How to Dye Speckled Yarn with Food Coloring

Here on the ChemKnits Tutorials channel, we've looked at how to dye long gradients of color by dyeing preknit blanks. Now we're going to look at how to create tiny patches of color. In the following video, I create speckled yarn using liquid food coloring and an eye dropper. Enjoy!

Yarn Base - Bare Stroll Glimmer from KnitPicks (100g, 70% superwash merino, 25% nylon, 5% stellina)
Dye - McCormick's Food Coloring
Heating Method - Steaming on the Stove in a steamer pot

VIDEO CONTENTS:
[0:00] Introduction
[1:09] Mixing the Dyes
[3:25] Applying the dye to the presoaked yarn.
[18:52] all dye applied
[19:27] Steaming the fiber in a steamer pot on the stove
[21:16] Washing the fiber
[22:18] Final Dry Speckled Yarn and conclusions

[beadsyarn]

That really looked amazing. Love your dye experiments.. thank you for sharing.

[LaynieFingers]

please do a knitted swatch with gradients! I'm actually thinking of a pale rainbow... imagine a knitted blank, with drips (maybe with 2-3 shades of each color for variety) shifting from red down to magenta, passing through the entire color spectrum! I bet that would make lovely yarn!

[lizkimber]

I reckon this is the prettiest yarn I ever saw you do. I love it

[caitlinreum]

Love the way this dying experiment turned out. Happy to see a new video from you!

[lizurquhart]

Hi Rebecca, I have just followed this video and dyed my first two skeins of yarn with kool Aid. They look awesome! Thank you for sharing your learning experience with dying. I think I watch more of your fiber unboxing because I also want to learn how to spin yarn. I had been thinking about dying but the thing that caused me to do this now is the project that I am knitting needs some speckled yarn and I was amazed to discovery how very little I had.. I did not see any that I felt was right and then I got a hold of some chi sheep Red Heart yarn on clearance.

[feeshac]

Beautiful! Looks like a candy I used to eat.

[sophieinspired]

You are my new favorite asmr channel 💖 it‘s so fantastic to watch

[nanakate]

I loved how this turned out. Thanks for sharing! 👍🏻

[bonnieswork]

pretty cool. love to see a swatch what look like. thanks for sharing.

[foordpenney]

So pretty!! Thank you for this video. I'm going to do this with my boys.

[purpledec]

looks like confetti, party yarn.. woohoo!

[fredadavenport]

Thank you Rebecca for another great video. I've been wanting to dye speckled yarn and have tried with Kool-Aid. No speckles, but great varigated for scarf/shawlette.

[deborah]

I love it! I’m a little disappointed that I can’t dye my ugly cotton yarn, but I’ll buy a new acrylic blend yarn hank and see what happens. Your yarn dye turned out gorgeous! Btw I’m a new subscriber and I look forward learning from you bcuz you are highly recommended. Have a blessed day. 💕🙏🏼✌🏼🌻

[JesusJoy]

Rebecca your yarn looked great. Malabrigo speckled yarn is it process the same way you do it. Wondering how they get those small dots separated by several colors. Enjoyed this video. Thank you👍🏼👏🏼

[dottywus]

Enjoyed watching this video. Thank you.

[DonnaR]

You should try putting the liquid dye into a spray bottle on the mist setting, I bet you get a great speckled effect

[sahmnancy]

I love your videos, although I'm not a spinner. I am tempted to dye some wool for my next knitting project. I'd love to see how you would dye some cotton because I'm interested in dyeing some cross stitch fabric. Thanks so much for this technique. I may try this one for a hat for my son, probably in a different palette, though!

[baileyhenderson]

Food colouring dye works great, I’m surprised! Also steaming up the microwave is the perfect opportunity to clean the microwave.

[marywhitlow]

did you happen to write a book on your different trials and error when it comes to dyeing yarns ? There is not very many books yet on hand dyeing yarns . enjoy watching your videos fun and easy.

[amayuk]

Would you possibly be able to achieve stronger colour by just speckling on straight food colouring without watering it down at all? Thanks for sharing your experiments. They are so fun to watch!