Yarn For Baby Blankets

Owen has been a bit under the weather this last week. Actually, he's had a runny nose (with a cough off and on) since Christmas. I have no idea what could be causing it. I just don't think we can eliminate anything else from our diets without starving and going insane. We finally went to the doctor yesterday; he gave us a homeopathic remedy, pulsatilla, for Owen, and he seems to be getting better. He ate last night and today, and he was much perkier!
He's needed a lot of snuggling and holding lately, but I have found a bit of time to get going on the three baby blankets I am making for the babies due this spring - baby Tuggle, baby Owens, and baby Ring. I found some undyed 100% wool yarn at the craft store, and have tried my hand at dying with cake dyes. The yarn above was made with green and blue dyes, and another one was made with yellow and red. I'm looking forward to crocheting it up into a blanket. Here's what I did to dye it:

• Divided the yarn into sections and placed them into large glass baking dishes
  
• Rinsed the yarn with a 1:4 solution of distilled vinegar:water, squeezing out excess but making sure all the yarn was wet
• Mixed dye solutions: 1:4 distilled vinegar:water plus Wilton Cake colors - I used about 4 cups of water to about 1/4 -1/2 t. dye for 4 ounces of wool yarn. This gave me pretty bright colors. I had 16 ounces of yarn in all and used 4 different colors.
  
• Poured the dye solutions over the appropriate areas of yarn and made sure all sections of the yarn were wet with dye
  
• Covered the baking dishes with foil and placed them in a 250F oven for hour, then turned it off and left them overnight - Actually, it was about 24 hours later when I got around to the next step.
• The yarn had taken up all the dye, and the solution that remained in the pans with the yarn was clear. I rinsed the yarn a few times with cold water, dried it in a clean bath towel, and hung it to dry.
• Wound it into a balls to use

It is important to use acid (vinegar) and heat to set the dyes. It is also important not to felt the yarn by agitating it during the process or shocking it with very hot or cold water.