Kool-Aid Dyeing

I am anxiously awaiting a package in the mail from a company called Pro-Chem in Massachusetts. It is filled with acid dyes for wool and other protein fibers in a multitude of colors plus some other supplies for dyeing. In the next few weeks, I am going to practice handpainting roving (this is spinning fiber) and undyed yarn both! I can't wait!

In the meantime, I have been playing around with kool aid and my new crockpot that I bought at Walmart for only twenty dollars! AND IT IS HUGE! I love how my kool aid yarn turned out, but...I still think the acid dyes will be more intense and reproducible, although I am keeping a record of every dyeing projects (e.g. in this case which kool aid dyes were used!). The house also smelled fantastic! A real nice sweet smell. Much more pleasant than normal dyes mingling with the smell of hot wool and vinegar!

I used some undyed Fishermans Wool yarn from my stash for this project. Here are some photos of the yarn on the skein, then in the crockpot. One of the skeins hanging to dry and a few of the beautiful skeins themselves in all of their colorful glory! I used a combination approach of both mixing the kool aid packets in a little water and also putting the powder straight onto the yarn where I wanted dark areas. For this batch, I used Mango, Jamaican Punch, Cherry, Orange and Lemon!! It is very pretty. What do you think???? My real goal of course is to handspin each batch of yarn that I dye but I can only do so much at one time!!! Oh...also I left the crockpot on for about three hours. It did get pretty hot and I had to turn it down so it wouldn't boil and felt the yarn. The yarn absorbed every bit of dye and the water left in the pot was clear!

Happy New Year! Lisa