Monday, January 26, 2009

I Dyed Merino Wool Yarn with Kool Aid!

I started out with Patton's classic wool merino, 3.5 oz/100 grams of worsted weight yarn in "Aran"



The turorial called for 2 pkgs of kool-aid for every 50 grams on yarn, so I started with 4



I prewashed the wool with Johnson & Johnson's origional baby shampoo in tepid water. Wet wool stinks.



I mixed the Kool Aid with 2 cups of tepid water while the wool soaked.




I added the wet wool and enough water to cover the wool.



I microwaved the wool in 2 minute intervals until the color was completely absorbed into the wool.




I let the wool cool, decided it needed more color, and added 3 more packs of Kool Aid to a cup of tepid water, mixed it and added to the yarn and repeated the microwave process.

It absorbed all 3 pkgs of color

I let the wool cool again in the bowl full of water. While the wool was cooling, Xavian stirred it with a spaghetti spoon. Keep children and speghetti spoons away if you are doing this.
After it had cooled, I dumped the bowl back into the sink and rinsed in water the same temp as the wool.

I washed the wool with a teaspoon of J&J origional baby shampoo again.

I then rinsed the wool with tepid water, and pressed out the excess water.
Here is the tangled wool drying on the counter with a skien of yarn the same color I started out with:
After much cursing and letting the wool dry by the fire while I untangled it, here is my finished product!
This is going to make adorable shorties for Saxton this summer!
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2 comments:

carla said...

It turned out great! And I bet it smells better now, too. :)

If you continue to dye, it will help a lot to skein the yarn on a niddy noddy first and tie it in several places -- then you won't have to deal with those tangles.

VSJensen said...

i was googling dyeing yarn, thank you so much! that's a great tip, thanks for the link, too! :)