Fun Time with Kool Aid - Part Two

The other day my friend Suzy came over and we hand dyed yarn together with Kool-Aid. Since my original posting on dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid I have been on the hunt to find Kool-Aid packets. I am surprised how hard it is to find Kool-Aid packets that are not cherry, tropical punch, orange, grape and lemonade. Every time I went out I was compelled to go in every corner store and ask if they had Kool-Aid packets. My hunting was worth the time, because I was able to find amazing flavors. I was also able to find people on Ravelry who were willing to help the cause.

I was able to find the following flavors:
berry blue
ice blue raspberry lemonade
invisible
lemon-lime
mango
orange
tangerine
pink lemonade
grape
blastin’ berry cherry
cherry
jamaica
man-o-mango berry
slamin' strawberry kiwi
strawberry
tropical punch
watermelon cherry
lemonade
pineapple
black cherry
kickin' kiwi lime

This time around I have more than just colors that are in the red family. I have blues, greens, yellows and oranges (of course I have tons of reds).

The last time I tried dyeing I used my crock pot and it gave the yarn a tie-dye effect.
This time I tried the dipping effect. That is when you dip the yarn in the dye. Below you will find a photo of the method I used when I was creating my Crayon Love yarn.

I loved and hated this method. I loved the way the yarn came out, but it is reallllllllly messy. We had Kool-Aid everywhere. On the floor, all over the table. Our hands and feet were stained. The scary thing was our hands were stained for days. The photo below is of my hand hours after we finished the process. Again I ask, why do people drink this stuff and what do their insides look like?

What I loved about the this method is the way the yarn looks. The colors are deeper and richer than the crock pot method, because you are putting the yarn directly in touch with coloring.

This time I used 1 skein of Lion Brand's Fisherman Yarn and 2 skeins of Lion Brand's Pure Wool.

I had to give the Fisherman's yarn a fair shot this time since I treated it so poorly the first time. The last time I used the plain cream yarn. This time I used the cream yarn with the brown specs, because I wanted to see how the brown specs would look with the dye.

I choose the Pure Wool because it was already hanked and super cheap ($4 per hank).

Buying yarn that is already hanked is a great idea, because it saves a lot of time. The only reason why I am a bigger fan of the large Fisherman's skein is because you get so much yarn verses the smaller hanks of yarn. If I could find a hank that was as large as the fisherman's skein, then I would buy that instead.

After creating the messy blob of a hank the last time I was determined to make a real hank this time. Suzy and I set up shop on my floor and figured out the best way to create the hank was by wrapping the yarn around the legs of the card table. It worked out really well. We created a beautiful hank, but it took a good 45 minutes to get that big skein into a nice hank, but I think it was worth it.

I definitely think this was a better experience then my first time, because I took the mistakes I made the last time and made sure I didn't repeat them again. :)

Lessons learned from this batch of dying:
Get a good pair of plastic gloves - kool-aid stains!
The card table is good for creating a hank
Use a table that you do not care about
Wrap the table in plastic wrap
Dipping is a good method for bright colors

Photos of the dyed yarn:
I named this one Hippy Tones

This was made in the crock pot - I used cherry, lemon-lime and blue raspberry lemonade kool-aid. This is Lion Brand's Pure Wool.

I named this yarn Hello Cherries!

I used the dipping method. It is hard to tell in this photo, but the yarn is different shades of red. I used the following Kool-Aid flavors watermelon cherry, jamaica, black cherry and blasting berry cherry. This was made with the Lion Brand's Pure Wool.

I named this yarn Crayon Love

This is the hank that Suzy and I created after it is has been dyed.




This was made with the Berry Blue, Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, Black Cherry, Pineapple, Grape and Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid. I used Lion Brand's Fisherman's wool with brown specs.

All of the balls were balled at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in New York City.