Colour your yarn

A long overdue post about our first Koolaid dyeing experiment. It's incredible how time flies, it's been two weeks since we did some Koolaid dyeing together at the suggestion of my elder one as she said that I've promised to do it since 'two zero zero five' and it's now 'two zero zero six'.

It was fun, nothing methodological, all very impromptu and spontaneous. Each girl chose their own flavours/colours and dyed their own hank of Knitpicks Color Your Own.

We mixed the Koolaid in our normal soup bowls and the girls just had a go splashing the mixture onto the yarn. Of course there was some bickering as to who was to use which colour but in the end all were happy. Then I 'steamed' the yarn in wok, when done, rinsed the yarn and hung them in the bathroom. The saccharine fragrance of the Koolaid was so strong and filled my whole bathroom not quite pleasantly.

Below is a photo of the second hank (CY's) steaming in the wok.

All this was made possible since the grandparents were on holiday which avoided questions being asked or eyebrows being risen such as why kitchen utensils are used for such things. So how do the two hanks look knitted up?

This is JY's hand-dyed yarn. She wanted yellow (her favourite) and we had only two packets of lemonade and used that first. Seeing that 2 packets were hardly enough, we added pink lemonade which consumed the yellow so quickly that the yellow is now hardly visible. Then a splash of blasting cherry (which is really quite a strong red) was added and a dash of grape here and there. JY wants a scarf so I swatched with the Misty Garden pattern (also from Scarf Style) on Clover 4 (3.3 mm), not bad, isn't it?

The little CY chose rather strong flavours (colours), orange, grape and blasting cherry. And for good measure, I poured quite a bit more of Koolaid mixture into the dish while it was in the wok as the first hank (the light pink one) looked kind of pale. The result, some lovely fall colours. CY is requesting that I knit her a pair of mittens with it and with the leftover, I'm thinking a pair of socks for her.

All in all, it was a fun experiment!

Comments

[stacey]

They came out so pretty! Did you get the unsweetened Kool-Aid? It has no saccarine in it - just the powder and you add sugar to make Kool Aid...

[joy]

Both colors turned out great! I kind of like the smell of Koolaid. :D

[mtb]

really REALLY pretty variations! I used grape to overdye some yarn and the resulting scarf was sort of funny-if it got wet it still smelled grapey. I LOVE dying with Koolaid

[Courtney]

Oh my, how fun! I am so glad that the girls did it! I am not sure I would have been able to relinquish control, I am a freak!
The colors turned out so nicely, very different from one another (as I am sure the girls are!) and both very cool.
I want to try cool-aid dying...I saw a tutorial (in great detail) on See Eunny Knit and I have been thinking about it since...

[Angela]

How fun! That's such a great way to get your kids involved in your knitting. I think I'll do that with my kids.. then they'll want to wear EVERYTHING i knit for them... at least, I hope. ;)

[Agnes]

Both are fabulous! I guess they have a thing for this yarn dyeing thing ... when are you going to teach them to knit?

[brooke]

Sounds like it was a fun project-and the result looks great!

[Ann]

Wow, so pretty! I love the first one.

[Leah]

Lovely, lovely colors! Both the socks and the scarf are going to be beautiful!

[Vicki]

What a fun day and the colors are great!

[Teresa]

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your blog - I read it almost every day. I just used koolaid to dye my son's alien costume for halloween - sort of a lime-y green and not as dark as I thought - I may buy more koolaid and redye this weekend.

[toni]

Those are terrific! How special that the kiddies will get to wear something that they helped create.

[Tania Ho]

Very cute colours, I especially like how Misty Garden is turning out to be :)

[Jennifer]

The girls did a fabulous job!

[mimi]

Sounds so much fun! I am sure your girls will have this day in their memory when they grow up! ;)

[Sue]

You make it sound so easy, I wish we got Kool Aid in Australia and I could do that with my daughter. I love the colors of both yarns, and I am sure that the knitted scarf and mittens will turn out beautiful, as does all your knitting.

[erin]

I love both the colours. Now your girls will have their own pretty hand dyed accessories to wear, that's so special.

[handknit168]

The girls will love the FO which are dyed by them. Do they love knitting?

[marjorie]

Both colors are so pretty. You must show us in our next meetup

[lauraytt]

well, one things for sure...:) ur kids inherited a lot of craftiness from mummy. They choose great color combos! :)

[Veronique]

What a great project to do with your daughters, so much fun for them to choose their special colors! I have got to try this myself, even though it sounds a bit messy. That “Misty Garden” pattern looks really lovely, I must give it a try, since the weather here is starting to call for yet another scarf!

[Chrissy]

I love the colors you got! I've got some natural colored yarn, and I think I might try to do similar colors. They look like they'd be awesome for fall.

[rohankitter]

Both of those look really pretty. It's amazing you got that from just regular old Kool-aid. The girls did a great job!

[Shumei]

How do you get Knitpick to send yarn to Hong Kong?

[Nanc]

What a great project with the girls! Let me know if you would like some more Lemonaid packets or any other flavors/colors. It's so quick and cheap to get here in the States, that I wouldn't mind sending some off, in friendship.

I love that they each have a ball of their own yarn to pick a project. Such fun!