Apple Oak Fibre Works Elderberry Kit Review

I’ve been looking into trying natural dyeing lately so when I found Apple Oak Fibre Works- a company that sold kits I was all in to try it. I started with an elderberry kit; I thought it'd be the easiest and would probably smell the best.

The kit comes with all the mordant, elderberries, and modifier (in this case soda ash) you need to do 300g+ of fibre.

When I bought the kits I bought 3 skeins of sock yarn each, but I wish I had bought more and mordanted more. Basically, you get really good colour with the first 300g, but after that, you can dip to your heart’s content and see what you get. Since I’m limited on dye specific pots and… other liquid holders? I decided to just do the three.

I used a hot mordant because I’m the worst at planning ahead. I’m not sure if this was the best call- I think the amount of heat agitated the yarn a bit too much. It definitely didn’t felt but I think the softness was affected.

A note on the zip ties: Those aren’t included with the kit, but if you dye yarn do yourself a favour and get a few reusable zip ties to loop loosely around the yarn. It makes the entire process so much easier.

I prepared the dye liquor in the pot I mordanted in but with fresh water. For elderberries (and apparently all berries) you need to boil them for an hour. I cannot understate just how good this smelled. It was truly incredible. I did a bit of a hack job of my straining because I didn’t think to use my plastic rinsing bucket. I kind of went on the, “will it really matter if there’s random berries floating around?” train.

It matters.

Washing out the berries was impossible and I was still picking out berry bits while knitting.

I dyed two skeins in the first bath, then left one and set one in the modifier for an hour.

The modifier is magic. You’re basically creating an acidic solution for the elderberry dye, then creating a basic solution to turn it from pink to green. Remember playing with pH as a kid in school? It’s magical, and this was exactly the same. I had the third skein in the dye for another hour while I did this and decided to go half and half with it.

This is the skein I knit my library socks out of!

All up, this was a truly magical experience. There’s something about natural dyeing that makes you feel both like a magical fairy princess and an old potions witch at the exact same time and that’s really the vibe I need in my life right now.

At first, I wasn’t a fan of these kits not coming with the fibre, but at the same time it’s nice that you can choose from any natural protein fibre- I love a good sock yarn moment, but I also want to use this recipe on some silk fabric to make a gorgeous slip or dress. I really do recommend their sock base though. It’s 60% wool with 20% silk and 20% ramie added for strength. Between it being completely natural and the dye being completely natural I know that if it comes to the point where I can’t repair the socks anymore I can just throw them in the compost and they’ll keep going forever and ever.

Speaking of plastic-free, this kit did it for my little environmentalist heart. Besides the overall good horticultural practices that Apple Oak Fibre Works uses, I also love the reusable cotton bag and the fact that all the ingredients went straight into the compost. Also, the sticker peeled off the box and left me with just a really, really nice plain box.

Maybe I’m just old but there’s a lot of joy in a good box.

I’d 100% recommend this kit and I can’t wait to try the rest of them!

You can get the Apple Oak Fibre Works Kit here.

I’ve also made a video about the process so if you want to see me fumble around a bit, check it out.