The Slipped Stitch: Dyeing for Kool Aid

GLOVES ARE NOT OPTIONAL...... :)

We dyed with Kool Aid last night. Stephanie and I got down and dirty. The dirty part mostly because we used the gloves sparingly. P.S. Gloves are not a suggestion. J

I purchased some Peruvian Highland Wool from the Morro Fleece Works on my trip last weekend to see my fiend’s wedding. (more on this later.)

Yarn…….I got 220 yards for $7, pretty sweet. We wrapped it about 10 times around our elbow to hand, then tied them into skeins. First mistake, both of us failed at tying loosely. I was really trying, and in Stephanie’s defense- I forgot to tell her not to choke the yarn to death. We got 25 cute baby skeins. 6 of which we did not use.

Kool Aid….. Kool aid is not as plentiful as it was in my youth. The nearby Ralph’s had only 2 flavors! Lemonade, and Tropical Punch, which even though the wrapper is blue, is actually red. Go figure.

We started with 9 colors. (Thanks to Cool Splashers from Disney)
Strawberry
Black Cherry
Tropical Punch

Orange
Lemonade
Lemon Lime

Pink Lemonade
And Grape.

Just and FYI- Grape looked black- kinda crazy- so we (having way too much tropical punch, and accidentally making 2 of them, decided to pour a little grape into one tropical punch to see what would happen.

Even thought the norm amount is 2 packets to 50 grams of yarn( that’s 1 packet to 25 grams), we put one packet for 4 grams of yarn, that’s right like 6x more then we needed! This resulted in highly saturated colors- we liked this. So there.

After we put hot tap into each cup we used a chop stick to stick the yarn in, and swirl it around.

Then into the microwave for 2 min a pop. Then a little rest for the lazy yarn, and another 2 min. most of them took just 2 2min segments.

Once the water is clear, or semi clear, time to take them out to rest and cool. Then I used hot tap, and my gloves to rinse out the kool aid. Then I used a little hand soap to clean it with, and then we hung it on a hanger in the bathroom to dry.

We tried to make variegated in 2 ways. One: we used a baster for color disbursement. This was clumsy and difficult. I think it would be better done with food dye.

And two- Stephanie tried the half in method of putting half the yarn in 2 cups. She used Lemon Lime and Pink Lemonade, oddly the green wicked up the yarn, and pooled in the pink- but say on top…..it made the yarn that was in the green very bright, then lighter, then into a dark pink…..i think it would have been better had then cups been the same size. But it turned out better then the baster, which eventually muddled.

Then it was getting late and I had sniffed a lot of kool aid fumes, so I put a skein still twisted up into a mixture of grape, black cherry, and tropical punch, and another skein, still twisted up into remainder of the tropical punch powder. That was kinda gross, but I was experimenting. This is what happened, which surprised and delighted both Steph and i.

Here are all the colors. the lighter green is misxed with Lemonade, but it really didn'e make it much lighter. the burnt orangly ones are made from black cherry and orange in different quanities. the reds are tropical punch, strawberry, and cherry with some grape that did nothing. the darker red is Steph's "verigated" black cherry, orange and lemonade. the burgundy one is black cherry, then grape, then the 2 crazy ones i explained above, then pink lemonade, then my "verigated" lime, pink lemonade, and lemonade.These are my faves. :)