Kool-Aid Dyeing
Well. The dyeing experience is over (for now), and it was so much fun. Seriously. And this post? Lots of pictures. Seriously.
Up first: all of the yarn got wound into hanks around the back of a desk chair. That was fun, for awhile.
I can't express to you how long this took. I did a decent job of making the hanks even; they're approximately 2 ounces each. Then I soaked the yarn as my guide (Julie's post about dyeing yarn) suggested. You can see the yarn soaking in the corner of the next picture, which is mostly a picture of my lovely Kool-Aid dyes.
That's essentially all of the counter space that exists in my apartment... again, seriously. FYI, each of those bowls held 2 packets of the selected color, slightly less than 2 tablespoons of white vinegar (I didn't want to run out), and 1 cup of warm water. Each set of three bowls was enough for 3-2 oz. skeins of yarn.
At this point, I realized that the picture of my dye looked an awful lot like another picture I have... sorry for the slow loads, but this one's got a lot of good memories with it.
That's a picture of the dumplings I learned to make when I was in China last summer. Do the pictures look similar to anyone else? I thought it was strange.
Anyway, I forgot to get any sort of turkey baster type utensil at the grocery store, so I used 1/4 cup measures to pour dye onto my yarn. It worked really well for my purposes, and my pie plate was the perfect size for a plastic-wrapped packet of yarn. Fortunately I have lots of pie plates, and they all fit in my tiny college student's apartment sized microwave.
Here's a shot of the yarn drying in my shower... there's lots of yarn in there.
It's still in the shower, as I didn't finish until 1:20 in the morning, but it's almost all dry now. I think some of the thicker hanks have a bit of dampness at the bottoms, but they'll have to hurry up, as I need to take a shower!
Also as an FYI, the solid blues in the picture were a combination of 1 packet Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade and 1 packet of Berry Blast mixed together in 1 c warm water with 2 Tbsp white vinegar.
A mini-hank that I dyed Lemon-Lime for accent stitching dried quickly, and I've already wound it up. I stuck some undyed Fishermen's Wool in with it, to show the change.
Now, isn't that pretty? As a side comment, I thought the wet wool (when it was soaking) smelled a lot like damp chewing tobacco (eeew, right?), but the Kool-Aid smelled great despite the vinegar! And now that my first dyeing experiment is over, it's nearly time to jump into a felting experiment, as that's what all of this wool is for!
Up first: all of the yarn got wound into hanks around the back of a desk chair. That was fun, for awhile.
I can't express to you how long this took. I did a decent job of making the hanks even; they're approximately 2 ounces each. Then I soaked the yarn as my guide (Julie's post about dyeing yarn) suggested. You can see the yarn soaking in the corner of the next picture, which is mostly a picture of my lovely Kool-Aid dyes.
That's essentially all of the counter space that exists in my apartment... again, seriously. FYI, each of those bowls held 2 packets of the selected color, slightly less than 2 tablespoons of white vinegar (I didn't want to run out), and 1 cup of warm water. Each set of three bowls was enough for 3-2 oz. skeins of yarn.
At this point, I realized that the picture of my dye looked an awful lot like another picture I have... sorry for the slow loads, but this one's got a lot of good memories with it.
That's a picture of the dumplings I learned to make when I was in China last summer. Do the pictures look similar to anyone else? I thought it was strange.
Anyway, I forgot to get any sort of turkey baster type utensil at the grocery store, so I used 1/4 cup measures to pour dye onto my yarn. It worked really well for my purposes, and my pie plate was the perfect size for a plastic-wrapped packet of yarn. Fortunately I have lots of pie plates, and they all fit in my tiny college student's apartment sized microwave.
Here's a shot of the yarn drying in my shower... there's lots of yarn in there.
It's still in the shower, as I didn't finish until 1:20 in the morning, but it's almost all dry now. I think some of the thicker hanks have a bit of dampness at the bottoms, but they'll have to hurry up, as I need to take a shower!
Also as an FYI, the solid blues in the picture were a combination of 1 packet Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade and 1 packet of Berry Blast mixed together in 1 c warm water with 2 Tbsp white vinegar.
A mini-hank that I dyed Lemon-Lime for accent stitching dried quickly, and I've already wound it up. I stuck some undyed Fishermen's Wool in with it, to show the change.
Now, isn't that pretty? As a side comment, I thought the wet wool (when it was soaking) smelled a lot like damp chewing tobacco (eeew, right?), but the Kool-Aid smelled great despite the vinegar! And now that my first dyeing experiment is over, it's nearly time to jump into a felting experiment, as that's what all of this wool is for!
posted by Megan at 3:33 PM
7 Comments:
Looks great! I have yet to try it because I don't know what I'm doing!
looks like you did a great job!!! love the color choices :)
next time, for bright bright colors, try Wilton's food dye for icings :)
Your yarn looks beautiful!! Can't wait to see the bag you make with it, the colors will work so pretty. You make me want to try dying now.
update update - I bought 6 packs of 3 different colors koolaid today. yayyyy
I love the colors. Everything came out beautifully.
Great job with the dye project--your results inspire me to try dying...or die trying. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Wonderful color selections!
Just to say Hi and tell you I responded to your comment on my blog. It looks as if we have the same problems when it comes to dyeing--no counter space and not much of anything else. My bathtub is always draped with washed recycled yarn, recycled fabrics, or dyed yarn. But it's fun.
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