Dyeing Yarn with Food Coloring

Recently, I attending a yarn dyeing party. It was such a blast and it opened a whole new world for me! I don’t have to try to find that perfect yarn color anymore for my projects — I can make it myself! However, yarn dyeing is very experimental and obviously, since I’m so new to it, it didn’t turn out how I expected, but that is part of the fun!

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Materials:

Bare Yarn (I purchased Bare Yarn from Knit Picks)
Food Coloring
Vinegar
Medium sized Saucepan
Tongs
Bowl
Colander

Step 1:

Pour some vinegar in a bowl and soak your yarn for a minimum of 30 minutes prior to dyeing the yarn. This will help the yarn to soak up the coloring and hold it better since food coloring is not acidic.

Step 2:

Add some water to your medium saucepan and bring your water to a boil on high. Add in one tablespoon of vinegar per cup of water. I added four tablespoons to mine.

Step 3:

Choose your food coloring that you’d like and add it to the water and mix well.

Step 4:

Turn the burner down to medium-low and add your yarn. Submerge the yarn in the hot water and allow to stay in the pot for about 30 minutes. I kept flipping mine every 10 minutes so all the yarn had a chance to get the coloring.

Step 5:

Once your water is starting to run clear, the yarn has soaked up all the coloring it can and it is ready. I added too much coloring to my pot for my amount of yarn, so this did not happen for me. Once it’s done, remove it from the pot and put it in a colander in your sink so it can be rinsed and drained.

Step 6:

Rinse your yarn in cold water to get any excess dye out of the yarn. I was a little surprised to see that the purple hue of my yarn went away when I rinsed mine and it was more of a pink color! This could also be because it’s a cotton yarn and didn’t take the color as well as wool blends do.