Kool Aid Dyeing Tutorial

My wonderful sister was nice enough to let me take pictures of the dyeing process so here we go...First off the things we needed were: A bowl to soak the yarn in, a Pyrex dish that fit in my microwave, yarn and 12 packs of no sugar added Kool Aid. Not shown are the 12 little Dixie cups we used to mix up the dye in.





Soak the yarn in COLD water. Hot water could encourage the yarn to felt and felting in this project is BAD. While your yarn is soaking fill the Dixie cups with one dye packet each. My sister has a nice little system going as you can see.





Now fill the cups with about two tablespoons of water each and stir.


Take your yarn out of the soaking bowl and wring it carefully. Then lay it in the Pyrex pan and now the fun starts!






Now gently pour or liberally dump as your design demands. My sister had an idea in mind and didn't want any white showing so she carefully laid down each color and smooshed it with her fingers to ensure the dye made it all the way through. (Next time rubber gloves might be in order.)





Here is the yarn all ready to be nuked. Isn't it lovely? And look sis has fingers to match her yarn! :)






Here is the yarn in the microwave. You want to nuke it for two minutes at a time. You don't want the yarn to boil yet you need the yarn hot enough to absorb all the dye.






You are looking for this cloudy stuff. The water never really runs clear because of all the powder. It will look like this. Now let your yarn cool. It is very hot so use GREAT caution when checking it.





Now that it is completely cooled the yarn goes back in a cold water bath.





More gentle smooshing to get all the powder out. The water should run clear and not be cloudy when you are done.





Isn't it beautiful! :)





Here she is all wound up and ready to be made into something lovely! My sis had fun making her and I hope you enjoy your Kool Aid dyeing too!

Happy crafting,

Ruinwen