I cannot believe the 2025 Spring Mini Skein Mini Series starts tonight, Monday 6/2/25. Each night this week at 8:30 PM Eastern Time there will be a new video premiere on the ChemKnits Tutorials YouTube channel featuring the dyeing of different miniskein sets. I will be in the live chat during the premieres to answer questions, react to the videos, and just hang out.
Here are some more details for each of the videos:
All of the SMSMS yarn preorders are now ready-to-ship. I still have some miniskein sets, yarn mops, neon rainbow yarn mops, sock blanks, and bonus full skeins available. I have not updated the listings to let you pick your yarn by the episode number, but if you're hoping for yarn from a particular night I can check and see what yarn bases I have available. Please reach out on Etsy with any questions.
Sock Blanks vs MiniSkeins
I didn't just dye miniskein sets in this year's series, I also dyed sock blanks in each video and chat a lot about the pros and cons of a miniskein set versus a sock blank for similar types of colorways.
I plan (at some point) to bring all of the miniskein and sock blank footage into a longer video where I can talk about dyeing yarn to get the gradient or fade that you want. This will be mostly pros and cons of miniskeins vs sock blanks for smaller projects. You can still dye up sock blanks for larger skeins, but if you're making a sweater or something that needs a lot more yardage it won't all fit on one blank.
I have a few sock blanks left that are ready to ship! (If you want me to unravel the blank for you, please allow a few extra business days.)
ChemKnits Emotes for YouTube Channel Members
If you join to become a channel member on YouTube for $0.99/month you can get access to these fun ChemKnits emotes to use in comments and the live chat. I really wish I could add these emotes as an option here on Patreon, but unfortunately there is not integration between the two platforms. If you're going to pick one platform over the other, I recommend sticking to Patreon. Here is an older post talking about the differences between the two platforms.
If I get 7 more channel members then we open up a slot for another emoji. Let me know if there are any you would like to see and I can start working on a mood board to commission some more emotes. I feel like I use the "No stirring" and "Indy Barking" emotes a lot within my videos, but the ones I use most frequently in comments are the yarn heart, laugh, and facepalm. (At least these are the ones I type out the codes for from memory when I'm in the channel backend!)
It is the end of an era. On Jan 15, 2025, the FDA officially banned Red 3 food coloring for use in food and beverages. I am a yarn dyer who started my journey dyeing yarn with food coloring before expanding into commercial dyes. I often recommend people try dyeing yarn with food coloring before investing in dedicated dyeing equipment so they can see how they feel about the whole process. The Red 3 ban limits the food safe color palette.
Given these changes, I think I'd address a few questions people may have for me as a yarn dyer:
Do I still consider Red 3 to be food safe dye for dyeing yarn? No. Since it is no longer approved for use in food, I will no longer use food colorings containing Red 3 with any pots or utensils I use for food preparation.
This is not a judgement on the ban itself. I am a yarn dyer who uses food coloring to dye yarn versus for cooking. I give recommendations to novice dyers on what dyes (i.e. food safe dyes) I'm comfortable using with cooking pots and pans versus dedicated dyeing equipment. Since Red 3 is no longer approved for food, it is no longer considered food safe and I cannot responsibly continue to use it for dyeing yarn in anything other than dedicated dyeing equipment.
What are the food safe artificial food colorings? Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, and Blue 2 (uncommon) are currently FDA approved for use in food. While there are other pigments approved for food and beverages as well, these 5 are the ones I've encountered on ingredients lists when buying food coloring to use for dyeing yarn.
Will I still use Red 3 to dye yarn? Yes, although I won't seek it out any more once I run out. I will treat food colorings with Red 3 in them the same as I would any other commercial dye - only using them with dedicated dye equipment that is not used for the preparation of food. The real perk of Red 3 is that it used to be food safe - there are other pink commercial acid dyes out there that have better lightfast properties.
I dye yarn in my kitchen with commercial acid dyes - dyes that are not and have never been food safe. I protect my work surfaces, use dedicated dye equipment and utensils, and clean my work areas to go back to a food kitchen after a day of dyeing. Here is a post where I talk about my favorite tools and equipment for dyeing yarn. I feel comfortable still using Red 3 in my kitchen.
How on earth do you dye yarn with food coloring? Artificial food colorings in the US are in the same class of molecules as acid dyes. So if you combine acid (vinegar or citric acid), heat, and a wool or other animal fiber yarn together, you can create pretty yarn with food coloring. Since those pigments were approved for food versus picked for dyeing textiles, they may not be as light fast as commercial dyes, but I have dyed hundreds of skeins of yarn with food coloring over the years and they are very washfast. Dyeing yarn with food coloring is a great way for a beginner to dabble in the craft, but in the longer term commercial dyes have a bigger range of colors and are more cost effective.
If you plan to sell yarn that you dye, I recommend that you disclose to your customers when yarn is dyed with food coloring versus commercial dyes. This is what I do in the ChemKnits Creations Etsy Shop, I always list the dye type at the top of the listing so my customers can be informed.
Why am I bummed about this ban? I am not bummed that the FDA made a decision for the safety of the public. (Again, I'm not evaluating the science here. The only fact that matters for me is that Red 3 is no longer approved for use in food.) I am only bummed from a food safe color mixing perspective. Red 3 is a bright pink food coloring. The other approved Red in the US, Red 40, is more of a crimson color. You cannot mix bright purples with the deeper red color. Since my perspective on this is with regard to dyeing yarn, versus coloring food, and there are other pink dyes available on the market, overall this isn't a huge deal to me.
I'm also bummed because Red 3 is great to have for color breaking. Color breaking is when you mix one color with multiple pigments and then they separate when you dye the yarn. You can take advantage of this breaking to create stunning colorways.
Dip dyeing to break Wiolton's violet. The Red 3's bind to the yarn first, leaving bright blues at the other end.
Wilton's violet icing color breaking on yarn. Since the Red 3 strikes to yarn much faster, it binds where it was placed and then the Blue 1 spreads out giving these stunning speckles.
What food colorings contain Red 3? The best thing you can do here is to read the ingredients labels. Most individually labeled icing containers (like Wilton's Violet shown below) have the food colorings listed (in this case Red 3 and Blue 1).
4 packs of liquid food coloring from the grocery store (Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green) will have the ingredients on the package, but not always the ingredients of each individual bottle. A deep blue will have some red mixed in with Blue 1 - it may not be red 3, but there will be some reds in there.
When will Red 3 be gone from food coloring? The FDA has given food companies until early 2027 to reformulate their products, although I have a feeling some of these companies will try to release new versions sooner than that. To the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been an immdiate recall of products that contain Red 3 in them.
I predict that more and more companies will start using vegitable juice to color products in the future. I do find it intersting that items can say "vegitable juice color" without stating which vegitables were used... but we'll see how things happen moving forward.
Why am I not commenting on the science behind the Red 3 FDA ban? It does feel strange as a trained scientist with a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmocology to not look into the science behind the Red 3 ban. However, as a content creator and an artist, my opinion on the science itself isn't important. The fact that I care about is the fact that the FDA banned the use of Red 3 in food, and therefore it is no longer considered food safe. Since I have used Red 3 as a food safe dye for years in tutorials, I now have an obligation to share that the facts have changed, and I no longer consider Red 3 to be a food safe dye as it is no longer approved for food by the FDA.
What should I do with my food colorings that have Red 3 and I don't want too use them for food? Dye some yarn! This is a great way to use up the pigments. Here is a livestream I did recently dyeing a lot of yarn with food coloring.
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