knitting

I have a friend who just dyed yarn with Kool-Aid, and it turned out so, well, cool, that I can’t wait to try it myself! It seems relatively simple from everything I’ve read so far, and the great thing about Kool-Aid is that it’s edible, so you don’t have to have separate bowls and pots that you use just for dyeing.

It also comes in a whole bunch of flavors/colors, so you can experiment with several different colors for not a long of money. You need to use wool or other animal fiber yarn for Kool-Aid dyeing, like alpaca or such, acrylics and plant yarns, like cotton, won’t work. To make it interesting, it’s fun to use several different colors, like my friend did.

Basically you wash the yarn, put the Kool-Aid in a pot, bring it almost to a boil, and put in your yarn. You have to heat the yarn to get the dye to take, but you can do it in the microwave, too. Here are complete instructions “Dyed in the Wool.” http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html

This is a great way to find out if you like hand dyeing your own yarns, without spending a lot of money on equipment. As soon as I try it I’ll post my results here, so you know how it goes!

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