The above link will take you to a video by the Frugal Crafter. This lady had the brainwave that she might be able to dye acrylic yarn with acrylic paint. And guess what…you can. It’s more like handpainting really, because the fibre is not actually absorbing the paint, but it seems to work. I had to try it.

So armed with a one pound ball of Red Heart Comfort (cream, from Walmart), I played the video again while winding off some yarn into hanks and getting out my old acrylic paints, which the kids haven’t used in years.

The first one, I used two greens and a blue, and they mostly mixed to form a pleasant uniform blue-green. The second was yellow and orange. The third, I got more creative, and used red, yellow, orange and brown in four quadrants, allowing them to blend where they touched but still keep them as individual colours. I think I succeeded and will know better when it’s dry.

I’ve left them to drip dry over my laundry tub and they’ll probably take a couple of days.

I only used about half the ball so once I see the results and how the yarn feels I will know whether to dye the rest.