Those who know me, understand that I like to challenge myself when it comes to creating things. I was never one to just do what was simple, but yet more intricate and/or time consuming projects. I can remember in high school, in my advanced art class, I decided to do a paper sculpture project. It's where you have a picture or a drawing, and then you cut out pieces of paper or illustration/poster board in all the shapes you find in the drawing. Once you get your pieces you start to build the drawing by scultping the peices and layering them on top of each other so that in the end it becomes more 3 dimensional on top of a board. It really is a work of art, and a time consuming one at that. I think that project took me nearly 9 weeks to complete and many cuts on my hands from the exacto knife. Once I finished it my teacher convinced me to enter it into the Scholastics Art Competition where I later won a Silver Key. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself.
So along with the intricate time consuming things I have found that I love to do, lately I have found the art of Fair Isle knitting. For those who don't knit, it's when you use multiple colors to weave or knit a pattern into the work. Usually you would use 2 colors per row interchanging to make the pattern. You can use as many colors you would like, but not all of them within one row. It may sound complicated, and at first I thought it might have been, but once I got started it became very easy to minipulate.
Now of course before I got started on my little project, I had to find the yarn and the colors. Once before I had ordered some lace yarn from an online source called Knitpicks. While I haven't quite knitted that yarn, I still liked the look and the feel of it. It was pretty reasonably priced and although the shipping time was a little long, I figured by the time I finished one project my shipment would be on it's way.
This time when ordering my yarn I decided to do something a little fun. I had seen over and over a dying technique that was easy and non-toxic. Oh and by the way, cheep!!! You can use regular household items that you can still use to cook with later on. Now what is it you ask is used to dye the yarn?? Kool-Aid.... Yup, you use kool-aid packets to dye the yarn. The trick is, you use all natural fibers. Like wool, alpaca, cotton... you get the idea. You can still use yarns that may have a synthetic blend along with the natural fibers, but those synthetic fibers won't take well to dye. Which if you want something a little more interesting could very well give you a great look. The other ingredient is water. Nothing else!! Most dye's require you to use vinegar because of the acids, but kool-aid is so acidic you don't need anything else. The other nice thing is the palette of colors you can purchase. you can mix colors to make different one's or you can use just the straight color provided.
Now the colors you see here are basic one's. The kool-aid packets are blue moon berry mixed with lemonade, blue moon berry by itself, orange, lemonade mixed with one that is concidered one of their surprise flavors, and last is lemonade. The rule of thumb is to use 2 packets of kool-aid per 50 grams of yarn. But if you want a more saturated color obviously use more. All of these I used the 2 packet rule besides the second color, I used probably 4 packets per 50rm weight. The yarn that I used was a bare wool, no color to it, and the hanks were about 246 yards/ 100gr weight. There are two methods of dye. If you are doing smaller hanks of yarn say about 100 yards, you can use the microwave method. Anything larger use the stovetop. Trust me, it's easier if you have large amounts to cook it on the stove.
Here's what you will need to do both methods:
- kook-aid packets
- water
- mild soap to wash yarn
- containers to dye the yarn in
- drying rack or something so that you can hang your yarn to dry
For both methods you need to wash your yarn. Preferrably wash it in the sink using a mild non-sudsing soap. I used dreft as it doesn't suds nearly as bad as others, or you can always use a linen was or even a wool wash if you are able to find it. While your yarn is sitting in the water, start getting your kool-aid and such prepared with their respective containers for whichever method you use.
- Microwave method: after you put the yarn in the containers (don't wring the water out, just let it drain out a bit), put in the zapper and zap in 2 minute intervals until all of the color is soaked up by the yarn. In between each zap, let the yarn sit in the microwave for about 1.5 minutes. Once the yarn has soaked up all the color, let it cool in the container. I just let mine cool till about room temp so it is easy for me to handle.
- Stove-top method: For this one you are going to mix the color in your pot. I used a large one and filled it about half way with water. Next you are going to bring the water just to boiling point mixing every so often to make sure the color is even throughout the water. (We have not put the yarn in yet!!!) After you have brought just to a boil, let it sit for about a half hour, again stirring the color around. 30 minutes up... Now is the time to put your yarn in. Again, do not wring out the yarn just let it drain a little. If you do not have enough water, just add more so that it covers the top of the yarn. From this point, you will just let the yarn sit in the pot until it cools, again to about room temp. Make sure you try carefully to stir the yarn in the pot so that it can get as much available color as possible.
Now once your yarn has cooled, carefully put in sink and wash it again. Make sure the water is the same temp as the yarn as not to start felting the yarn. Trust me, I almost did that will the bulk of my yarn!! You will never get it apart if you do.... After you wash the yarn, make sure you rinse it thoroughly so that there is no color coming out. Which when i did it, I didn't have any color rinsing out. Now all you do is hang to dry. It will take a couple of days maybe even a few for it to dry depending upon how much you have dyed.
I wish I could say once the yarn has dried, you can start knitting it. But you do have to wind it up so that it is workable. I'll save that for a later date to teach you a great method.
Now I would like to share with you what I have started on using my dyed yarn.
It's going to be a snuggle sack for a baby!! I got the pattern from a great blog site www.purlbee.com. Oh that site it just wonderful with what they have. So many great patterns for a bunch of things.
I am getting close to finishing the color work part of it, and then I'll be into the main color. I'm pretty excited to get it finished and hope that it is soon. So far I think this has been my favorite knitting project yet, along with the many I have started but not finished. I can really see myself dying more yarn and making more fair isle treasures in the future.
