Tea Dyed Crochet Mandalas

After making a mandala with this pattern on Easy Crochet, I felt inspired to crochet more mandalas. Mandalas are great for mental relaxation and have a meditative quality about them, perfect for mindless crochet.

Using white cotton yarn, I started making a small mandala and then another and so far I have made four. I'm not sure what their purpose will be yet but I do have some ideas. One thing I was sure I wanted to experiment with was tea-dyeing the mandalas.

Tea Dyed Crochet Mandala - An Experiment

Here's how I dyed, or stained, my mandalas:

I boiled about 2 cups of water and used 4 tea bags (Earl Grey, because it smells so nice).

After letting the tea steep a few minutes I gently immersed the mandalas into the tea dye and let them soak for about an hour. Then I rinsed them under lukewarm water, re-shaped them and laid them flat to dry. This is the part that took the longest - cotton is super absorbent and since I didn't stain the yarn before crocheting and I did this during a rainy weekend I felt like it took forever to dry. Also, I noticed that the top side of each mandala had a much darker stain than the bottom, could be from not rinsing the mandala enough but I really like how it looks.

Have you ever tried dyeing yarn with tea? Would love to know your experience!

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This pattern is for personal use only. The pattern and its photos may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted in any way over the internet or offline.

You may sell finished items made from this pattern as long as it is handmade by you, not mass produced, giving the credit to Pops de Milk / Patricia Castillo as the designer. If you have any questions, you can email me at patricia@popsdemilk.com