As promised, here’s the information about my Kool-Aid yarn dyeing experiment. All in all it went well and I’m happy with the final results. Photography is not my best thing so I apologize for some of the slightly blurry images. And the colours are not quite as acid bright as the pictures seem to indicate.
In order to dye yarn, it must first be in a skein, tied loosely in a few places to prevent tangling. I used Bare Stroll Sock Yarn which came in a hank, tied in two places. Just for insurance I added two addition ties. These ties need to be loose to ensure the dye can get to all the yarn.
The first step is to soak the yarn in a basin of lukewarm water for about 30 minutes to ensure that it is thoroughly wet throughout. Because this yarn was brand new and meant to be dyed, I skipped the washing step for the first batch that I dyed green. In hindsight, that was a bad idea. I did gently wash the second batch and the colour was more evenly distributed.
Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid:
While the yarn soaked, I added 3 envelopes of Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid to 2 cups of hot tap water and stirred it to dissolve the powder. I let it stand to make sure all the powder was completely dissolved while I patiently waited. The ratio of Kool-Aid to yarn suggested on several websites is 1 package per ounce of yarn. My skein was 3.5 oz so I started with 3 packages.
When the yarn soaking time was up, I added the Kool-Aid mixture to the 6 cups of lukewarm water standing by in the crockpot. I lifted the soaked yarn gently out of its bath, squishing out as much water as possible with my hands down the length of the skein. Treat it gently and try not to get it tangled.
When the yarn soaking time was up, I added the Kool-Aid mixture to the 6 cups of lukewarm water standing by in the crockpot. I lifted the soaked yarn gently out of its bath, squishing out as much water as possible with my hands down the length of the skein. Treat it gently and try not to get it tangled.
Kool-Aid disolved in hot water. Did a colour test on a piece of paper towel. |
Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool-Aid:
I did everything pretty much as outlined above but this time added some “Soak” to the water in which the yarn was soaking and "squitched" it a bit. I had read that adding a bit of liquid dish detergent to the water helps to break that surface tension of the water which helps the yarn to thoroughly soak up the water. Although “Soak” does not require rinsing, I rinsed the yarn a couple of times anyway (just in case) before putting it in the dye pot. Although again, the dye exhausted very rapidly, there was a much more even distribution. I can only attribute this to the addition of the “Soak”. I have since read that adding salt to the dye bath will slow down the absorption of the dye to create a more solidly dyed yarn. My blue yarn is somewhat mottled but definitely no white areas.
Colour is more evenly distributed this time. |
It seems I forgot to take a photo of the completed ball of blue yarn so you will have to use your imagination. :-)
There are loads of resources on the internet for dyeing with Kool-Aid. You can find some great information at this Ravelry Group. In addition, Knitty has a good tutorial which includes a really useful chart of the colours you can expect with various flavours of Kool-Aid.
I highly recommend you try this. It's loads of fun. Just be cautious of getting Kool-Aid powder on your hands. I had "smurf" hands when I accidentally spilled some of the blue powder. Ooops! A couple of drops of bleach with some hand soap cleared it up.
Have fun!
Barb
1 comment:
That is so "Kool"
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