Dyeing Aida

 an experiment.

a step further from using dye pens 

This experiment started with the purchase of a different vegetable to see what it was like. Probably watched too many cooking programs.

Purple heritage carrots bought and cooked I ended up with a pan of purple water.

I tried a little bit dipped, and it looked promising, popped the water in a jar and forgot about it.

Today doing a bit of a sort I came across a little collection of stuff from the charity shop. Some random little patterns, thread bits and one piece of Aida someone had started stitching on. It did not go with any of the patterns in the bag. So, I unpicked it 

It did have a small stain of some sort on it, very faint, possibly needle rust? At that point I remembered the jam jar of carrot water.

and in it went.

I did contemplate putting it in something flat however, I was not bothered if it came out flat or mottled as just playing around.

It came out with a lot more colour than I had expected, but then it is wet, colours are always more vivid wet.

Dry and ironed it has become much more subtle

Oddly the colour fixed just that bit darker in the spot the mark had been and where it had been folded. Wetting and ironing it has tightened up the holes in the Aida where I did the unpicking. 

All in all an interesting experiment and I am reasonably pleased with the result. 

I have no idea what I am going to stitch on it (it is about A5 size).

But that does not answer the burning question..just how did those heritage purple carrots taste?

Well, like carrots, I obviously do not have a sophisticated pallet.