Dyeing silk and wool, what to use?

[Think of Winter]

Hello,
My local grocery stores have very few kool-aid colors. What else can I use? I think our Michaels might have Wilton cake dyes. How do they compare in price and color options? I missed out on the after-Easter egg dye sales. Has anyone tried the food colorings available on Ebay? I tried natural mineral dyes, and they didn't work.
Thanks!

[Jenlaana]

I just bought a dye starter kit from Dharma online (dharmatrading.com) I havent used it yet, but the dye they sell is the same as that which pburch.net reccomends for dying and also Dharma was reccomended to me here on MDC.

I also did a dye experiment a few days ago with food coloring (the kind you get w/ the frosting and cake supplies at the grocery store) and vinegar. It didnt work for me but that is because I only had cotton available to dye (kool aide wouldnt work for cotton either). I used this tutorial: http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/fooddyes.shtml which says its great for silk and wool but not for cotton. It was fun though even if it did wash right off because we had the wrong materials.

[Think of Winter]

Coudl you tell me which kit you bought? I was looking at the Dharma kits today, but it wasn't obvious to me which would be best for animal fibers.
Thank you!

[kittywitty]

I have used food coloring, kool-aid, and acid dyes. Koolaid is super fun and the kids can help. It's hard to get away from the bright candy colors, though.

Acid dyes when used properly can have SO many options and it takes some experimentation. I have the Jacquard ones.

[eepster]

There are lots of juices, spices, etc you can use. Just make sure it isn't frozen.

• Trader Joe's (TJ) raspberry = mauve
• TJ concord grape = dark purple
• just black cherry juice = mahogany brown
• TJ pomagrant = brown
• cranberry = red brown
• TJ blueberry = violet browns
• tea = yellow tan
• tumeric = splendid gold
• beets = pink
• apple and eve grape juice = soft lilac

This is a list of stuff I've tried.