A Bluestocking Knits

Red and White

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The Mora mittens have a cast-on detail in red wool, so yesterday I wound off about 20 yards of the wool and dyed it with a packet of Black Cherry Kool-Aid.  I admit that I was hoping it would have a little more purple in the red, but the result is still a beautiful, intense color, and will look very handsome against the white mittens.

I've put a new album in the side-bar to keep a record of my dyeing experiments — I must say, it's quite fun, watching the wool change, and it was so interesting that I got out a bit of leftover crewel wool and did a "kettle-dye" experiment with a packet of Lemonade …

2 responses to “Red and White”

  1. Toffeeapple Avatar
    Toffeeapple

    I had to look up Kool Aid – apparently one can use it to dye one’s hair! And people drink it?!

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  2. Jeanne Avatar
    Jeanne

    T, yes, it’s a sweet fruit (flavored) drink mix. On the plus side, the strong dyes combined with the citric acid make Kool-Aid surprisingly perfect for dyeing natural fibers – apparently citric acid acts as a fixative, so those who (like me) are just playing around with small-batch home dyeing don’t need a separate mordant, or even special equipment.
    Citric acid isn’t nearly as lethal as it sounds, and in fact is found naturally in many fruits and vegetables, especially citrus. Weirdly, it also apparently makes an excellent limescale remover and water softener – I recently bought a cleaner for our dishwasher, since our local water is extremely hard, and discovered that this cleaner is almost 100% citric acid!
    It was probably only a matter of time that people would figure out that if Kool-Aid dyes wool it will also dye your hair! It’s inexpensive (pennies for one packet), and comes in a range of colors, which can in turn be combined in different ways for different results. My modest experiments are only the tip of the iceberg!
    http://www.dyeyouryarn.com/kool-aid.html

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