Don't Drink the Kool Aid

This weekend was Labor Day weekend, so I made it a point to be as anti-Labor as possible. I got all my errands done ahead of time so that I could do whatever I damn well pleased, and it was totally worth it! Saturday was my first foray into Kool Aid dyeing. I read a few articles online and holy crap was it easy (shhh, don’t tell).

First, I gathered all my materials:

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Microwave-safe bowl, measuring spoons for dishing out the dye (I don’t have a turkey baster), latex gloves to keep the stains off my fingers, the chosen flavors of Kool Aid, and the yarn intended for dyeing (only animal fibers will take the dye - I used Lamb's Pride worsted, which is 85% wool and 15% mohair. If I had used, say, a cotton/ wool blend, the wool would have taken the dye, but the cotton would not. Which can be a nice effect, so don't rule it out completely). I wrapped the yarn around the back of a chair in order to make a dye-able loop, then let it soak in cool water for about ten minutes (I added a wee bit of shampoo and gave it a good rinse). Then I mixed up my dyes and laid the skein out on a garbage bag to minimize clean up:

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For the dye, I used one whole packet of Kool Aid and filled the mug up about halfway with water. The pink was a bit light, so I added a second packet and tried the same with the grape. I used the measuring spoon to distribute the dye where I wanted and ended up with this:

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Then I smooshed it down a little with my fingers to make sure the dye went through all the layers of yarn and absorbed fairly evenly. I wasn’t too worried about this part, because I was starting with white yarn and didn’t mind some of that still showing through. Then I *put the skein (still wet) into the microwave safe bowl and zapped for two minutes, then let it cool off on the counter for another two-minutes ish. Repeat from * twice more. Then I lay the skein out on some old washcloths to cool off completely:

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Have you ever smelled hot wet Kool Aid wool? I hadn’t either. It’s not entirely unpleasant (at least if you don’t mind the smell of wet wool, which I don’t), but it definitely isn’t something I’d like to scent my car with. After it had cooled, I rinsed with cool water (it’s important to let it cool completely before rinsing, to avoid felting the yarn), then let it hang dry in my shower. As it was drying, I decided the grape/ purple color was too muddy, so I overdyed that portion using black cherry and got a nice purpley-red color. Finished product turned out quite nice:

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Houston Sunset. All the colors of the pretty Houston Sunsets.

Spent the rest of the weekend finishing, then frogging (while swearing), then re-making another hat for Hazel:

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Special thanks to Big Brother for the mannequin head. I feel I should say that it's a VERY SMALL HEAD, so the hat looks bigger than it actually is. And started my first toe-up sock pattern:

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Hooray for three-day weekends! I wish every weekend was a three-day weekend. More knitting!!