Colourful Wool

This week the kids were keen to dye some wool. It's a pretty simple process to make colourful wool using things you probably already have in your kitchen.

Here's how we did it.

You will need;

Pure wool in a light colour

Water

Vinegar

Food colouring

First of all you will need to wrap the wool into small skeins. You can use the back of a chair, a book or the kids found a basket handle worked really well. Tie the skeins loosely in a couple of places.

Next soak the yarn for a while in some warm water. Try to limit the temptation for the kids to stir it at this point as it can get very tangled. yep.

When the yarn has soaked a while take a small saucepan and heat some water with a glug of vinegar in it to a low simmer. Add drops of food colouring. I have the primary colours and we have fun mixing them. Less is more I think as the colours take really strongly.

Next add your wool. You can put the whole thing in or let some hang over the edge so you can make it another colour. As the wool simmers gently it will very quickly start drawing up the colour from the water. Sometimes it will make the water completely clear again. Lift the yarn occasionally to check the colour and when you like it take it out and rinse under cold water. You can put it back in again into as many colours as you like.

Dry the wool by pressing in a towel and then hang up to dry.

Enjoy!