Kool-Aid Dyeing

 When I saw my friend, Sue, the other week she showed me some things that she had dyed with Kool-Aid.  I was intrigued and she sent me information on how to do it.  Yesterday when the weather was rainy, I thought I would give it a try.  I have some Lopi wool in a boring beige and I was able to transform it into the lovely pink wool in the photo.

I started with a pack of unsweetened cherry Kool-Aid which I dissolved in water in a casserole that is about 13" x 9" by 3" deep. Originally I was going to heat it in the microwave but the dish seemed just a bit too big so I used the stove top instead.  The casserole is original Corning Ware that can even be used on the stove top. As a little aside, this kind of Corning Ware, that used to be readily available and then wasn't produced for several years, is now available again at Canadian Tire. It is labelled as Pyroceram under the Corning Ware brand.  Maybe I'll rave about it in another post, but now I'll get back to Kool-Aid dyeing. I filled the casserole about 2/3 full of warm water , unwound the ball of wool and gently placed it in the water pushing it down with a big spoon. It's important to use real wool as acrylic won't take up the dye.  I heated it gently on medium low until the water began to steam and then I turned off the heat and let it sit for about an hour, giving it a gentle prod now and again with the spoon.  By then the water was just about clear, so I drained it off and gave the wool a couple of rinses with lukewarm water.  I squeezed out as much water as I could with the wool wrapped in a terry towel and set it out to dry. I'm very pleased with the results.  You can see the before and after in the photo above. It is supposed to be colourfast and, of course, non-toxic.