Kool-Aid Dyed Yarn

Last night I dyed up some yarn. I just started doing this last year when Tracy showed me the way, and have had so much fun with it. I like to use Kool Aid or food coloring because I work in my kitchen, and this way I don't have to worry about toxins. I'll tell you a little about how I did it last night, but if you really want a good tutorial you can find one here on Knitty.com.

I started with Knitpicks Bare superwash sock yarn, but you can also start with any yarn that is high in animal fiber content...the higher the better! I've used yarn from my stash and dyed over lighter colors I wasn't crazy about with good results. I left my yarn in the skein it came in because I was lazy last night, but if you want longer repeats you can reskein it into a much longer skein. Put the skein in a tub of water to soak. Let the fibers really soak for a good while (go watch some TV and knit!). You want all the air out so it will take up the dye nicely. When the yarn is good and wet, gently squeeze the extra water out so you can transport it to your bowls.

Next, I boiled up a big pot of water and poured boiling water into 3 bowls. I dissolved 3 packs of unsweetened Kool Aid to each bowl and immediately draped the yarn into the bowls. If you are using kool aid there is enough citric acid that you really don't have to use vinegar, but I added a splash to each bowl anyway...never hurts. I want that color to stay! Move the yarn around a little with spoon so it all gets a chance to soak up the dye. Pretty quickly I shifted the yarn so the white parts were dyed too. If you feel your water cooled too much, you can wrap your yarn in saran and microwave it 2 minutes to make sure the heat has set the dye. My water was still extremely hot after the yarn soaked up the dye, so I didn't bother.

You can see here that the yarn has taken up all the dye and the water is clear again.

Let it cool a bit in the sink and then rinse. I like to add a little dish soap and give it a light wash at this point. No dye came out at all, so I knew the dye was set well. Then squeeze the extra water out gently (you don't want to felt it!) and put it in a towel to blot the extra water out.

Finally, hang it up to dry......and in the morning you have some nice new colors to work with!

There are all sorts of variations on the technique...you can dye in pots on the stove, handpaint and then microwave, or even use a crock pot. Fun!

Christmas Decorating!

I thought there must be some mistake when this giant box showed up in the mail....I was looking for my prize from SC Johnson Right at Home for the Houseblogs.net contest, but I was expecting a little envelope with a gift card. Let me tell you I felt like the dad from A Christmas Story receiving the "significant award!"


They sent this huge basket of products and the gift cards...so nice! Thank you to houseblogs.net and to SC Johnson.

I knit up a hat for Mike's stocking and made the mistake of letting him try it on...he liked it so much he wanted to start wearing it right away. Well, I'm glad he liked it!

Then I used the left over gray from Mike's hat and some red I dyed (same kind of yarn) to start a hat for Joe. He's tricky because he has a much bigger head. I altered it to fit...and I hope it does!

Tonight we started decorating for Christmas....Hawkeye's pretty sure this is not where the wreath should go.


Joe got it done in the warmth of the house and then went out and hung it up. It's starting to look alot like Christmas!

Food Coloring Dyeing and a Creative Farm Sink

Since I started knitting again, I've been hanging out on Ravelry. What a great site....full of fiber goodness. That's where I met Tracy of Stringativity. She and I met Tuesday to so she could teach me to dye with food coloring. I had so much fun. I never thought I'd even want to dye yarn, until I saw the wonderful things people were doing with kool aid and food coloring. It sounded doable and like I would have the things right in the kitchen to get started. Tracy was so nice to invite me over to learn how she does it.

First I have to show you Tracy's great farmhouse style sink. Do you know what it is? It's a mop sink....I love it when people think outside the box! They purchased it new and Tracy says it weighs a ton. So if you think you might like to do something like this, just know moving it is a real experience. Tracy and her husband are renovating an lovely old home and it's full of great, creative ideas. If she ever became a house blogger, we'd all learn a lot. But the woman has a ton of fiber to keep her busy.


She showed me how to soak the yarn, mix up the food coloring dyes and then the fun began.


Apparently the the only limit is your imagination when applying the dye. I mostly spooned or poured it on in sections. I tried to pick colors that would look good if they ran together, and I'm glad I did. It did run together, and I love how it turned out.

We wrapped them up and cooked them in the microwave. It wasn't nearly as messy as I envisioned. I guess all I had to go on was memories of tie-dye t-shirts in grade school!


Here's the pink, yellow and orange. It's an eye popper isn't it?!


Blues...this is an alpaca yarn. Nice and soft.


And here's some sock yarn, because I'm kinda hooked on learning to make socks right now.



Here's Tracy working on putting some black dye over some previously dyed wool. She purchased a ton of wonderful fiber at an estate sale...I've never seen so much wool! Some are colors she doesn't really care for, so she's dyeing to change that.



I can't wait to see how this looks when she spins it up. I'm guessing it will be a beautiful earthy tweed.


And I've finished the first sock in my second pair. I knit one up almost to the toes in a different pattern before I realized I disliked the pattern. Yeah, I know. I'm kind of slow. I couldn't face the idea of knitting a second one like it, so I ripped it out and started over. I like these very much. I think I'm going to have to get over my impatience and start knitting the leg a little longer though.

Thanks so much Tracy for lunch and the lesson and the good time! I'm looking forward to doing this again!