Adventures in Dyeing

While I'm at home and have some downtime, I figured that I would try new things. One of these things is dyeing yarn and I tried this a few days ago. Why do I feel the need to dye my own yarn? Your guess is as good as mine. Actually it sounded like a lot of fun and I found some tutorials where you can use household items and not have to buy expensive supplies to do so. After a trip to Jo Ann fabrics for some yarn and a grocery store for some kool aid (yes, kool aid), I was ready to go.



I decided to do dye everything outside on the picnic table in the backyard. This was just in case disaster struck and I got dye everywhere in the house. Besides, it was one of the first nice weather days of the year - in the 50's and sunny! That's nice for Michigan! Granted, a few days later, it ended up snowing. Go figure.

Anyway I got my supplies ready and started putting my dye into the yarn. I used lemon lime kool aid and lemonade kool aid. Kool aid works because there is citric acid in it (which sets the dye) and no sugar (which can cause problems with how you heat the yarn). After basically squirting the yarn with dye, I threw it into a ziploc bag and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes at a time . The heat also helps set the dye so that it, theoretically, won't bleed or lose the dye when washed.

Then I had to hang up the yarn to dry and kept it there for a day or two.



After this, I had to wind up the yarn into a ball so I could put it in a hank (third picture). I like the colors and think it turned out very well considering it's my first dye project! I think I'll make a hat out of it or something.