Experimenting Dyeing wool with Rit Dye...

I have been reading alot of blogs and tutorials about dyeing wool with Rit dye instead of the cushing or other dyes used specifically for wool. The lady from the shop where I purchased some hand dyed wool insisted that you can dye wool with just about anything from food coloring and kool aid to onion peels.( yuck, does it stink ??...lol)
So here is what I did... First off, I had purchased an old blanket from Salvation Army years ago. It was probably a full size. I had washed and dried it right away, but it was just an ugly pinkish tan color, I never wanted to use it for anything.
I didn't had red or yellow dye , just tan, brown, black, royal blue, orange and hunter green.
I cut the blanket up into smaller manageable pieces, and I also had to other types of a very gaudy red wool I wanted to tone done.
I soaked all my pieces in just a squirt of cascade rinse for dishwashers. This, I've read does something to the wool to make it more porous to accept the dye...The rit dye isn't acidy ??? like the others like Cushings, so this increases the color absorption. I added about 1/4 cup white vinegar to the color bath, and 1/4 cup vinegar to the rinse water also.
The problem with the old blanket was that it didn't want to accept the dye enough to cover what little color it had, until I added almost too much of each color I was using.The green that I had was hunter green..I had originally intended to add a small amount of that and a bit of tan to make kind of a sage color. Didn't work, I ended up using too much hunter and tan and it ended up almost like a black green....
The two different types of red wool started to bleed alot in the pre-soak, so I added just a hint of orange and a dash of tan and it came out almost a nice deep brick red.



Oh, I found a piece of real light tan and added that to the blue with a touch of tan...That piece came out nice, but I had to add more blue for the blanket piece to dye up and it came out too dark of a blue...






Well..all together, I'd say it was a learning process, and I'm happy with the fact that at least now I have some nice big pieces of wool that are at least some not too bad usable colors....
I will be looking for more wool skirts and jackets from the thrift stores and trying other colors and shades out...I think it was fun !! I have sore arms though from all the wringing out, but I did throw it in the washer for quick spins as I went along,to get the last bit of excess liquid out of the pieces...
Good Night !
Robin