Dyeing with Kool-aid was the subject of May’s CyberPointers meeting. While I Have dyed with Kool-aid before, I hadn’t tried making variegated threads, so Julie L Baumler Heiner’s method was new to me. Dyeing animal protein yarns (wool, silk & wool/silk blends) with Kool-aid is easy, fun, and safe.
Unlike other kinds of dyes, most of which are toxic. Kool-aid is food and so it can be dyed using your regular household microwave, soaked in a mixing bowl, and even heated in a pasta bowl (although I bought one from the thrift shop for this.
The pictures throughout the article are some of the yarns I dyed. When wet, the color I liked the least (orange/green), muted and blended into something wonderful, autumnal, and muted when dry.
Colors in Kool-aid are not pure hues, so there are undertones in many of the colors that give unexpected results. The blue is a blue-green and mixed wonderfully with the bright green to create yarns that were vibrant in all values. Orange and a red when dyed together made the red really pop.
Dyeing on lightly colored yarns seemed to work better to get subtle colors. Kool-aid is not subtle. Dyeing straight from the package is not exact. Combine the two and you get inexact, bright results. Dye on a pastel yarn and the colors smooth out.
I know several people who dye commercially with Kool-aid and food dyes. This yarn, while it delights me, is definitely not ready for prime time. That will take more practice.
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