Outta the Dye Pot

 When I first started playing around with dyeing wool I was using food color.  I can't take credit for the idea.  One of my favorite YouTube rabbit hole finds is ChemKnits Tutorials.  Rebecca is bright and enthusiastic, and she comes from a science background.  She explains things and conducts experiments that I find very inspiring.  Not my point here, but that's the shoutout.

I noticed on the package of neon food color a "recipe" for an apricot color.  Neon green and Neon pink equal apricot.  Of course I tried it on wool.  It worked.  Most of my dyeing then was confined to fiber for spinning, and as a beginning spinner I was hesitant to shell out money for those gorgeous batts and braids and bumps.  White and natural get old fast.  I tossed some fiber into a pot, threw in some food color, and wound up with some fiber that was apricot, and some that was splotches of green and pink.  I spun the apricot, then the splotched stuff, and plied them together.  Apricot for Deconstruction was born.

A few months ago I decided to revisit my very first colorway, but instead of fiber I wanted a three skein set that could be used together.  Then I thought "Can I recreate this with acid dyes instead of food color?', and an experiment was born.

I used six quart mason jars to make this an easy side by side comparison.  Refilling and emptying a dye pot six times would be inefficient time wise, especially since I was only doing one skein of each color.

I used Dharma acid dyes in Radioactive and Fluorescent Pink side by side with McCormick Neon Pink and Neon Green.  The food color is the top row, acid dyes the bottom row.  I let them sit in water and dye for about 10 minutes before adding citric acid to each jar.  Then into the microwave.

Laid out in steam pans after microwaving each jar separately to make sure the dye baths were clear, they were, but I covered and popped them in the oven to make sure each skein was heated through and the dye was set.

Here they are after drying and re-skeining. These photos don't 

really show how vibrant (polite term for obnoxiously bright) this batch of yarn looks.  I find the acid dyed apricot has some greenish splotches that make it look bruised.  At some point I will knit something,  maybe a pattern by Mr. West would be appropriate,  or just stick them in the Etsy shop and see what happens.

Thanks for stopping by,

Blessed Be.