March 12, 2005
KoolAid Dyeing with Cotton Thread
I got so enthused about trying to dye my own yarn, I went ahead and bought the thread without reading through all the disclaimers that cotton can't be dyed with KoolAid. Or, according to some websites, it can, just not as well.
I asked Marvie to bring me some Kool-Aid packets when we met up in Karlsruhe last weekend. She hooked me up! I was expecting 2-3 packets, she gave me about 20! (Thanks again Marvie!)
Well, after trying one package of a lime green on some yarn and having it turn out just slightly green - more of a green tinge - I decided to try two packages of Berry Blue with less water on the next round. It looked GREAT in the water. I let it simmer on the stove for about an hour and then let it cool for about an hour. And then, just because I couldn't stand the green tinge, I put that in there too. A LOT of the color faded when I rinsed the thread out, but I thought it would be ok.
Well, this is what I woke up to this afternoon (I slept in late - catching up from this stressful week):
Disappointing. Okay, I have to get out of the house before the yarn stores close and try to find wool yarn to dye. Oh, and those things called groceries. My fridge is tired of cooling the condiments and moldy lettuce. Yum.
Looks like what happened during my DD's experiment. We tried 100% wool, 100% cotton, 100% acrylic, a 50%cotton-50%acrylic, a 60%acrylic-20% wool and 100% nylon.
The only ones that really worked were the ones with wool and the nylon. Those are the ones that have protien in them and the food dye will bond with it. But in the case of the nylon it gave a totally different color.
We used Swithcin' Secret on the wool and nylon (it is a dark green Kool-Aid) and it turned the wool olivey and the nylon gold! Go figure. Lol.
We also hand washed each yarn after dying to see what would happen. The acrylic and the mixed acrylic/cotton became white again. The 100% cotton just fded and got even more splotchy. No change at all with the other two.
I am quickly finding out that the dyeing can become very addicting!
If you are looking for wool to play with Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool works well with the dye and it is inexpensive. I won't move on to the more costly stuff until I have my method of madness down.
Whew this is a long post!
Posted by: K. Anne at March 23, 2005 07:14 PM