Continuing the Kool-Aid Saga

Kool-Aid yarn number two came out even nicer than number one, partially, I'm sure, because I much prefer saturated colors to pastels.

But what the heck to do with my masterpieces?

If Kate wasn't allergic to wool, I would probably have knit her something from it. She did drool just a wee bit over it. But it's 100% wool and kinda scratchy to boot. She's a friend, and I can't have her itching to death.

Then I remembered a vest I'd seen at one of the Yarn Quest stores; a vest I'd liked enough that I'd actually spent $5 on buying a copy of the pattern even though it would have cost $80 to knit using the suggested bulky alpaca yarn.

Hmmm... Maybe if I knit with strands of both yarns held together it might be bulky enough. Added advantage: knitting it with two different skeins should break up any potential pooling or striping.

Sounded good, so I knit a swatch. The gauge came out to about four stitches per inch instead of three, so I cast on 33% more stitches to compensate and away I knit.

And knit some more.

I really like the way the fabric came out; the colors meshed better than I'd anticipated. It sure as heck doesn't look like it was dyed with something as fluorescent as Kool-Aid.


I'm the queen of cutting it close. I ran out of the lighter yarn half way through casting off, so I spit spiced the other end of the dark yarn to the tail end of the light yarn and bound off with that doubled. After I sewed the side seams, I had all of about five feet of yarn left. (And, yes, I did hyperventilate more than a little while finishing up.)

Once the object was finished, it went onto the back of the best (and most obliging) model ever for documenting.

She even wore her own top secret sun glasses so I didn't have to Photoshop them in.
(Thanks KC, you're a pip!)

Lesson's learned:

• If you cast on 33% more stitches, you'd darn well better have more than 10% over the suggested yardage to start with.
• Holding one's breath and crossing all appendages can help.
• If I do it again with doubled worsted weight, I will cast on 200 stitches, go down one needle size in the middle section, make all of the sections a little bit longer, and have lots more yarn to start with -- say at least 66% over what's called for of both yarn strands.

Dried and Still Saturated

I like this darker dye job better than the pastel one from last month, but if I do it again will use still more packets of Kool-Aid. The one area that I thought might be insufficiently covered, where I added the impromptu purple grape, was not covered. Ah well, dye and learn. I will use maybe 20 or so packets of Kool-Aid next time, make the brown with food coloring and orange Kool-Aid and reinforce the blue. I'll also use a chopstick to gently smish the yarn around to increase the mechanical penetration of the edible dyestuffs.

Of course, the real test of the dye jobs' success will be in the knitting. Cross fingers.

The Blue Took

Drained the water off, rinsed and rolled it in an old towel to dry a bit.
Cross fingers that the color stays as intense once it's all the way dry.

Kool-Aid Dye Job #2

This time I used a skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in Oatmeal shade instead of the creamy colored Natural and used a lot more Kool-Aid and food coloring. In fact, I was so generous with my sprinkling that I ran out of blue and green and used purple up one side of the second layer.

I did the first layer much as previously: poured a long "S" of brown food coloring from lower right to upper left corner and sprinkled two packs of orange Kool-Aid over top of it. Instead of straight blue Kool-Aid, I used blue food coloring diluted with white vinegar (and a pack of blue Kool-Aid thrown in for good measure) to outline the brown on one side and sprinkled green Kool-Aidon the other. Then I flopped the second half of the yarn over top and sprinkled on the rest of my blue and green Kool-Aid, for a total of two packets orange, six blue and five green.

Whereupon I decided I needed more colorant and mixed up some green food coloring with vinegar and poured it over the lower left quadrant. And decided it still looked a little scant and added two packs of purple Kool-Aid up the left edge - 'cause I was all out of blue and green.

About a gallon of very hot water with two packs of yellow Kool-Aid added (for brightness) was poured over the mess in the Pyrex pan.
I gently smooshed everything down and stretched plastic wrap over the pan. Then on to the cement for cooking in the bright sunlight all afternoon.

Can't wait to see how this skein develops. Cross your fingers for the blue coming out okay, but I think it looks pretty good so far...
P.S. The Engineer's in Saudi Arabia this week, so I get to do messy stuff. ; ) Didn't really make any mess at all anyway, I forgot to use gloves and this was all the more colorful my fingers came out:

Experiments in Kool-Aid

A few years back, I had a teenage friend with chameleon hair. It was a constant surprise to see her because you never knew just what style - or color - her hair would be. One day purple ponytails, the next time green and curly, another day straight with pink and red stripes. Being naturally nosey, I asked her how she did it.

Kool-Aid.

I had a leftover big and boring skein of natural color wool and, as I was contemplating how to mutilate it in the most entertaining way, memories of chameleon hair came to me. So I surfed on over to Google and typed in "Kool-Aid dye yarn" - which came up with a mere 24,000 results. After reading a few of the more promising looking entries, I devised my color scheme. Next grocery store run, I stocked up on assorted flavors and colors of unsweetened Kool-Aid and got a box of gel food coloring for backup. Then I bided my time...

The problem, you see, in any colorful endeavor is the Engineer. He's just a wee bit anal retentive when it comes to project cleanliness. Whenever he's working on something in the house, the vacuum cleaner is sitting right next to him and he uses it constantly. Neither crumb nor grain of detritus escapes his radar sight. Every night after I cook dinner, he looks at the kitchen and announces that my middle name is "Mess." Imagine the high hysteria should he realize I was planning to dye something.

When The Engineer was out of town for several days, I used my yarn twaddler (alias: swift) to take the sacrificial yarn from its skein and turn it into a long hank. Using the two ends, I tied the yarn securely into a big loop.

Now, I've got to admit that the Engineer does have some basis for saying my middle name is mess, so I decided to do the potentially dirty deed outside on the picnic table instead of in the kitchen. If worse came to worse, the sun should eventually bleach any sins from the wood.

Following what I had garnered from the web, I soaked my yarn overnight in warm water with a bit of dish soap and rinsed it the following morning, being careful not to rub or squeeze it since it was not superwash. I boiled water in my big stainless steel pan and added a packet of yellow Kool-Aid and mixed up food coloring in a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar to make a brown color. I thought I would have more control mixing small drops of food coloring than I would with packets of Kool-Aid.

I placed my biggest Pyrex pan on the newspaper and garbage bag covered picnic table and arranged about half of the wet yarn in it, then I poured the food coloring in a long "S" shape over it. A couple packs each of blue and green Kool-Aid were sprinkled around the brown and some orange went right over the brown food coloring to brighten the color. I flopped the rest of the yarn into the pan, sprinkled it with my last few packets of blue and green Kool-Aid, then poured the hot water (with yellow Kool-Aid) over it. After stretching plastic wrap over the pan, I placed it on the cement in full sun to cook all day.
By the end of the day, the dye water was clear and the Pyrex pan was so hot I had to use pot holders to move it into the kitchen. Once it was cool enough to handle, I drained it, rinsed it, and squished the water out using an old towel. The wool was then draped over a wooden drying rack until thoroughly dry. I put it back over the yarn twaddler and made an oversized muffin out of it.

Final analysis: No mess was made, not even any stains on the towel - yay! hurray! Overall, the wool came out much lighter than I had expected. Very little of the blue Kool-Aid stayed in the wool, though the green, orange and brown did well. The colors were less neon than many web sites had warned to expect, more pastel.

I think it looks pretty darn good.