Yarn dyeing experiment

I have been reading a lot lately about hand dyeing yarn at home using food colours or acid dyes, and I must say, I was really tempted to give it a try. And so I did ! Here is what all I required -

• A hank of undyed pure wool

 

• A bottle of food colour, well I actually used two since I needed a pinkish hue, I mixed some yellow to red to get a lightish red, and then reduced the concentration of colour to get a sweet rose-ish pink. Well I did not quite measure the number of drops, though as an afterthought I think I should have. It was more like a hit-and-trial to get the right shade. Here is the food colour I used



 

• Water
• Vinegar - a tablespoon per cup of water. Vinegar is needed to provide an acidic pH to the colour solution, so that the yarn picks up the colour well and completely.

 

Okay, so I first prepared the required colour, tested it on a dry paper towel with a toothpick, and then added it to the vessel which had about six cups of water with vinegar. When the solution started simmering, I added the dry yarn to it, dry because I wanted the colour to get soaked in varying quantities to the yarn for a slight tonal colouring. Here is my yarn simmering in the colour bath

 

I then covered the vessel and let the yarn simmer for about 10 minutes. I could have kept it a little longer, but I was scared I'd end up with burnt yarn, so I decided to put off the stove after 10 minutes, and let the yarn cool down in the vessel itself to a tolerably hot temperature.

I then thoroughly rinsed the yarn with plain tap water and mild detergent to remove any access colour.

To soften my yarn a bit, I added hair conditioner and rinsed it further

And this is how my yarn looks after drying

Well, it is not as tonal as I wanted it to be, but I am still quite pleased with the result.

I bought about 800 g of undyed yarn, and since I'm quite encouraged with this experiment, I'm planning to dye a sweater quantity for myself. But first, I need to plan a suitable project for this lovely sweet-rose coloured yarn.......any suggestions?!!