Look at my new hobby!!!!!

Wow what fun! When I first heard that Vigdis was dyeing yarn with kool-aid, I thought, yuck, what a mess and why would you want to do that? Then our WhoDuKnit group is reading Died in the Wool this month and someone suggested that we dye our own yarn with kool-aid and then knit something neat with it. Well, I thought, it sounded simple enough, just sounded messy and messy I don't like. But, I'd give it a try. I ordered some wool from Knitpics and bought some kool-aid, grape, orange, lemon-lime, and cherry. Here's a photo of what I started with:

The only thing not shown is the rubber gloves, the small bowls and the plastic wrap. The first hank, I used all four colors in their own places on the yarn.

I think it turned out nice and will make a very nice scarf, at least that is the plan for it.

Then, my plans for the next hank was to sprinkle dye it. Now that was fun, just puting the sprinkles anywhere I wanted to and mixing the colors to get more colors.



And here are both hanks hanging to dry on the back porch:


Now, let me ask you, did you see a lot of mess in the kitchen? The answer would be no. I put a towel over the stove, since the microwave hangs over the stove. The bowls of mixed up kool-aid sat on the counter to the left of the stove with huge syringes in them. On the first hank, as I colored a section, I would lift that section out of the pyrex dish and put it in a small plastic bowl so that my next color would not mix with the first, then kept shifting each section into bowls until all four colors were done. I baked each hank in the microwave, rinsed, rung it out and put it out to dry on the porch. The only mess there was, were a few drops of kool-aid on the towel from the syringes. I used an old towel so it didn't matter anyway. Nothing on the counter, floor, walls or even on the shirt I was wearing.
I think I have found a new fun hobby. I can just imagine what colors I can come up with by mixing kool-aid colors together. I may never have to buy yarn at the store again...lol. Just imagine being able to say "I hand dyed the yarn for that handbag myself, or that shawl, or that scarf. Just think of the options. It is so much cheaper than the yarn at the LYS too....lol. That's bad, don't let Joan see this...lol. But, then I can start selling her some of my hand dyed yarn...lol.