Monday, July 19, 2010

Kool Aid + ..Yarn?? = An Interesting Experiment

When I'd been knitting for about a year or so I read an article on Knitty (yes, I'm a knitting dork. lets all laugh :P) with a tutorial for how to dye your yarn in a crock pot. I just laughed thinking, Wow. Knitting is one thing, but I can't believe some people actually spin and dye their own yarn. Sheesh. Lets not take a good hobby too far here people. Sooo here we are 4 years later and I'm blogging about my first yarning dying experiment! :)

We start off with a simple little 2 gram hank of sock yarn. Hmm, what color to dye it though?



Oooh how about Strawberry Kiwi! That should make the white parts look pinkish and and give the blue parts a plurply look I'm guessing. Let's see how this turns out! :)





Ok, so the instructions say I should wash the yarn and soak it for a bit.



Alright now it says two packs of Kool Aid per 50 grams of yarn. My super awesome math guesstimation skills say about half 1/2 a teaspoon should do it.



Mix in a little water and I'm almost ready to toss the yarn in! 



Ahhh ok. Apparently my super guestimation skills are a tad off. Definitely NOT enough color. Lets try another teaspoon of Kool Aid.

Perfecto!



Now for the mad scientist portion. Gotta zap my yarn baby in the microwave for 2 whole minutes. Eep!

Looks like the experiment was a success!



And the colors turned out just how I expected them to ^_^



And it looks quite cozy in my sock yarn blankie :)

Comments (13)

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HA! It all certainly makes sense....NEVER would have thought to use a crockpot but obviously, it's perfect. Kool-aid... very cool. Thanks for the detailed pixs..makes it fun and interesting. :) Pam
2 replies · active 761 weeks ago
Yes, it certainly was a little more difficult to have to photograph everything, but I'm really glad you liked it! :)
I bought a crock pot jusdt to dye yarn. I haven't tried it yet though.
Wonderful! The first person I have found out there who also dyes with Kool Aid! I really have no method, I just am experimenting and trying to figure out what looks good, I like knowing that I'm not alone out there :)
1 reply · active 766 weeks ago
Yeah, actually a lot of knitters/crocheters do! You're definitely not alone ;)
You laugh now, I did once but then you find yourself admiring pretty roving and then when you go to the fiber festivals you see all the spinners and then your friend gets one. Next thing you know? Your debating if you can keep a miniature goat in your apartment if it lived in the bathtub...slippery slope my friend.
1 reply · active 766 weeks ago
You're right, I should never laugh. Next year I'll probably have a closet full of roving and consider throwing my sister out on the street to make room for my new spinning gadgets and swift and things. :P
If you're not already on Ravelry, you should try it!! There is a group called Blankie Mania...we do destashes and swaps of yarn for our blankies. If you get over there< i'm insomniacknitter...Look me up!
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
I'm already in the group as madametj ;)
Ok, that is so cool! I gotta try it, too! :)
Did you put any vinegar in the water? If you didn't the colour will eventually wash out. You need a mordant (in this case, vinegar) to fix the colour.
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
oh, ok. I'll definitely do that next time! Whats the water to vinegar ratio?
A great way to change the color of the yarn. I will also try this but I wonder if I can use other colors that I want, especially if there is a certain color you want to achieve.

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