A YARN DYEING TUTORIAL /OR THINGS TO DO WITH LEFTOVER FOOD COLORING WHILE WAITING FOR THE OVEN CLEANER TO KICK IN.....

After my family colored our Easter eggs I was left with a large amount of food coloring. Since I am knitoriously cheap-thrifty-compulsive-what-have-you about some things, I decided that the leftover dye should be used to color my Knitpicks lace weight yarn so generously donated last year by Jeanie, my Knitting Amiga.
I had 2 skeins, 880 yards each, so I could ultimately knit a small shawl or several pairs of socks from them, someday.

Tutorial for Knitoriously Cheap Dye Job:
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Undyed yarn from stash
Leftover food color from Easter egg coloring
white vinegar
Pyrex dish
plastic wrap
fork
pot holders
latex/rubber gloves
microwave
clothesline or drying place
clothespins or plastic hangers
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After soaking briefly in cool water to which a couple of glugs of white vinegar was added, I gently squeezed much of the water out of each skein. Each skein was tied securely in several places!
I placed the skein in my trusty Pyrex baking dish.
I had my leftover food coloring in several plastic cups, so all I did was line the cups up and pour in the color sequences you see above. Using a fork, I pressed down on the yarn in several places to disperse the coloring throughout the yarn.
Since I was a bit stingy with my pours, as I wanted to assure that I had enough coloring for the second skein, I took my spray bottle and misted the skein with water to help saturate the colors even more to eliminate any bare spots. Again, I pressed the yarn with my fork.
Pretty, yes? I drained off any excess colored water from the dish. That way I had more control over any colors running where they were unwanted.

Covering the entire dish with plastic wrap, I microwaved it on normal setting over 3 minutes for 3 intervals ( 9 minutes total) Important to monitor the yarn during each cook cycle. Your kitchen may have a temporary wet wool odor!
Using potholders to remove the hot dish from the microwave, and removing the plastic wrap, I slid the skein into my sink. Any remaining water in the skein ran clear when the skein was pressed with a fork.
Flipping it around a bit with my fork to study the results, I let the skein cool for several minutes while I readied the second batch of yarn for coloring.
I diluted the remaining food coloring in the cups with some tap water and gently swirled the coloring around in the cups before pouring onto the second skein. This time I was going for a more pastel color effect. I purposely avoided covering all the white areas this time.
Again, cover with plastic wrap and cook slow while keeping a careful watch on your yarn!

Meanwhile, the first batch has cooled down enough that I could comfortably handle it. Didn't need to use the rubber gloves on standby because the coloring had set nicely! I let it soak for 5 minutes in cool water.
Here it is resting after the water was squeezed out of it.
After batch #2 was cooked and cooled, it also got a cool water bath for 5 minutes...
After draining the sink and squeezing out any water I was happy with these results too!
Here they both are hanging out to dry in my backyard.

Now, Gentle Knitter, doesn't it look more like Spring?

Now, I need to come up with names for my new yarns!

Yes, I'm still knitting away on Mike's sweater. You know, the sleeves have stopped growing! Just like that. I keep knitting and yet they appear to remain the same length!

And, yet, I persevere!

Have a great knitting week!