Fun With Food! Coloring Yarns and Fabrics

It’s time to take playing with your food to a whole other level. Whether you enjoy spinning your own fibers or buying sustainable yarns and fabrics online, your choice of colors is limited to what the company’s designers prefer and think will sell. Take the look of crafts into your own hands by using fruits, vegetables, and spices to dye your cottons, wools, and other natural fibers.

Using food to color fibers is as nearly as old as agriculture itself. The more “modern” style of dyeing yarn is by using Kool-Aid. As eco-conscious crafters, we all know that is not much of a sustainable option. Head down to your local farmers market or co-op grocery store and you will find an endless supply of creative possibilities that are free of dangerous and questionable chemicals.

• » See also: Fab Fabrics: Organic Cotton Screenprinted by Showpony
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Lion Brand offers a great basic tutorial on how to use foodie finds to color yarns and it is a great place to start for new color advocates. Though they focus on dyeing yarns, you can easily apply the same principles to fabrics as well. The particular fiber as well as the length of time you leave the mixture in the boiling water will determine the shade and depth of your color. Craft Magazine published a wonderful article on natural dyeing in their 4th issue that goes into much more detail and includes info about using natural metals as well.

Have you ever colored your own yarn (whether it be with food, Kool-aid, or other substances - henna anyone)? Let us know about your experience!

[Image courtesy of Lion Brand]

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