on stovetop or crockpot too.

Watch the video