Name: Jane
Message: Hello, I'm in the process of buying some natural mohair yarn to make doll hair. What is the best method to dye this yarn so it will be nontoxic to children? I was reading your article about using food color. Would this work for 78% Mohair, 13% wool, 9% nylon yarn? Since I've never done this before I'd really appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks for your time.

Food coloring should work well in dyeing mohair, wool, or nylon. (See "Using Food Coloring as a Textile Dye for Protein Fibers".) The mohair and wool will take the dye a little darker than the nylon does; I don't know which of the two protein fibers, wool or mohair, will produce a darker color. In any case, they will all be closely related colors that will go well together. 

Food coloring may not be the most washfast or lightfast of dyes, but you absolutely cannot beat it for safety. No other dye type is really suitable for use on toys which will end up in children's mouths, as they all do if the children are young enough. Although food coloring does not work on cotton or most synthetics, it does work on nylon, as well as on protein fibers such as wool and mohair.

Soak the yarn in a mixture of one-quarter cup white vinegar per quart of water (60 ml pr liter). Remove the yarn, mix in one or several teaspoons of food coloring, return the yard to the dye mixture, bring it slowly to a boil on the stovetop (preferably in a double boiler to avoid burning the wool on the bopttom of the pot), and simmer it gently for half an hour, then let it cool to room temperature gradually. Finally, rinse until the water no longer picks up the color. Experiment until you get the color intensity you want. For a wider range of colors, including blacks and browns, visit a shop that sells supplies for cake decorating. Mixtures may yield unexpected colors, so do tests before using a lot of your expensive yard in a given color. Do your black mohair dye runs last, since you can start with any color when you are trying to get black; this way you can cover up any colors you deem to be mistakes.

Since you will be using only food coloring, you can use your good cooking pots. (Never use your food-preparation pots for other dyes!) Do not use an aluminum pan, as the vinegar will dissolve some of the aluminum, marring your pot and contaminating your dye colors. Stainless steel or unchipped enamel pots are idea for this purpose. Or, you can buy canning jars and heat them in a hot water bath; this allows you to dye several different colors at once, and avoids problems if all of your cookware is aluminum.

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