More fun with Kool-Aid

My grandmother gave me some Norwegian superwash DK weight wool a few years ago, shortly after I started knitting. There were four skeins in a natural white color that I never really did anything with. Naturally, they fell victim to my new dyeing addiction.



Two packets grape. This was an unexpected result, given that the last time I tried grape I got greyish-lavender. Still, I'm quite pleased with it.




Another attempt at striping. This is three flavors - pink lemonade, watermelon cherry, and black cherry. Of course, since I'm so pleased with the shade delivered by watermelon cherry, it is nowhere to be found anymore.




Two packets tropical punch (not to be confused with Hawaiian Punch, although I think that would probably provide a similar result). I LOVE LOVE LOVE this red, and I hope I can duplicate it.




Two packets lemon-lime. It has a slightly mottled effect - I like it. I'm thinking about doubling this up with the variegated pink above for a baby hat.




And finally, the end result from my previous post (black cherry and grape). This is Lamb's Pride Bulky, of course.

Next up: six skeins of Paton's Classic Merino in Natural White. I have over 100 packets of koolaid in the house...who knows what I'll come up with? :)

Adventures in Kool-Aid dyeing, take 2

I found a skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky in "Creme" tonight, so I decided to give KA dyeing another go. First, I wound the yarn into a hank using my handy dandy swift!



(Lesson learned #1: a small-diameter hank = three days' drying time.)

After soaking, I laid the yarn out on a flattened-out trash sack on the counter.



(Lesson learned #2: no matter how good Saran Wrap sticks to itself, if there is a seam, the water will run through it and stain your counter. Lesson learned #3: bleach works quite well to clean it up.)

Next came black cherry, two packets to 8 oz. water. (Is that Kool-Aid or is it...BLOOD?!? Muahahahahahaha!!!)



(Lesson learned #4: pouring it out of a glass does not work so well. Cheapy sports bottles from Walgreen's made it much easier to apply the dye.)

And here we are after applying dye #2 (two packets of grape in 8 oz. water) and microwaving. Looks a bit like intestines, actually...



(Lesson learned #5: grape comes out more grey than purple. oh well...maybe I can make something and market it to goths.)

The yarn is happily soaking now. I'm very, very pleased with the black cherry color and I will definitely do that part again. The grape, eh, we'll see how it looks once it's knit up.

Adventures in Kool-Aid dyeing

This started out as Cascade 220 in a pale pink color. I used some black cherry koolaid. It didn't turn out quite like I wanted - I was aiming for a striping effect by dyeing two wedges with the KA and leaving the rest intact - but I think it's still pretty. It'll probably end up being a charity hat. I just wanted to try it more than anything, and I learned some lessons. Like, I don't care how many people recommend Saran Wrap...next time, I'm using a cookie sheet. I had to use more than one strip of Saran and even though I overlapped them, the dye still seeped between the strips and stained my countertop a little bit. I'm also probably going to go to the beauty supply store and get a few hair dye-esque squeeze bottles.

Next up, Dream Swatch.



This is Tahki Yarns "cotton classic color" in colour 104. This is going pretty quick, and I started it mostly because I needed something non-black and non-wool to work on. Why, you ask? Because of this:



Sweater for Mr. Nekkid, very near completion (at least, compared to the last time I photographed it). It's been disgustingly hot, and naturally this is like a small double-thick wool blanket in my lap. Ugh. I hope this proves that I love him, because if knitting half a pound of wool sweater in the summertime in Oklahoma isn't love, I don't know what is.

Oh yes, one more thing. Belated b-day present from Mr. Nekkid:



hee hee :)