Eggs to Dye For

We haven't really dyed eggs as a family before. For one thing, Nathan had a bad experience with egg salad as a child, and now the smell of boiled eggs makes him sick. Also, until this year Annalee was a little too young for it to be worth all the mess that was sure to come. So this year I decided we would dye eggs, but with a twist. We opted for a no-mess method of dyeing with silk. You can read about it at Martha Stewart, but wouldn't you rather read about it here?

After Nathan left the house Annalee and I cut up Nathan's silk ties. Oh, I guess I should clarify that they were silk ties that he wanted to get rid of anyway.

With Vander watching from the sidelines we wrapped each RAW egg in a square of silk. We did this part on the carpet so dropped eggs wouldn't automatically break on the table. Then we wrapped the silken egg in a square of white cotton from an old t-shirt rag and tied with a twist tie.
The recipe said I had to boil the eggs in a glass or ceramic pot. Huh. We didn't have one. Neither did 4 of our neighbors. Finally, Google explained to me (LOVE Google) that glass and ceramic pots are non-reactive, and so is stainless steel. Since all of my pots are stainless steel I decided to go for it and pray they turned out.

I boiled the eggs in my stainless steel pot of water with a slosh of vinegar (measuring is boring) for 30 minutes. Then we put the eggs in ice water to cool them off enough for handling.

Annalee and Nathan unwrapped the eggs.

We were so egg-cited to see if they would turn out!

They did!

The patterns from the ties transferred beautifully onto the eggs. Some were definitely prettier than others, but then, Nathan had only let us cut up his ugly ties. Go figure. I was especially proud of this music note.

And everyone agreed this purple paisley was the prettiest.

This year at garage sales I will keep my eyes out for cheap silk ties, boxers, or blouses that are more colorful and fun.

Overall, I'm pleased with how things turned out and that there was absolutely no colorful, staining mess!