Friday 29 August 2014

Having fun with Kool-Aid dyeing

A nice sunny day and a huge supply of packs of Kool-Aid - time to do some more dyeing.

I had pre-soaked 2 skeins of sock yarn, 3-ply merino/nylon superwash, that is the base of all my sock yarn dyeing, overnight in water with just a small squirt of dishwashing soap. No acid (vinegar or citric acid) is necessary because this is already in the packets. I premixed the Kool-Aid, 1 cup of hot water to 1 packet of Kool-Aid, and I chose strawberry, peach-mango, and black cherry.


After spreading the skeins out on a sheet of plastic, I squirted the dye onto the yarn in strips, smooshing down as I went (a very technical term) to make sure the dye penetrated through.

 After all the dye was used up (it took 2 packets of each to completely cover the skeins), I rolled up like a jelly roll in the plastic, and put into the canning pot to steam.


After steaming for 15 minutes, I left the yarn to cool, rinsed out and hung to dry. What do you think?