I Dyed!

Or, Kool-Aid is Fun!

Yesterday was the big Kool-Aid dyeing project, courtesy of Kristen. Check out this post for a rundown of what she sent me a couple of weeks ago. I finally got around to making a mess in my kitchen yesterday with this.

Knitty has the instructions here for doing this. Check that out for details; what I’ve written here is just a brief rundown. If you do a Google search for “kool-aid dyeing” you will get other resources as well. John helped me with the photo shoot.

 

First I washed the yarn in mild soap and water, then rinsed and left it to soak in water while I was getting everything else ready. Kristen was nice enough to put the yarn in two separate skeins and tie them for me. I decided to do one color rather than a handpainted look.  After a little experimenting on bits of yarn, I chose Strawberry.

 

I actually added a bit of red food coloring, as I had a very vibrant strawberry in mind. You can use the dyes that are made for cake decorating as well, and these come in a wider variety of colors.

 

After you get the yarn in the Kool-Aid, you either put it in the microwave or on the stove and heat not quite to the boiling point, stirring a couple of times to make sure all the yarn is under the water.

 

Take it out of the microwave and let it cool, again stirring a few times. Wash again in mild soapy water, rinse, and dry. Be careful not to manhandle the yarn too much, or to shock it with different temperatures of water, or you will have a big felted wet strawberry.

 

Here is the finished yarn, ready to knit when my fingers start to cooperate.

 

You might notice something missing in this photo. Yes, the splint is gone, as of yesterday. I got a good report card from both my OT and my surgeon, and am now starting to work on range of motion and strengthening in earnest.

I also received some lovely gifts in the mail from my sister Diane today. You can tell that a warped sense of humor obviously runs in our family. The glasses are plastic, of course, to prevent further injury the next time we head off over the hills to the neighbors’ house to share wine.

 

And a closeup of the authentic crown:

 

Yes, that’s Riley licking her butt in the background. I didn’t notice it until it was up here, and I’m not doing it over. At least I have a puppy picture, so I won’t get kicked out of the Purling Puppy Webring.

Author: Lorette

My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog!

19 thoughts on “I Dyed!”

  1. you’re family has the same sense of humour as mine, plastic glasses – how perfect! and the photo of riley is a classic – i would have put that in even if you had of noticed it in advance.

  2. Congratulations on getting rid of the split! And the yarn looks great, too . . . sounds like a good day to me!

  3. Less hardware is good. Congratulations on your hard therapy work… more to come. Nice looking strawberry yarn.

  4. Look how cute you are! I don’t recall seeing a picture of you before.
    Be careful with the dyeing…it can be addictive. As for the puppy, I recommend Abode Photoshop Elements 3. A few clicks of the mouse and unwanted items disappear from one’s pictures. Magic!

  5. Welcome back – it’s so good to hear from you again. Thanks for the link to Knitty. I’ve been wanting to try the Kool-aid thing, but wasn’t sure where to start. And as for the puppy picture – nah , leave it. We dog owners understand! It reminds me of the credits in Shrek II.

  6. Yay! The splint is off!!! Way to go.
    I’m avoiding the dye thing right now, cause I can tell it is rather addictive. I love the color you got with your yarn. What are you going to make with it?

  7. Congrats on the splint’s departure! You got great color with your dye experiment. I can dye all day with regular dyes, but I get nuthin’ but mud with koolaid… maybe I should stop trying to Rainbow dye and just do one color!

  8. Isn’t Kool-Aid dyeing fun? Congrats on being splint-less…it doesn’t seem like it took that long!

  9. I haven’t tried dying yet but want to one of these days. Your yarn came out great! Congrats on getting the splint off. I hope you can knit again soon!

  10. What a color and you look ‘in the pink’. Love seeing your hand again and hope PT goes well. Your sister is so smart to send plastic glasses and we always knew that ‘you rule’!!

  11. WooHooooo! No splint. Hooray for you.
    That Kool-aid thing looks like way too much fun. I’m already addicted to knitting, knitting blogs and diet coke. Kool-aid dying may have to become addition #4.
    So happy that you’re splint-less.

  12. Ok, love the kool-aid yarn! I have been meaning to make the dyed sweater from stitch n’ bitch, but its been put on the back burner! What kind of yarn did you start with?! I will have to print out those knitty instructions.
    Awesome job!

  13. There’s no progress like forward progress! That is a major milestone. I really like your sister’s sense of humor.

  14. My family would do the same thing! I cut myself very badly a few years ago while cutting frozen butter (yes, idiotic) and I got dozens of safety scissors and plastic knives and recipes with “butter (thawed please)” in the list of ingredients. I’m glad you are healing well.

  15. LOL If only you knew how many pictures I had to delete because of some heinous dog activity in the background! Fantastic dye job; you turned out a very pretty color. I’ve never tried it before but you make it look quite easy.

  16. Oh Wow the splint is gone! Here I sat for a minute thinking, “Oh, Carpel tunnel sucks!”. Then after I saw the plastic wine glasses I remembered what really happened. My boss has a similar sense of humor. Hubby and I both work at the same place and he’s always teasing us with ” Hey watch it or I’ll give your hours to your wife(husband)!” lol…
    The yarn looks great. Addicted yet? I can’t find my big microwavable bowl or I’d be back in business myself. And the puppy is adorable! I was wondering what she was doing in there :)) too hilarious.
    ThangQ for stopping at BeanKnit… I’m gonna be adding you back.

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