Can you dye yarn with blackcurrants/redcurrants?

[ZisforZebra]

I'm sure we dyed some fabric at school with vegetable dyes but it was a long time ago and I can't remember exactly how we went about it. I'd like to dye some sock wool with blackcurrants but I don't know how to go about 'fixing' it so it doesn't run. Anyone done this?

Fillyjonk is your woman. I'm sure she'll appear. The mordants you need to use to fix the colour are generally pretty horrible chemicals, unfortunately.

Oh, and wool is much easier to dye than cotton or synthetic, I think.

oh yes, suckered

you need

FOOD DYES

and

VINEGAR

and a big pan of boiling water and some wool

I would not touch those natural dyes with a bargepole, the mordants are pretty scary

OTOH-pruni was faffing with these things so maybe she is your woman

I didn't realise that you needed the horrible chemical mordants for blackcurrents. Kind of defeats the point of using blackcurrents in the first place! lol

I printed instructions from knitty.com about dying with food colouring so I'll give that a go instead.

have fun

its a bit addictive, i warn you

oh and they make it sound more complex than it is, really, IIRC the article right. is that the one with the vast skein of yarn wrapped round the table, and then you have to clingfilm it... you don't have to do that, really not.

That's a relief! My DH's eyes got very wide and then he frowned alot when he saw the pictures coming out of the printer! (normally he just rolls his eyes at yarn talk) I think I will try the crock-pot technique, that looks straight-forward enough.

Message withdrawn

what about using kool aid they have lots of grape , strawberry colours.

but it has to be wool though.

Kim

Sorry to butt in, but could anyone recommend a good place online to get plain yarn for home dying? I was planning to give the KoolAid method a go.
Sorry, and thanks!