Is Vinegar Needed to Dye yarn with Food Coloring? A Yarn Dyeing Baby Gender Announcement

When I started dyeing yarn with food coloring, I read that you needed 4 components to dye yarn in your kitchen: 1) protein fiber based yarn, 2) food coloring, 3) heat and 4) acid (usually in the form of vinegar or citric acid.) I through that it would be fun to demonstrate the necessity for acid by dyeing two miniskeins of yarn where one dyebath contains vinegar and the other does not. Sometimes experiments do not come out the way you want them to. Unfortunately both the pink and blue yarns took up food coloring. Upon further inspection, both dyebaths were acidic. (See video for the gender reveal of my unborn child and more commentary.) Further investigation is required to determine whether the tap water in Evanston, IL is acidic or if the food coloring contains some acid. Visit http://www.chemknits.com for free patterns and more knitting & yarn dyeing tutorials.