Kool-Aid Dying Attempt #1

Last summer FAB and I took a yarn dying class at Kraemer Yarns in Nazareth, PA. We each dyed two skeins of yarn:


FAB's skeins are on the left, mine are on the right. We had a lot of fun that day and both were bitten by the yarn dying bug. I'm not sure if FAB has dyed any more yarn as I haven't seen any pictures (hint, hint, hint). I did purchase some bare yarn from Knit Picks but have yet to dye any of it.

A few months ago (I think there was still snow on the ground) I took a skein of the Bare Sock Yarn and wound it into a cake then taking an end from the middle and an end from the outside and crocheted my own blank. I think I used a size J hook and single crocheted 25 stitches across, turned and single crocheted 25 stitches back until I ran out of yarn.

Until today!!

First things first:


I covered my wood counter top with a heavy duty lawn & leaf bag and secured the edges with blue tape (I love blue tape!).Then I got out my 9" x 9" Pyrex baking dish and put my yarn blank inside with some cold water.


I let the yarn soak for about 20 minutes. Then I poured out the water and gently squeezed out any excess water. I left enough water so that it was still quite moist but not dripping wet. Then I placed it back in the 9" x 9" Pyrex baking dish. My vision for this dying attempt was to make darker areas and lighter areas. So I mixed two packets of Cherry Kool-Aid and approximately 4 tablespoons of water to make a dark concentrate in a glass jar.


Then using a metal spoon I sprinkled about half of the concentrate onto one side of the yarn.

Then, with a rubber glove on I flipped the yarn in the baking dish:


Then sprinkled the remaining concentrate on the other side of the yarn:


I let the yarn sit for a bit because I wanted the concentrated color to really soak into the yarn. I mixed 2 more packages of Cherry Kool-Aid in a mason jar and filled it with water and poured the mix onto the yarn and added more water until the majority of the yarn was covered.

I placed the dish with the yarn into the microwave and cooked it for 2 minutes.

When I took it out and checked the water to see how clear it was I found out that 99% of the dye had been soaked up by the yarn.

From what I have culled from various sources about how to dye yarn, you cook the yarn for 2 minutes - let the mixture rest for a few minutes and then cook it for another 2 minutes until the majority of the dye has been soaked up. In my little experiment this happened just after the first 2 minute cooking time.
At this point I took the yarn (after it had cooled from being zapped in the microwave) to the sink and rinsed the heck out of it. I was still getting some red in the water I was rinsing out of the yarn so I decided to leave it wet (but not dripping) and put it back into the pyrex dish and microwaved it for another 2 minutes. After it had cooled and I rinsed it again I didn't get any color out of the water when I rinsed it.


Now all I have to do is wait for it to dry. I hug it up in my shower over 2 hangers and put a fan on it to speed up the drying time.


It will probably be dry and ready to knit with tomorrow.

Overall I am pretty satisfied with my results, thus far. I'll save my final judgment for after I knit with it. I have knit with hand dyed yarns before and how they look in a skein can be quite different than after it's been knit or crocheted with.

Now, I'm going to go play with a skein of yarn that is still in one big loop. I'm thinking of tying some yarn around some sections so that the yarn under that section won't get much if any dye on it. Maybe I'll use Black Cherry Kool-Aid this time . . .


Edited to add: I would NOT SUGGEST that you crochet two strands of this sock yarn together as I did in this first experiment. It took me HOURS to un-ravel it. It knotted up and fuzzed A LOT and was a major pain. I won't be doing that part of this process again.