My Initial Foray into Kool-Aid Dyeing

As promised, here is my first attempt at Kool-aid dyeing. I had a skein of Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, and I wanted to practice the art of combining fruitiness with wet wool before subjecting my friends to said activity. So, I went to the store and bought some Kool-aid:

For the record, didn't Kool-aid used to be 8 packets for $1? Now it's only 4...so that is $5 worth of Kool-aid. Even worse, they've discontinued the blue, which is going to severely hamper my attempts to make teal/blue/green yarn...but I digress.

Then I choose my colors (right) and mixed them with some water. At this point they looked really intense, so I figured I was on the right track...

I laid out my yarn in a loose skein, after soaking it in some lukewarm water for a few minutes (probably not long enough, I got impatient). Then I started putting on the dye, lighter colors first, until I had this lovely color combo. Following this I wrapped the whole mess up in Saran-wrap and put it in my colander over some boiling water for 30 minutes, then rinsed it and hung it in the shower to dry. This is what I ended up with:

Overall I'm pretty happy with it, although I wish the colors were a bit more intense. I've learned that I needed a lot more Kool-aid to get bright colors, but this was a fun experiment and I'm looking forward to doing it again. The whole operation was remarkably fast. I used a turkey baster to apply the color, but something with a smaller orifice would be better for controlling where the color went. Or a lighter touch - as I said before I got a little impatient, wanting to be done so I could see how it went! I'll post pictures of a swatch as soon as I make one, but the yarn is still a tad damp so I don't want to wind it just yet...