Ice dyeing with Kool-Aid

Rule #1: Wear gloves!

I became interested in ice dyeing after a presentation at the weaving guild by our resident expert. I am no expert, but it seems like part of the magic is getting colors in a dye to separate.

The simplest yarn dyeing I have found is with Kool-Aid (plain - without sweetener). The citric acid in the powder acts as a mordant for the food coloring. Some of the flavors are made up of a single color, so if you want to see colors separate, read the packages to make sure there is more than one color.

I've tried Kool-Aid dyeing with only wool, but I assume it will work with any protein fiber. As far as I know, it won't work with plant fibers like cotton, but perhaps after treating the cloth with soda ash? Verification of this concept is left to the student.

The yarn I chose for the first batch was some from an estate sale, of unknown source; it may even be handspun. I soaked it in water initially, to help with the absorbtion of the color. I laid it in a sieve so that it would not be resting in the melted dye bath.

Instead of covering the yarn with ice, then sprinkling Kool-Aid on the ice, I made ice cubes from barely diluted Kool-Aid.

I neglected to weigh the yarn and calculate just how much Kool-Aid I should use, so the colors are rather pale.

But the Grape colors - red and blue - did separate.

The Black Cherry Kool-Aid cubes went after the Grape. Black Cherry also consists of red and blue, but red (which is listed earlier on the ingredient list) is much more prominent.

The final step was to put the finished yarn inside a ziplock bag (leaving the bag open a bit to let steam escape) and zapping it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, turning the bag over halfway through.

While the colors are not vibrant, I like how they turned out.

What would one call this colorway? 'Muted Fruit Cocktail'?

So after Grape and Black Cherry came Orange and Lemonade. Orange is made up of red and yellow, the Lemonade is just yellow.

This time I used some commercial yarn, Hayfield Natural Wool DK, about 50g, divided into two smaller skeins. Again, I soaked it beforehand. One skein went into the sieve.

Since some of the dye in the first experiment ran through the yarn, leaving a puddle in the bowl below the sieve, I placed the other skein in the bowl to catch the excess color. It didn't work out quite like I expected.

By now I was out of Kool-Aid ice cubes, so I placed plain ice cubes on top of the yarn in the sieve and sprinkled them with the powdered Orange Kool-Aid. A package of Lemonade went into the bowl. Each skein was placed in a ziplock bag and zapped in the microwave for a minute.

What would you call these colorways? 'Koi 1' and 'Koi 2'? I think they would pair well with black.

Be aware that the yarn will smell like Kool-Aid once dyeing is complete. After rinsing the yarn in cold water, I made up a cold water bath using Unicorn Fibre Fibre Wash, to get the smell out.

I still have a package of Lemonade Kool-Aid, so I may dye another small skein with that at some later date, as a companion to the above skeins.

Indigo-go

A week or so ago, I attended another workshop on natural dyeing, this one including indigo. I've been a little obsessed with the idea of dyeing with indigo ever since I read Kay Gardner's post on shibori, a.k.a. resistant dyeing. Not so obsessed to actually try it, but obsessed just the same. At this workshop, we worked only with yarn, but I learned how to dye with indigo, so when the itch must be scratched, I am ready (as soon as I accumulate the necessary equipment and ingredients).

In the previous fiber dyeing workshops I have attended, we mordanted the yarn before dyeing. In this one, we learned a one-pot method whereby the mordant was added to the dye pot. Either way, the yarn must be soaked beforehand. The instructor supplied one-ounce skeins, enough for each of us to have five. (That's a lot of niddy-noddying!)

The first dye batches we did were marigold and cochineal. The former produced a golden mustard color. The latter initially resulted in coral rather than red, probably due to the fact the cochineal was wrapped in cheesecloth; when simply added to the dye bath, it produced a rich red.

Then it was time for the indigo. We had two pots going, one for blank yarn, one for overdyeing some of the already dyed yarn. Indigo is fussy, but magical. The dye bath looks greenish yellow, as does the yarn when first pulled out. But contact with oxygen in the air quickly turns the yarn blue, right before your eyes. If you are not satisfied with the shade of blue, the yarn can go back in the pot repeatedly.

