Dye, Dye, Dye!

I'd meant to do this earlier, but then Six Apart had a power failure and I forgot to sit down and type this up. Mea culpa.

Since I'm still new to dyeing yarn, I admit I shy away from dyes that are less ingestion-friendly than, say, Kool-Aid. (I have cats. One of them was once both smart and stupid enough to get into a closed room and drink bleach: A trip to the Pet Emergency Room and $500 later, I learned not to keep things that could poison my cat in the house.)
This means that I've been having fun figuring out palettes with food coloring.

For my original No Sheep buddy, I finished dyeing a skein of raw silk in variegated shades of orange: I did end up using the dip-dye method after having blathered on about it for months a good while, and I think I like the results. There's an interesting little yellow-orange splatter on the natural section, though: I forgot why I usually use latex gloves to handle the yarn. One, keeps my hands clean. Two, the ridges in my fingerprints seem to be a really good hiding place for dye after I've wiped it off. Oops.

I ended up picking up three one-ounce bottles of Kroger food coloring from the local Food for Less, along with a gallon of white vinegar so I knew I'd have enough: Two red and one yellow.
I used my Rival steamer as the yarn cooking pot, as I've personally found the thing to be useless for actually cooking food: I miss my late '70s, early '80s Rival steamer that I inherited from my Mom when she found it. (Old Christmas or anniversary present, I think it was -- and it worked fabulously, up until the seals gave out. I'm still looking for replacement parts, because that thing was WORTH saving.)

I digress.
Using my newer Rival, I set up the water and vinegar: I was perhaps a little careless with the 8 cups water to 1 cup white vinegar, but it didn't seem to hurt (and, remembering not to put the vinegar in the water for the overnight soak was helpful, too) -- and then in went one bottle each of the red and yellow.  I let the steamer come up to heat and then put all but the last eight to ten inches of yarn in the basin, swished it around, and left the white end hanging out over a bowl. Twenty minutes, tug out another six-ish inches, and set the timer for another 30.
Repeat until I've done this three times, and then add the last bottle of red food color, stirring to mix, and then continue until you're down to the last of the yarn in the pot.

At this point, to make sure all the colors set, I dumped the basin, put in fresh water, and also inserted the steamer basket: Coiled the long hank up in the basket with the darkest part on the bottom and covered it, letting the whole thing steam about 30 minutes. ...This would also be the point where my fingerprints added 'interest' to the white end of the yarn. ;)

Anyway. Currently avoiding putting the thing back on the umbrella swift to wind it into something presentable, but that's only because I'm being lazy: I may also still be remembering my last dye experiment, and the Nick-cat deciding that he'd help with the yarn... By playing with it!
I just remember stepping out of the room for a minute and coming back -- pit stop or something, I forget -- to find Nick in a little nest of blue and green and pink, with the world's most innocent "What? What did I do, Mom?" look on his face.

Felines.
But that's why I'll be setting up the swift outside where he can't assist me this time. ;)