Dyeing - Food Colouring

There are a number of ways that you can dye yarn and fibre. One of the easiest is to use food colouring or Kool Aid. Make sure that you use packs without any added sugar!

First, you'll need to decide how long you would like your colour repeats to be. If you like variegated yarn then an average skein length should be fine. If you want a longer repeat then you might prefer to wind the yarn around something like a table, to get a longer skein.

Once you've got your skein, you can soak it overnight. This isn't crucial, but it should help the dye to take more evenly. If you're using food colouring rather than Kool Aid, you'll need to add a splash of vinegar to the soak.

When your yarn is soaked, you're ready to start dyeing. All of the dyes will stain, so protect your work area. A plastic sack would work fine. If you're using just one colour, you don't need to spread your yarn out much, but if you're aiming for three or more you will.

Next, make up your colours. If you're using Kool Aid, you don't need to follow the usual instructions. For all dyeing it's not the amount of water that you use that determine the depth of colour, it's the amount of dye compared to the amount of yarn. One sachet of Kool Aid will dye about 100g (4oz) of yarn. I use only a small amount of water (about a third of a pint) per colour because the yarn can only hold a small amount of water. If you're using food colouring, add a splash of vinegar to the dye solution too.

Kool-Aid dyes mixed and ready to use

Now, squeeze as much moisture out of the yarn as you can. I do this by wrapping it in an old towel and standing on it. Then spread the yarn out over the bin sack.

I use a paintbrush to apply the dye to the yarn, but you could use a dropper too. When applying the colour, make sure that it soaks all the way through to the underside of the skein so that you don't end up with un-dyed patches and try not to add too much water.

When you've finished painting, you need to set the dye by heating it. You could use a microwave or a pot on the stove, but I have an old plastic steamer that I use for dyeing. If you're going to use it for food in the future, make sure to only use food-safe dyes in it.
Wrap the yarn up in a heat-proof food bag or cling film, and pop it in the steamer for 20 minutes. This is plenty of time to set the dye. Once it's done, leave it to cool before you handle it. This is partly because it's hot, and partly because you might felt the yarn at this stage.

Take care when handling hot yarn, not only might it felt but you could scald yourself

Once the yarn is cool enough to handle, rinse it under a warm tap until the water runs clear.

Finally, hang the yarn to dry. If you used a long skein, you might choose to re-wind it into a shorter skein at this stage.

I tried using black food colouring to get a black yarn. It didn't work. The dyes separated out (black is actually made up of red and blue, in this case) but it still looks fab!

Experiment, because even if it doesn't work you might end up with something amazing!