I chose to overdye the coral skein and one of the mustard ones, the latter producing a lovely green.

The instructor also tried dyeing with some turmeric root that is now available at the local food co-op. It produced a pale yellow that I like better than the mustard gold.

Here are the class rsults: indigo on the left, then marigold overdyed with indigo, then cochineal overdyed with indigo, then the two shades obtained from the cochineal, and in the back the marigold.

I had to skidaddle at the end of class for grandma duty. While driving the g'daughter to my house, I told her what I had been doing all morning. Of course, she wanted to dye some yarn, too. So I dug out some blank sock yarn and Kool-Aid, and we dyed our own. Being four, she did not quite get what we were doing, but I hope I am planting seeds for the future.

Worth the wait

And worth the work.

Pattern: Prairie Blanket by Oat Couture
Yarn: KnitPicks Bare Superwash Merino Worsted Weight
Needles: US8
Modifications: Knit a rectangle instead of a square

I had purchased ten skeins of yarn, used part of one to test dye and swatch, then dyed up nine for the blanket. I knit the increasing portion of the blanket until I used up three skeins (and reached 223 stitches), then knit "even" - increasing on one end of the row while decreasing on the other end - until another three skeins was used, then knit the decreasing portion, using up almost all of the final three skeins. Finished size: approximately 59"x33".

I am very pleased with the results. The pattern is interesting enough to prevent boredom, even with the elongated middle, and I love the double border and bias design. Dyeing with KoolAid produced a variegated yarn, with subtle striping because some skeins had to be redyed. After a bath, the stitches plumped up for a wonderfully cushy feel.

It won't be long now

The KoolAid-dyed Prairie Blanket is nearing completion - yay! - just in time for the end of winter. It will help keep the AC chill off my granddaughter this summer, though.

The blanket is not green and my carpet is not orange. I just need to learn how to use the camera better. The striping is not so pronounced, either, but reflects the fact I had to redye some of the yarn. I'm not sure I am cut out to be a dyer, but using KoolAid is a fun and cheap way to find out.

Not according to plan

In the continuing saga of dyeing yarn with KoolAid, I took that pretty sample and knit a swatch in garter stitch.

That got me itchy to get going for real on the blanket. But first, I had to dye the rest of the yarn. In the name of efficiency, my first inclination was to try to dye it all at one time. Sanity prevailed, so instead I tried two skeins at a time. The results were less than stellar.

I used more KoolAid, to try to get a more saturated, more even color, but what I got was more variation, from very saturated to almost no color. There is still more yarn to dye, so I will try one skein at a time. Depending on the result, I will then maybe re-dye the above skeins.

To dye for

My daughter requested a new, bigger blanket for toddler N, who has outgrown the baby-sized ones I made. It would need to be washable, of course, and wool (wool is naturally flame resistant, plus it breathes), but I did not want to break the bank. So I purchased some undyed skeins from KnitPicks (my first purchase from them), with the plan of dyeing the yarn myself, using KoolAid.

(I keep typing "KookAid".)

An article on knitty provided the how-to and examples of what each flavor might look like. My daughter chose the Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, but I decided it might be prudent to work up a sample. It's really simple.

First, I measured out one ounce of yarn.

Not a bowl of spaghetti

Washed the yarn.

The casserole dish is sitting on a burner but not over a flame

Mixed one package of unsweetened KoolAid into water in a pot.

Blue lagoon

Added the yarn and heated it all to almost a boil.

Blue spaghetti

Let sit for 30 minutes, then rinsed and washed the yarn.

Smells like KoolAid

Ta-da!

The color, while very pretty, is uneven in saturation, which my daughter likes but is something to keep in mind for future adventures in dyeing. Once the yarn is dry, I am going to knit up a swatch for this pattern: Prairie Blanket by Oat Couture.