Dyeing wool

This thread is so great! and has inspired me to do something with the pile of unprocessed 100% wool yarn I've had lying around for years since my brief phase of carding and spinning my own yarn straight from the fleece.....As it was my 1st attempt at spinning, it turned out very uneven so was a bit too "rustic" for most standard knitting patterns. It doesn't take up dye very well so I had to do a bit of experimentation with the food colourings but what ended up working really well was to dye it pink first (it only took up a very little of the pink colouring) and then overdye with yellow, giving a really rich variegated gold/orange/russet yarn.

I'm thinking of knitting it up into felted Christmas stockings for the DCs, as it's a little too coarse for children's clothes.

what is best food colouring or koolaid, and if it's koolaid where do you buy it from?

I've done both, and I think that koolaid gives much richer colours, and it smells yummy!!!! -apart from the grape flavour that totally stunk my microwave out and the smell is still lingering.

I had a load left over from when I was in the US, but I did order more from an ebay shop. Some stores sell tubs of it but then you are just limited to 1 colour. Or you could see if you've got an international shop nearby that sells bits and pieces from overseas.

I really must give this a go, keep saying I will and then not doing anything about it

I'm just wondering before I go attempting this can you re-dye wool that has been dyed so for example if I wanted to dye something red but it didnt come out dark enough or still had lighter patches could I just put it in again with some more colour?

I'm just wondering before I go attempting this can you re-dye wool that has been dyed so for example if I wanted to dye something red but it didnt come out dark enough or still had lighter patches could I just put it in again with some more colour?

Yes you can

thanks ali xx

Does anyone have any info on acid dyeing?

I'm glad I found this thread! I dyed some yarn a few months ago and it was lovely and bright when I was drying it afterwards, but after it's first wash and lanoloise it had faded a lot. Is this because I didn't put enough vinegar in originally? Trying to think of what I did wrong as I yearn for bright colours!