Easy Dyeing with Kool-Aid!

A couple of weeks ago I got the bug to do a little yarn dyeing.  Now, I have an extensive history in dyeing with a variety of materials, but the one thing I haven't done yet is dye with Kool-Aid.  I had a beautiful skein of farm-raised Cormo, that I purchased on Etsy, that was just waiting for something special to be done with it.  I went to my local safeway and picked up 4 packets of Kool-Aid in Cherry, Grape and Fruit Punch flavors. (The only ones they had.) I wanted to make gradient yarn and found many awesome tutorials on the interwebs. Here's my step by step:

First I wound my skein into a cake and found 4 mason jars to make my gradient dye pots.

Next I pulled the center out of the cake 3 times, keeping the yarn attached.  I ended up winding the out skein on the winder again because it was too big to fit in my jar. (Maybe bigger jars next time?) Then I empties the grape packet into the far right jar and the Cherry packet into the far left jar.  I then empties 3/4 of the grape packet into the second from the left jar, and the remaining 1/4 packet into the jar to the left of it.  I did the reverse with the fruit punch. 

I boiled some water in my tea kettle and added it to the Kool-Aid jars.  I thought I had put in enough to cover the yarn and then stirred it. 

I shoved the balls of yarn into the jars and quickly realized that I hadn't added enough water. (See the white yarn?) I tried to add more water, but the dye had already migrated into the yarn and out of the water.  Oh well, I was pretty sure it would still look cool.

I pulled the balls of yarn out of the water as soon as it was cool enough to touch.  See how the water is clear?  Pretty crazy right?! 

I squeezed as much water out of the little bundles of yarn and placed them in a dish to dry. My hands smelled so much like Kool-Aid that I ended up feeling pretty nostalgic for my childhood.

I wound it down the next morning, even though it was a little damp still. I probably should have waited because it was a little challenging, but look at this awesome gradient cake!!

I took the yarn to the beach and cast on while sitting in the sand on a gorgeous Oregon Spring day.

2 days later!  I couldn't stop knitting this cute little sweater as I watched the yarn change colors.

The white speckles look kinda cool!

So there you have it!  250 yards of Kool-Aid dyed awesomeness!  The pattern is in threes: a baby cardigan by Kelly Herdrich. I had so much fun doing this that I'm going to host a Kool-Aid dye day at the shop on Saturday, June 11!