Saturday, November 7, 2009

Kool-aid Yarn Dyeing

I may have mentioned that I took a class at Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe in Columbia a couple of weeks ago.  Great class ! ! !   Look what I did - - - - - -   this is Berry Blue                                                                                                                                      

Kool-Aid Dyed Yarn Berry Blue

I came home with a skein of the wool/mohair yarn to try my hand at home.  In the meantime, I picked up some Fisherman’s Wool from Hobby Lobby and  more packets of Kool-aid.

kool-aid 003 yarn wetting

kool-aid 004 yarn soaking

The yarn needs to be thoroughly wet so that all the fibers will have an equal opportunity to soak up the dye in the Kool-aid.  Then I gently squeezed out the the excess and blotted with a bath towel.

kool-aid 001 prep 11-6-2009 10-57-39 AM

Ready for prep – I used ten packets of the Orange  Kool- aid for approx 100 gms of the Fishermen’s Wool

kool-aid 005 mixing powder

 

I want to make certain that all the powder is dissolved before I immersed the damp yarn

 kool-aid 006 ready to emerse

I made sure the yarn to covered with the dye-water [well as best I could]

kool-aid 007 cover completely 

You can see that the Kool-aid was pretty darn orange - - can’t see my gloved fingers.  I swirled the yarn around gently so as not to ‘felt’ it.  After several minutes you can see that the water is becoming less orange.  However, the interesting thing about the Orange in comparison to the Berry Blue is that the BB turned clear while the Orange lost it’s orange and left a milky solution.  Hmmmmmm. You’ll see in a minute.

 kool-aid 008 desnity

Then it was time to nuke it in the microwave enough to set the dye but not to felt it. 

kool-aid 010 microwave

 

kool-aid 012 timed

I used  two-minute increments.  In between I let it sit for approx five minutes between nuke cycles then repeated until the water felt pretty darn warm to my gloved finger.

kool-aid 014 dye absorbed 

See what I mean about the color of the water when all the dye had been absorbed?  Milky.  I drained off the liquid and waited until the yarn cooled and then thoroughly rinse ‘til the water ran clear.     

                                                                                                                               kool-aid 016 drying

I gently squeezed the water out, rolled in bath towel to rid it of any remaining water -  laid it out on the table to dry.                                                                                                                                     

kool-aid 017 wound into cake

Wound it into a yarn cake and added it to my new stash of Kool-aid dyed yarn.

The Lemon-Lime beckoned . . .   -- -- --  . . . 

kool-aid 018

6 comments:

  1. OH, No... You've started... Isn't this soooooooooooo addictive. I started with the Kool-aid and Fisherman's yarn from H.L... Then I moved onto www.knitpiks.com for their superwash wool. Have a great time with this. I'll have to go back and read again. I didn't see that you used any vinegar. I add some to help set the color and brighten it. I'll keep you posted when I see other yarn on sale for dyeing. I'm always looking for it. I did like the H.L I love this Wool too. Got it on sale and it's easier on the hands.

    Are you going to try two colors for striping?

    Bring us more flavors,please.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your dyed yarn turned out so nice. Love the blueberry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Gerry,
    Thanks for stopping by my blog! I am always glad to meet fellow Arizonans! This is amazing! I have got to tell my yearn loving friend about this! Thanks again! :)

    PS I am going to be starting my genealogy blog hopefully after Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well just came across this and I must say wow! Nice work, & to get custom colors that you made yourself. Also love your pick of colors.

    ReplyDelete

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