As you all know from the TQBFJOTLD thread, I have been in a procrastinating mood 
This weekend, I decided to try some koolaid dyeing… since I have nothing else to do or knit or plant or study or whatever :rollseyes:
I woound the yarn into hanks, and then soaked them in lukewarm water for 45 minutes (longer than suggested). While they were soaking, I mixed the koolaid in mason jars, because they have measurements on the side of the jar. I first added a splash of vinegar to each jar, even though all of the directions I read said you didn’t need it, added the powder, and then added about 6 ounces of hot water for each packet of koolaid. In the pictures below, the large jars all have 24 ounces of liquid with 3 packets of koolaid, and the smaller ones have 1 packet with 8 ounces of liquid EXCEPT for the pink lemonade–that has 2 packets with 16 ounces.
I laid out garbage bags, taped them to the table, taped newspaper on them, then taped more garbage bags on the paper (I didn’t want to make a mess). The directions I read all said to wrap the dyed yarn in saran wrap, but I decided to actually wrap it IN a trash bag, which turned out to be a good thing because they didn’t drip ONE drop!!!
I poured the colors onto the yarn kind of randomly, and with gloves on, squished the yarn gently so it soaked as much of the koolaid as it could (being careful not to felt the yarn with the hot dye). I wasn’t too careful with letting the colors bleed, BUT I did try not to put complementary colors right next to each other (red + green = brown, blue = orange = brown, etc). When it was all done, I rolled it up in the garbage bag, and stuck two rolls at a time in a pyrex dish, and microwaved it for 3 intervals of 2 minutes each.
Then, I carefully removed the boiling hot yarn from the trash bags. For the first skein, I laied it gently in the sink and ran some hot then warm then cool water over it, but with the other 3 I just dunked them alltgogether in coled water and let it soak. The results were the same both ways, so I’m going to stick with the second method because it’s quicker.
Then, I folded the hanks in half and gently squeezed out the water, and viola!!! I laid the hanks on the table just for pictures, but really you could just hang them right up. … I did tye the hanks with contrasting yarn, and i used the loops of the ties to keep the hanks on the hangers.
I will post a swatch as soon as I knit one! I’m so excited :cheering:
I’m going to try to dye the WHITE (not shite!!!) knitpicks yarn next. i didn’t like how the ice blue lemonade turned out, too milky and washed out on this yarn. I’m going to try to find a brighter blue next time. I LOVED the orange and strawberry, though; they definitly look like sunset colors to me (for the May KAL).
Here’s the pics!
