I wound up some yarn yesterday and dyed them with ingredients from the kitchen. I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the result. I don't think they will be too light-fast, but at this stage I don't care. I already deal with too much chemicals in oil paint that I'm not so sure if I want to jump into chemical dye work just yet. Maybe when I get bored with the limitation of what I can do with KoolAid.
The yarn was again Elann Limited Edition Tremelo, natural color.
The purple yarns were dyed with Grape flavor KoolAid. I used total about 15 packs for 4 skeins to get the more saturated color. Initially I used a can and added a pack of Cherry Koolaid not realizing the can Kool-Aid has more sugar (19 oz makes 8 quarts of drink while each pack is 0.14 oz that makes 2 quarts.) I thought a can would give me enough saturation of color, I was wrong. Somehow I think the Cherry is stronger color than Grapes too. I was not pleased with the light color and some uneven reddish job so I went to the store and bought a dozen more packs of Grape, and 2 of the Dark Cherry.
The clerk at Safeway was laughing and said, "Someone likes the sweet drink!" I told her I was dyeing yarn with them, then she asked if the colors will stay. I told her about using alum for setting the colors. Anyway, the additional 10 or 11 packs of Grapes really helped with getting what I wanted. Now I'm pretty happy with the purple.
The greenish gold yarn was dyed with turmeric first. Then I put them in water with little of Grape Kool-Aid (maybe 1/3 pack worth) which did not change the yellow as much as I'd like. After the run to the store I put the two skeins in two packs of Grape and it came out so gorgeous. I love, love, love this color.
The orange ones were dyed with turmeric, a lot of pepparika, dash of chili powder and 1/2 pack of Cherry Kool-Aid. I like how glowing the orange color is. However, I'm not sure if I'll ever want to wear anything that orange. I may consider over-dye it.
It was so much fun watching the color getting soaked up by the yarn. I'm getting addicted to doing it. Now my house smells like the weird mixture of Grape KoolAid mixed with Turmeric.
The purple yarns were dyed with Grape flavor KoolAid. I used total about 15 packs for 4 skeins to get the more saturated color. Initially I used a can and added a pack of Cherry Koolaid not realizing the can Kool-Aid has more sugar (19 oz makes 8 quarts of drink while each pack is 0.14 oz that makes 2 quarts.) I thought a can would give me enough saturation of color, I was wrong. Somehow I think the Cherry is stronger color than Grapes too. I was not pleased with the light color and some uneven reddish job so I went to the store and bought a dozen more packs of Grape, and 2 of the Dark Cherry.
The clerk at Safeway was laughing and said, "Someone likes the sweet drink!" I told her I was dyeing yarn with them, then she asked if the colors will stay. I told her about using alum for setting the colors. Anyway, the additional 10 or 11 packs of Grapes really helped with getting what I wanted. Now I'm pretty happy with the purple.
The greenish gold yarn was dyed with turmeric first. Then I put them in water with little of Grape Kool-Aid (maybe 1/3 pack worth) which did not change the yellow as much as I'd like. After the run to the store I put the two skeins in two packs of Grape and it came out so gorgeous. I love, love, love this color.
The orange ones were dyed with turmeric, a lot of pepparika, dash of chili powder and 1/2 pack of Cherry Kool-Aid. I like how glowing the orange color is. However, I'm not sure if I'll ever want to wear anything that orange. I may consider over-dye it.
It was so much fun watching the color getting soaked up by the yarn. I'm getting addicted to doing it. Now my house smells like the weird mixture of Grape KoolAid mixed with Turmeric.
