Rise to the Challenge - Dying

After finishing my first handspun and letting it dry, the next challenge was to dye it.

So today we started with:

Thanks to the wonderful Debbie over at Hue and Dye I took myself off to Hobbycraft and bought some Wilson's food colouring (complete with warning label stating that it might make some children hyperactive, that's how you know it's chemical enough to dye yarn!) with a quick detour via the supermarket to pick up white vinegar.

My yarn in a pan on the stove, after it had just gone into the dye. It was very weird to be cooking yarn, I must say! The transformation was miraculous!

I did not realise that the water/vinegar mixture would be left completely clear at the end of dying the yarn, and the cooking part only took about 30 mins. I washed up whilst it was cooking so I could keep an eye on it, and it was finished at exactly the same time I was.

The finished product hanging up to dry. I'm sorry about the poor quality of the pictures, but my bathroom has no natural light, and as much as I wanted pictures on the blog, I wasn't having yarn dripping all over the living room or bedroom. This is a close up so you can get a better idea of the colour, though it's really more pink than this.