Dyeing Yarn In a Microwave

While blog surfing many moons ago, I came across a post on dyeing yarn with food colouring using a microwave. Intrigued, I vowed to one day try it.
That was about a year ago and during the interim I picked up a microwave on Freecycle, found a cake shop selling a vast array of paste and liquid food colour, did a bit of homework on the subject of dyeing and inherited a big bag of plain coloured wool.

So what was once this:

Quite quickly became this:

A vibrant mass of green. Much more interesting, don't you think?

The process was relatively simple and strangely, not too messy either.

Firstly, I wound the wool into a long skein using two chairs and then left it to soak in some cold water and white vinegar for about 24 hours (although an hour or two will do). I used about 1/4 cup of vinegar in a tub of about five litres of water. I then laid the wool out on a large piece of plastic wrap and using  'Creative' Jade in paste form, began applying the dye at intervals around the skein; wearing rubber gloves I gently worked it into the wool - being very careful not to begin felting.

Once the colour was applied I began cooking. The trick here is not to set your wool alight so a slowly-slowly approach was imperative...
I wrapped the skein tightly in the plastic wrap and placed it into the microwave with a cup of water in the middle.
I then cooked it on high for a minute, let it cool for five then cooked it for another two minutes and let it cool again. Following this pattern I cooked it for nine minutes in total. When it had cooled I rinsed it under cold water and then hung it out to dry.

I used 40grams of food colouring to about 100 grams of yarn.
This method produces a mottled, slightly uneven result and that was the effect that I was looking for.
I plan to start knitting with it sometime soon!