Some folks dye eggs on Easter, but I simmered up some wool in my favorite green and purple instead.
Soak yarn in warm-ish water and white vinegar in a simmering/soup pot for a while. I don’t know how much or for how long, I just pour in what feels right but doesn’t smell too bad and wait until I get bored with waiting.
Drag out the yarn for a second and add food dye. Again, I’ve just experimented enough to know how much is enough. Not sure I’ll ever get into precision dyeing for myself.
Don’t you love the gnome-y bottles?
I used the basic green and yellow to make the green (one bottle of each to dye two 220yd hanks of worsted) and a whole thingy of the neon purple to do one hank of this purple. I was going for really saturated colors this time. You can use less or mix and match other colors to get wildly varying results.
Simmer for a while and then turn off the heat and let it cool. The yarn soaks up all the dye and the water it’s sitting in becomes practically clear. Then carefully wash the hanks and rinse until the water runs clear again.
The McCormick’s dyed colors have been colorfast and lightfast for me for the past six years. And I love the vibrancy of this particular green. It really is the best green ever and no blanket of mine is complete without it.
That green is absolutely perfect! You’re making me wish I knit/crocheted!
L.o.v.e the colours! Can’t wait to try them on some wool! We “stole” some pink for Easter cupcakes yesterday :)
Those are lovely shades of green and purple. Green and purple happen to be a favorite color combination of mine. I may have to give this a try.
Thanks for sharing your method! I really want to try this out! :)
Oh wow! The colors are lovely. I wonder if some of the fancy icing dyes they sell at Sur la Table would be as colorfast? But the McCormick’s results are impressive!
I don’t know what brand that is. I’ve use Wilton’s dye paste before and love the results but then had dye come off in my hands and bleed while blocking. It must need more careful dissolving at first and maybe more acid to make the yarn take it up? The colors are brilliant though.
The Paas egg dyes also give amazing colors, but they fade quickly if exposed to light.
Love the green and purple! That’s got to be the best color combination evah. I have yet to meet a green/purple combo I didn’t like.
Ooh! These are so pretty! I did some with Paas last year but made them so multicoloured I still have no clue what to make with them. I love the resul with the neon food colouring. Must try!
I love those two colors. I’ve never heard of this brand of colors.
Beautiful! I’ve only ever dyed yarn with Kool-Aid, which was super fun. These particular hues are gorgeous! I’ve had a few undyed skeins sitting in my closet, and now seems like the perfect time to give it another go!
Lovely. I have a question for you, which I hope you might consider posting about sometime–if you haven’t already. (maybe I better go search the archives).
I’m curious about where you do your crafting: a whole room, a part of another room, etc. You do so many diverse things (knitting, crocheting, quilting, yarn dyeing) and I just wondered if you have a special spot for all your supplies or . . .
I would like to explore sewing more; but, I fear I don’t have the right space. Just wondered if you had an idea based upon your experience.
I hope these aren’t dumb questions, but I have a few. I knit (a little) and crochet. I’ve always just bought whatever yarn i like in a store and use that. I’m not very familiar with wool yarn, but I have used some wool blends. One question is: If you use 100% wool yarn for this? and if so, doesn’t 100% wool yarn felt when washed? I’m not sure about any of that but for some reason I thought if you use wool yarn in a project and then wash it, it will felt. Do you machine wash and dry your crocheted blankets? What type of yarn do you use? The blankets you make with the dyed yarn, does it wash out or fade when you wash them?
It’s been years since I’ve crocheted blankets and when I did I always bought machine washable and dryable yarn.
I love your colors and I would have never thought to use food coloring to dye yarn! Now I want to try it in every imaginable color! Would love to know the brand/type of yarn you used for this. Oh and is it white or off white or does it matter?
I’ll also reply by email, but wanted to respond to this for everyone to see too.
I use only 100% wool yarn in my blankets. I wash by hand and lay flat to dry. It’s not the kind of care and maintenance everyone would want to do, but I prefer to work with wool so I suffer the consequences. There are some lovely acrylics, some superwash wools and blends on the market that can ease your mind with washing. It doesn’t seem ideal to put any blanket in the dryer, however.
This “recipe” only works for 100% wool; you’ll need to do different things otherwise so Google for info. The handdyed yarns I have used don’t bleed or fade when laundered as I do.
The base yarn is KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in their “yarn for dyeing” section.
thanks for posting your answers here…you also answered one of mine. can’t wait to see what beauty you create with these rich colors.
Wow. I never thought to use food color for dye… We used those neon colors for our eggs this year. They turned out so vibrant!
I’ll have to try this!
That is a fabulous green! Your zucchini bread is making my stomach growl too!
Love, love, love these hues. And they are perfect together. :)
I haven’t done any dyeing in almost a year but this post makes me want to dye yarn today.
I haven’t ever tried dyeing wool with the McCormick’s food coloring but I think I know what I’m doing tonight. I love how saturated these turned out!
WOW!!! I never ever would have believed you could do something so fabulous with food coloring!
I had no idea that food coloring would be so colorfast! That is an awesome green. I’ll have to try this sometime. Thanks for the tutorial :)
Gosh, those colors are amazing!
That green is amazing. I used to dye with Kool-Aid, which is also superfun and smells fruit-a-licious! You’ve inspired me to try this again.
Awesome. I am gearing up to do some dyeing!!
love. love. love! thanks for the tutorial.
i happen to have those neon colors in my pantry . . . hm . . . that purple could be MINE! :)
I have not once in all these years of knitting *itched* to dye yarn. Until today.
Those are fabulous colors!
;)
Dyeing yarn is something I would love to learn more about…in fact, one of my amazing bloggy friends who used to dye sent me all her materials (dye, bare yarn etc) but I haven’t had time to figure it all out. I never realized you could use food dye in this manner…thanks for sharing. I see some experimentation in my future!