Dyeing with Kool Aid

Kool Aid as a dye intrigues me. Kool Aid has many pleasing properties when mixed with sugar as a drink. But I never knew it could be used for dyeing purposes until I started researching a bit into the fiber world.

Each color of Kool Aid will produce a differing hue on yarns. One "color chart" of Kool Aid colors is shown in the picture at the left. It comes from this site.

I decided to dye some hand spun wool to see how it might work up. Of course, I Googled various sites and came up with this information from Knitpicks:

Getting started dyeing with drink mixes: All you need is a microwave, a selection of unsweetened powdered drink mixes, canning jars or microwave safe glass containers and small skeins of yarn. To get your yarn ready, wash it lightly in mild soap and then let it soak in the sink while you mix up your solutions.

Mix up your solutions: A good rule of thumb is 2 packages of unsweetened drink mix per 50 grams of yarn. Empty your packages of drink mix into your microwave-safe dish with some water. Stir to dissolve. Add your yarn and enough water to cover it. Heat and set your color. Zap your yarn-filled dish for two minutes. Let the yarn rest for a few minutes, then zap it again for another two minutes. Continue this process until the yarn takes up most of the color leaving the water nearly clear.

Finish your yarn:Let the yarn cool in the container. Then, rinse it thoroughly in water the same temperature as the yarn. Wash the yarn in mild soap, rinse again and let dry.

Ok, so after reading the above, I decided to do the dyeing in a simpler manner. I decided that blue would be a safe color, because any hue would turn out to be satisfactory for coloring wool. Here is how I did the dyeing:

1) Wet the yarn thoroughly (uncolored wool in picture at right);

2) Dissolve two packages of Berry Blue Kool Aid in about 2 qts. of boiling water;

3) Let the yarn soak in the Kool Aid for about 30 minutes. All the colored water is absorbed by the yarn, and the water has just a hint of blue left in it since all the blue dye is absorbed by the wool.

4) I put about a cup of vinegar in the rinse water, then wrung the rinse water out of the yarn;

5) Final step: I drained the yarn in a colander and let it set out to dry thoroughly.

The resulting yarn was a very nice blue! I can use it for scarf-making in the fall. And the whole process took less than an hour.