Dye-stained hands

I have ordered a Procion dye starter kit and a selection of undyed yarns. Hopefully it'll arrive before the weekend and Sunday will be devoted to the production of colourful yarny goodness. And mess.

This comes after the success of our food colouring dye extravaganza a couple of months ago, involving Supercook food colouring (20p a bottle in Tesco), lots of white vinegar and a variety of pale coloured cheap yarns from John Lewis, resulting in this:


(As a point of interest at the way different fibres take up dye, the two yarns on the left were done using the same combination and dilutions of dye but the left one is wool and the right is silk.)

I'm a little apprehensive at using 'real' dyes from mess and safety perspectives. Food colouring just felt like playing at dyeing. The thing I'm most worried about: spilling dye on the laminate flooring. We rent. I'm sure I'll come up with some way of protecting the floor - opened out binbags and lots of newspaper? I'm glad I finally ordered a dyeing kit as I've wanted to try this for a while but it kept getting shoved down the list of yarny priorities, I intended buying a kit at Wonderwool, but didn't. I'm skint now.