kool aid wool

I dyed some wool tonight, using koolaid. It was super easy, and I think it turned out pretty cool. My sister-in-law won some wool in an auction and gave it to me. The brown is a 50/50 wool and mohair mix, and was pre-dyed a charcoal colour. The red is 70% wool/mohair and 30% angora, and was it's natural beige colour. The orange was also unprocessed, and is 100% angora.

 

kool

nice colours

 

hahaha i used to use kool aid to dye my hair in high school...
that looks really cool

 

can you wash stuff died in cool aid?

 

that orange looks great

 

beautiful!

i've done kool aide dyeing and the colour seems to be pretty permenant. i met a lady who dyed some wool with koolaid mixed with coffee and the colors were just wonderful!

kathy

 

someone please tell me - what's koolaide???!

 

Kool aid is an unsweetened powdered drink mix that is very colourful. When I was a kid, i often had a "kool aid smile", meaning, a purple or red or green coloured ring around my mouth from drinking the stuff.

Different flavors have different colours. For example, for the red yarn, i used the strawberry flavour, and half a packette of a peach flavor. Raspberry is blue in colour... lime is green, grape is purple... and so on.

It's important that it is unsweetened, because the sugar would get gummy when heated and make the yarn/wool a yucky mess.

 

it makes yer poo colored too...
just adding my 2 cents in here...lol

 

nice colors, how did you do it?

 

those colors look great together

 

i soaked the wool in warm water with a little bit of dish soap in it. Rinsed it, and then soaked the wool again, for about 30 minutes. Then, I mixed the koolaid up using 2oz vinegar and 6oz of water for each packette of koolaid. Brought the koolaid up to a almost boil, added the squeezed out yarn skein, and reduced the temp to a very slow simmer. Let it soak, stirring to keep the yarn immersed (you can also add more water at this stage without it affecting the colour). Aftr 45 minutes, the water will be clear (dye absorbed by the yarn). Let it sit until cool enough to handle, and rinse it in the same temp of water (avoid 'shocking' the yarn or you'll end up with felt!). Hang to dry.

The orange is one pack of orange and 1/2 pack of peach. The red was strawberry and the other half of the peach. The brown was originally charcoal coloured, but i overdyed it with Black Cherry, orange and peach. The idea is to use one pack of koolaid for every once of wool.

 

omg i had no idea u could do that groovy toos!