Blackberries aren’t just for eating! See how you can turn a delicious summer snack into a beautiful blackberry dye for your yarn.

A purple yarn rests on a blackberry bramble, next to a bunch of ripe blakberries.

After the success I had with my first attempt at naturally dyed yarn, I immediately wanted to give it another try. But instead of marigolds, this time I wanted to dye with blackberries.

Now, depending on where you live, this idea may seem crazy. I have seen the prices for blackberries, and the thought of buying blackberries to dye with instead of eat is shocking, to say the least. But I live in the Pacific Northwest. We have blackberry bushes growing all over the place. I even have a large blackberry bush right in my own backyard.

It’s been that time of year when I am harvesting and preserving blackberries daily, so I figured I could spare a batch for another dyeing experiment.

Like my marigold dyeing, the book Wild Color: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes by Jenny Dean was an amazing resource and I highly recommend picking up a copy if berry dyes are interesting to you!

Note: This process is intended for dyeing animal fibers. Results may vary with other fibers.

Blackberry Memories

A closeup of blackberries on the vine. Some are ripe, some are still red, and some have already been picked.

There is something so magical about picking and eating blackberries straight off the bramble. When I was little, blackberries grew in the alley behind my house. We would all go out and pick huge bowls of blackberries, then my mom would bake a blackberry cobbler for dessert. She even came over this year to pick berries with me, and brought a cobbler to share a few days later.

I’m so excited to share another great way to use this fruit.

What You’ll Need To Make Your Own Blackberry Dye

Before you get dying, there are a few things you need to have.

A big, non-reactive pot (or two)

To dye anything, you need to have a container that can hold everything. It needs to be big enough for what you want to dye, can handle different temperatures, and won’t react with your dye.

Believe it or not, what your dye pot is made out of can change the final color of your dyeing. Stainless steel is a good choice if you don’t want to worry about your dye reacting with your pot.

Whatever you use for dyeing don’t use it for cooking food! Keep all of your dyeing tools separate from your cooking tools.

Utensils

You’ll need something on hand to manipulate your yarn and dye, like a large spoon or tongs. Use something you don’t mind getting stained and won’t use for cooking.

Colander

If you are making natural dyes, it is super helpful to have a colander to separate your plant material from your dye, before you add your yarn (or anything else you want to dye). In this case, we’ll use it to strain berries out of our dye.

Scale

Natural dyeing is a scientific experiment, and you need a way to measure how much of everything you use. This also helps you repeat your colors in the future.

Alum

Adding alum powder to your yarn helps the dye stay colorfast. This means it won’t wash out of your yarn.

Lots of Blackberries!

To make a blackberry dye, you need blackberries! You need about as many blackberries (by weight) as yarn you are dyeing.

Yarn to Dye

Once you have your dye made up, you of course need something to dye! Just like with my marigold dye, I dyed some stricken lonk yarn that I spun myself. The nearly white color of this yarn makes a great base for dyeing.

You can also play around with dyeing different colors of wool, like brown or grey. You can even dye over a previously dyed yarn to get different colors.

A Notebook

While of course you can make blackberry dye without a notebook, it’s always a good idea to write down everything you are doing as you embark on your natural dyeing journey. There is no way you’ll remember all the details of each of your dye baths.

A page from the author's dyeing journal. Text reads, "Blackberry 1, August 2024, 690 grams berries, 3 liters water (tap) and simmer, 117 grams yarn and 2 teaspoon alum. Next day add 1 liter water to dye bath, rinse out alum, add to dye and simmer 45 minutes. A piece of the dyed yarn is taped to the page.

I use a simple black and white composition notebook where I jot down when I dyed, my measurements, and my process. You can even save a little bit of yarn in your notebook after you dye it.

The Dye Process

Making the Blackberry Dye

To make a blackberry dye, the first thing you need is blackberries! For me, this meant heading out to the backyard and picking a bowl full of berries.

A stainless steel pot full of blackberries.

Before popping them into my dye pot, I weighed how much I picked. I had nearly 700 grams of blackberries, which was more than enough berries to dye 120 grams of yarn.

With my berries in my dye pot, I covered them with about 3 liters of cold water. More or less water would have been fine, as long as there is enough to cover the yarn later.

A steaming pot on the stove full of blackberries and water.

My house smelled so good while the blackberries were simmering! Even though my mind knew it was for dyeing, my stomach definitely thought it was for eating!

Once the berries were completely broken down, and I had a nice, dark dye bath, I strained off the berries, and let the dye cool in the dye pot overnight.

Preparing the Yarn

While the blackberry dye was simmering, I got my yarn prepared for dyeing.

The first step in yarn dyeing preparation is to let it soak in water for at least 2 hours to make sure it is fully saturated. Wool has water repellent properties, so it takes a while to make sure it is totally soaked. This step makes sure everything absorbs into the yarn evenly later.

The next step in getting the yarn prepared for dyeing is to add the alum aka mordant solution. To make up this solution, dissolve your alum (use 10% of the weight of yarn you are dyeing) with a small amount of boiling water. Once the alum is dissolved, you can dilute it with as much water as you need to cover your yarn.

Once the yarn was fully saturated with plain water, I gently squeezed out excess water, then added it to the alum solution and left it overnight. The next day, it was ready to dye!

Dyeing Yarn with Blackberry Dye

Once your dye is made and your yarn is prepared, it’s finally time to dye your yarn!

Removing the yarn from the alum solution, I squeezed out the excess liquid. Then, I added my yarn to the dye pot and gently bring it up to a simmer over a low heat.

While it didn’t smell bad, exactly, the smell of blackberries and sheep did not smell nearly as good as making the dye did the day before.

White yarn soaking in a blackberry dye bath.

I left the yarn to simmer in the blackberry dye for about 45 minutes. Then, I turned off the heat and let the yarn and dye cool to room temperature overnight.

Finishing the Yarn

Once the yarn was cool enough to handle, I removed it from the blackberry dye, and rinsed it until all the excess dye was gone, and the water ran clear.

With the dye rinsed off, I gave my yarn a squeeze to remove the last of the water, and hung it up to dry.

Blackberry Dyed Yarn

I absolutely love the color this turned out. It’s a beautiful dark mauve. When I first made the blackberry dye, it had a reddish tone that I though might show in the final dye, but it made a very cool shade of purple instead.

Yarn after dyeing with blackberries rests on wrought iron.

Even though purple isn’t the most common color in nature, this dye created an earthy purple that I just love.

If you have blackberries all over this summer, I hope you throw some in a pot and make your own blackberry dye!

Blackberry dyed yarn rests on the leaves of a blackberry bush.

Dyeing Yarn with Blackberry Dye – Printable Instructions