Bug Juice

Vegans, vegetarians, and others beware:

Read the fine print:  "Cochineal (color)"

What it really is and how it's used as a natural dye:

Take these little dried up bugs, pulverize them, add water, and simmer:

Add alum-mordanted animal fibers:

There's plenty of other information out there about dyeing with cochineal so I'll keep the details as few as possible.  Using a mere quarter of an ounce of dried cochineal, ground as fine as possible using a regular sized mason jar fitted onto a blender base, first I dyed a 100 gram skein of KnitPicks Color Your Own (lighter pink skein) and then threw in a white silk scarf/playcloth.  Then, since there was so much color left in the dyebath, I put in a 50 gram ball of Regia Silk sock yarn (darker pink skein.)  Still the dyebath was strong so then in went a piece of a woolen blanket, coiincidentally cut to the convenient weight of approximately 100 grams, and then another piece of the same size, successively premordanting and simmering each added skein or woolen piece.  After all this, unable to bear tossing the still very viable dyebath, it was poured into jars, labelled well, and put into the freezer for future use.  Awfully pretty isn't it?

Finally, I'm just now getting to using some of the yarn sent to me before the holidays by Kaarin in South Dakota. Besides the KnitPicks skein above, she sent some beautiful, naturally greyish handspun that she'd bought in Wyoming and a couple of other greenish wool skeins.  Kaarin: I'm not sure if I ever emailed you so here is my public "Thank you."

p.s.  The first time I noticed cochineal listed as an ingredient on a food label was about 10 years ago on a bottle of Snapple but they don't use it any more.  The boys and I shared the bottles of juice pictured above, knowing full well about the contents.  C couldn't drink them because they contain milk.  Who'd have thought?  Milk and bugs in your "juice" and only 1% juice.  Here's something more online about the FDA and the labelling of cochineal. 

Just thought you might like to know.   

Comments

[Mari]

I'm very impressed! The color is really lovely! I'm not usually into pinks but those tones is really beautiful.
Before reading the text I thought you had used the juices to dye the yarn (lol).
Where did you get the cochineal bugs?

[beth]

Wow. It's pretty neat how the different fibers took in the color differently. Also, it's so weird that they use bugs to color food. I love your posts on natural dying, I'm hoping to try it someday when I no longer live in Florida where it seems really hard to actually gather up natural dyestuffs.

[Old Round]

You learn something new every day!

[Pattie]

That's nasty. :oP

[Elizabeth]

I assume you bought the dried bugs and didn't go out and harvest them yourselves...or did you? :)
I love the pink colours.

[Grace]

Wow! I had no idea cochineal was used as a food dye. Interesting...

[Jenna]

Wow, I had no idea cochineal was used in food products. I suppose it's more natural than red dye #40, but this vegetarian isn't too interested in drinking bugs.

I can't tell from the photos if the drinks have a kosher certification. Hopefully not, as I think that bugs are a big no-no for those who keep kosher.

At least you had a successful day of dyeing with more to come!

[Mia]

You would be surprised at what you can learn from reading labels. I read labels even before I started to eat veg because of milk problems. Why do manufacturers have to put milk or bugs into products that don't need them makes you wonder.

I love the pinks that you were able to dye though.

[Kris]

Interesting, not just the fact that cochineal was used in food products but also the color pink that you get from dying with it. I have a little bit of cochineal that I got awhile back for my daughter to use in a scince project. She ended up not using it because she wanted to stick to dyes from plants. After seeing your results I think I might be using it after all.

[Chelee]

I know! I've seen cochineal in food and was totally grossed out. For yarn, sure, for food, yuck. And milk in juice? Wow. Good thing we try and stay away from that stuff.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Bethany]

Very pretty! What did you mordant the items with?

We had an incident with my dd once, who is vegetarian and had already drunk half a bottle of some grapefruit drink when she read the ingredients and asked me what cochineal was. Needless to say, she was grossed out and didn't finish it.

[Charity]

Beautiful dye jobs! I love the Regia Silk, especially! :0)

[Rebecca]

Oh all that pinkness is just gorgeous, this may be the push I need to have a go at dying my own. Who would have thought that bugs would do it for me? I would dearly love to colour most of my house in that but I fear "the others" might object (well husband and son, daughter would be delighted).

[jean]

Delightful pinks. And I guess the colorful drinks give new meaning (to me, at least) to "bug juice'. Gulp. Could I? Not sure. Yesterday's socks are lovely, as well as the spirit of their giftiness. I know your friend will be thankful in so many ways.

[angharad]

that's an amazing color-where do you buy the bugs?

[ramona]

oh, what lovely colours you dyed! and *yuck* for the juice. thanks for telling.

[Jane]

When I was little cochineal was the only food colouring you could buy and all my early iced creations were a variation of pink and red. Great colour - great insect! Love the pinkness of your dyed yarns.

[Louise]

What a beautiful color! Who would have thought bugs would make for a good dye?

[Spinneret]

"A Perfect Red" by Amy Butler Greenfield (NAYY) covers the history of cochineal. An easy read and very interesting for the dyers among us.

[Amber A]

I love cochineal's color. A little weird that it's used to color drinks, but hey, they eat bugs in a lot of places in the world!

[Julia]

Sorry little bugs, but the color you make is gorgeous! I must try dyeing with them someday.

[Wendy]

The smell of a cochineal dyebath smells like cranberry juice to me--no surprises there, eh?

Thanks for the revelation of the mason jar! I'll have to see if it works on mine, that'd be great.

[Wendy]

So, can you dye yarn with the Jones Juice? Pretty color!