Playing With Colour

Have you ever dyed your yarn – on purpose? There are many techniques and schools of thought when it comes to dying yarn, and many people take it very seriously. But if you are just looking to have a little fun, and don’t want to mess around with chemicals that require major safety equipment, then I have just the thing for you.

Koolaid.

Yup, that drink mix that you can pick up for pennies a packet is awesome at dying animal fibre (means it works on hair, too).  Here was a fun dying experiment a couple of days ago:

1. Presoaking the yarn (Scheepjes sock yarn in an oatmeal colour). The yarn is skeined and tied in three places.

2. I mixed the koolaid with just enough water to get a good, dark mix (I used strawberry-kiwi, strawberry and cherry).

3. I poured the dye over the yarn, which was coiled on a plastic bag on top of newspaper.

4. Once the yarn was saturated I put it in a glass dish with a lid and microwaved it in 2 minute increments, letting it rest between bouts (I did this batch three times).

5. I let the yarn cool for about an hour and then rinsed it out in luke-warm water (the water had no dye coming off, although the strawberry-kiwi left a milky residue which rinsed out).

6. I hung the yarn outside to dry.

7. I pulled out my lovely ball winder and voila!

The only thing you have to be careful of is cleaning up any spills as the colouring may dye your counters, etc. I wore gloves as I didn’t really want red fingers, but it won’t hurt you at all.

It’s really addictive, and a lot of fun. I already have more colours planned!

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