Monday, August 8, 2016

Dip Dyeing Braided Roving into WIlton's Violet Food Coloring


Two of my favorite dyeing experiments ever come from breaking Wilton's violet food coloring. The first video was dip dyeing a skein of yarn into the food coloring - I ended up with a stunning gradient from fuchsia to pale blue.  The second video was breaking Wilton's violet over a braided chain of roving.  What would happen if I combined the two techniques and dip dyed a crochet chain of roving into Wilton's violet food coloring?


The resulting braid is stunning, but there were a few problems with this experiment.  The wet braided roving got HEAVY and started stretching which made it much harder to dip dye than a skein of yarn.  Since I was moving the roving through hot water I was really concerned about felting.  Thankfully I got lucky and the roving is perfect and ready to spin.    I was also so concerned about making sure there wasn't too much blue coverage that I over-dipped early on and got too much pink coverage.  Whoops!


Watch the video to see more about this dyeing experiment.  Do you have any suggestions for other ways I can break food coloring colors on my yarn?  I have so much fun with these experiments!