Yellow Beets vs. Red Beets

This was my most anticipated duel. After all, the previous colors were surprisingly vibrant, and beets are very effective at staining kitchen counters and wooden utensils. I was dying (dyeing?) to see what would happen.

A secondary duel took place on the cutting board--those beets were tough! The only kind of red I wanted to see was beet juice, so I opted for some knife safety and finished the chopping myself.

The kids chatted while the pots filled with water:

And an hour later after simmering the beets, the dyes looked similar to the onion skins. But would they have a similar outcome?

(red beets on the left, yellow beets on the right)

Enter two other kids for the mordant:

And the entire party for boiling the fabric:

Both dye pots looked very unappealing--one like the contents inside a toilet and the other like a freakish accident--but recalling all the lessons learned from this process, looks can be quite deceiving.

And all that was left to do was sit and wait.