Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Buffy, I wanted to take my mostly "too white" yarns and tint them a bit for the china jugs background. The answer seemed simple. I dissolved some Wilton's pink food dye in a quart jar almost full of water, tossed in some yarn and heated the jar in the microwave for two minutes. The yarn seemed quite pink but the dye was not exhausted, so I stuffed in some more yarn with a slosh of white vinegar and cooked it in the microwave again. Then I did the same with some Wilton's violet dye and more white yarn. Here's the result.

The pinks are nearly identical, and the violets are different -- sort of blue-green and lavender. The lavender broke a bit and you can set tiny spots of blue here and there. That's really OK for such a marbled project. But these colors are way to strong for the light china background, and too bright I think for the colors in the rectangles. I hate to waste yarn so I might be able to salvage it by toning down these Easter egg colors with a soak in black tea.  That might work.

On a roll, I got out the crockpot and cooked up a batch of light brown yarn with two packets of Tropical Punch Kool-Aid and a bit of vinegar.  This will certainly do for a touch of rust in the Jug Coat. Right now these "new" yarns are airing on the door of my coat cupboard.  I'll finish this job when I get back from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest.

Hey, Buffy, guess how you can brighten up your Color Surprise kit! See you soon.