I've wanted to try dyeing yarn for a long time (among so many other crafty things!) and I've just recently made my first steps. It all began with a bunch of orange yarn gathered for me by my wonderful Mom from an estate sale in Arizona. It looked like this:
While I like orange in principle, I was having a hard time picturing an entire item made out of heathered orange yarn. The solution? Kool-aid!
You can see a swatch of the original orange yarn in the lower right corner. I tried dyeing a short length of the yarn with grape, black cherry, and lemon-lime Kool-aid. I was pleased with the warm brown I got with grape and the vibrant red that black cherry resulted in. I decided to make
Andrea's Shawl using the brown and red to show off the coordinating colors with some stripes. First some reskeining and then into the pot with you!
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| Re-skeining... |
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| Grape! It's amazing how quickly the yarn pulled in the dye and the water went from nearly opaque purple-blue to clear. |
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| Black Cherry! |
Now the yarn has been rinsed and dried and is hanging out in my knitting chair and slowly turning into a shawl:
While I like orange in principle, I was having a hard time picturing an entire item made out of heathered orange yarn. The solution? Kool-aid! 
You can see a swatch of the original orange yarn in the lower right corner. I tried dyeing a short length of the yarn with grape, black cherry, and lemon-lime Kool-aid. I was pleased with the warm brown I got with grape and the vibrant red that black cherry resulted in. I decided to make Andrea's Shawl using the brown and red to show off the coordinating colors with some stripes. First some reskeining and then into the pot with you!
