Monday, July 28, 2008

Fun with Kool-Aid

A while back I bought a bunch of white/natural colored wool yarn with the intention of dyeing it. Well, the day has finally come! Last week I saw this tutorial on dyeing with Kool-Aid, which I happen to have a ton of (yes, we love Kool-Aid around here), so I figured why not?

I rarely do step-by-step stuff on this blog, mostly because I'm lazy and forgetful when it comes to hauling out my camera until things are finished, but today is a new day! Woohoo!

First, I wound the skein around the back of a chair so that it'd be one even piece and easier to get the dye on evenly. Sorry, no pic of that, but I'm sure you can picture it in your head. Next, as per instructions, I soaked it in a bucket of warm water with a little white vinegar.


Here's the initial colors I started out with. Lemonade on the left, Blue Berry Blast on the right, and kind of a mix of the two in the middle.

And a before pic (kinda looks like spaghetti, doesn't it?)



First lesson I learned? Three packages worth is not going to be nearly enough. Crap. So off to the store I went. Of course, I had to be dumb and forget to get more lemonade (I was distracted by the unusually wide variety of flavors they had at the particular store I went to), so I settled for Lemon-Lime instead. In the end, I think I ended up using something like 7 or 8 packets.

Here's the after:



Note to self, next time wear gloves.



After a couple zaps in the microwave, I let it cool and then started rinsing. This wasn't in the instructions, but after rinsing I stuck it back in the water/vinegar mix for a few minutes. And now here it is outside, drying.


I'm surprised by how vibrant the colors stayed. If I'd known they would set that bright, I probably would've diluted the kool-aid powder a bit more. I was hoping for more of a graded effect of blue-green-yellow, but my lack of yellow kind of nixed that. Still, I think it'll make a cute pair of longies or something. And I figure I can always try selling it if I don't like it for E. I'll try and take another picture after it's dry and I've wound it into a ball or skein.

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