Fashion woes

We all have had those items...the ones we love so much, and wear so often, that we literally wear them to pieces. Today, I realized that I'm facing such a problem with one of my top 10 closet items: my black skinnies. They're structurally intact (thanks, The Limited, for making quality clothes!), but they've been washed half to death and are somewhat faded. Or a lot faded. Exhibit A:



This what the pants looked like around the time I first bought them. This photo is from July.




These photos were taken in February (top) and March (bottom). See anything different?
So I've decided to take what is, in my mind, the ultimate risk. I'm going to dye my pants black. I've decided to use RIT dye, as I've seen a number of tutorials on dyeing clothes with that, and now just have to decide on a method: giant metal tub on the stovetop, or washing machine. I'm leaning toward washing machine, but I'm kind of nervous about residual dye that might ruin the next load of laundry that Matt or I do.

Have you ever used RIT to dye your clothes? Any tips? What method did you use?

(P.S. If you're looking for the "where I bought this" citations for the photos, just click the image and it'll take you to the original post.)