Name: Gayle
Message: Hello. I make baskets from pine needles, but don't like the colors commercial (Rit) dyes allow. Too pure a color--I like more translucent. I still want the pine needle to look like a pine needle, just tinted. Any ideas?

Perhaps you should simply use a smaller quantity of dye, for more natural colors, or perhaps you need to do more rinsing after dyeing, so that no unattached dye is left, opaquely sitting on the surface of your pine needles. As far as color itself is concerned, more natural-looking colors may be obtained by adding a small amount of the opposite color - e.g., add a little red to your green, or a little orange to your blue.

All-purpose dyes such as Rit may not be your best choice. PRO Chemical & Dye recommends the use of Procion MX type dyes for dyeing basket reed - see http://www.prochemical.com/directions/MX_BasketReed.htm - which might be similar for this purpose. Fiber reactive dyes such as Procion MX have the advantage of working at room temperature, instead of requiring heat for good results, as all-purpose dyes do. They must still be rinsed out after dyeing with a considerable amount of water until all unattached dye is removed.

Fiber reactive dyes are highly superior to all-purpose dyes for dyeing cotton, linen, rayon, and other cellulose fibers. You should never use all-purpose dyes for dyeing cotton clothing, because the results from fiber reactive dyes are so much better. However, since I have never used them on pine needles, I am not sure whether the differences between the two classes of dyes will be significant for your purposes.