If you give a Knitter Food Coloring...

Last week, while enjoying some indoor time and a warm cup of coffee, I was browsing back issues of Knitty and came across an article about dyeing wool with Kool-Aid and food coloring.  This, of course, made me wonder if there were any Ravelry groups for dyers (there are) which led to perusing photos of beautifully hand-painted skeins, which led to reading articles on different food dyes and coloring techniques, which led to a realization; to dye my own beautifully colored wool I need only:

1. Wool (easily procured from my mother's infinite stash; she was even so kind as to donate a skein of her own hand-spun!)

2. Vinegar (to the grocery store we go)

(3. I already had McCormick's food coloring, water, a wooden spoon, meat thermometer, rubber gloves and a crock pot at home)

This led to my kitchen yesterday, set up like a mad science laboratory, and Mark praying for the safety of our white carpeting (for the record, no surfaces, carpeted or other, were harmed in the dyeing process).  Having read and re-read the Knitty article on food coloring dyes (which you can find here; I found it very helpful) I decided to try the dip-dye method for a teal gradient.  Following the instructions carefully, I re-skeined the wool (using the kitchen table for a longer pattern repeat) tied it loosely and frequently and soaked it in water the night before (I actually washed it first with a little Dawn dish soap) and set up a dyeing station with my crock pot.  I added 8 cups water and 2/3 cup vinegar to the pot, mixed in 30 drops blue and 6 drops green and turned the heat to high.  And then I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  (I know the flipping crock pot can get water to boiling, as I've boiled apple sauce in it before, it just took a long time to get to the right temperature; about 160 F). 

After an hour of waiting, the crock pot reached the right temperature (if you don't have a meat thermometer to check with, just wait until you can see steam rising off the water) and I dunked most of the wool in the pot (swish, swish) and pulled 4-ish inches back out and hung it over a stainless steel bowl, and stuck the lid back on the pot. 

The author of the Knitty article mentions that you don't need to dunk the whole skein to get the light pastels at the very end of it, because the wool will suck the dye/water/vinegar mixture from the crock pot.  What she doesn't mention, is that the wool will continue to suck the mixture and drip it everywhere (or in the bowl, if you're prepared) until there is more water dripping out of the wool, than is in the crock pot.  This means that you either need to add more water to the pot as you dye, or take the mixture that dripped out of the wool and add it back to the pot.  Either way, every time you add more liquid to the pot, the temperature of the mixture goes down, so the wool is not getting as much heat as it may need.  Also, I have discovered that (surprisingly) with wool hanging out of a crock pot lid, the lid doesn't seal and heat escapes.  The upshot of all this temperature fluctuation is that (at least with my crock pot) it would be almost impossible to felt the dyed wool by accidentally boiling the mixture (the temperature will not get that high).  This strikes me with a certain degree of hilarity, as the author of the Knitty article states that accidentally felting your wool is a big concern, and that for this method, using superwash would be the dyer's best bet.  Right...

Moving on, I left all but the first 4 inches of wool in the crock pot for 15 minutes (added back the water that dripped out) and puled out another 4 inches.  And repeat.  And repeat.  And repeat.  (Here are my actual times: 15, 25, 25, 35, 35, 45, 60 minutes).  I added in another 10 drops of blue, and 2 drops of green along with a splash of vinegar about halfway through, when the mixture was starting to look pretty clear.

The good news is that the crock pot can just sit there and cook the wool, without you having to stand over it.  The bad news is you have to stay by it to continually pull the wool out (this may be a good opportunity to catch up on your knitting, or movie watching, etc.).

After the last bit of wool had been in the pot for an hour, I pulled it from the pot (I highly recommend using rubber gloves for this so you don't have blue and/or burned hands) squeezed out some excess water and left the last bit of the skein to cool.  This is an especially important step with wool!   After 20-ish minutes, the skein felt cool to the touch, so I washed it in cool water with a little bit of Dawn, until the water from the skein was clear.  (It was probably 6 or 7 washes).  You can wait until later to wash out the dye from the wool, if you're lucky you might end up with blue knitting needles!

After the wool finished bleeding, I placed it on a towel and rolled the towel up, squishing it gently, to remove most of the water.  Then it was time to hang the wool to dry, and wait some more!  (This waiting was better, because I was asleep). I used a towel hook in the bathroom, although, if you're worried about water puddling from the skein you can always hang it from your shower head.  Just be sure that the non-knitters in the house know, to prevent any interesting shower occurrences or extended dry times. 

Once the wool is dry, take off the ties from the skein and wind it up into a ball for knitting!

And now, I need another skein to dye...