# kool-aid



## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

i just bought some packages kool aid to try my hands on dying. 
for you that have done it, are there any tips?
how color fast is the end product? 
i have two fleeces of east frisian. makes a lot to play with  
amazes me what some people give their kiddies to drink.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

It's been years since I played with Kool Aid (getting ready to play again).
The yarn I dyed is still nice and bright, maybe that's because I went ahead and used Vinegar even though many instructions say that one doesn't need to.
(I used the microwave)


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## hippygirl (Apr 3, 2010)

I've only dyed a few yards of LB fisherman's wool as a test. Where I tied the hank, I did so too tightly so I ended up with undyed areas where it was tied (didn't know any better...never dyed anything before).

As for the KA dying itself, it was VERY easy and the color turned out beautifully. Don't know how colorfast it is yet as I haven't tried to wash it.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

thanks for the reply 

just dyed some and it looks a bit pastelly even though i stayed just under an ounce per package. wondering if i can just repeat the procedure???
i added vinegar, just in case. i think i will knit some socks in bonbon colors )


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I can almost smell the yummy colors!


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

yup, pretty intense. my hands smell awful, not really yummy. i guess better then chemical dyes.


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

I have dyed E Friesian with koolaid- I love the way the fleece grabs up the color. Yours are beautiful and vibrant! If you add just a touch of purple to the orange, it makes it a richer orange- and so on- really fun to mix colors in dixie cups and see what you get.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

oh, thank you for the tip.
i guess i should take more time to dye. i did not soak the wool but will next time. i did not resolve the kool aid in boiling water either.
well, this was the first batch. more to follow. 
went out to hunt for green but could not find it. did not find the berry blue either. maybe i should look into wilton.


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## betty modin (May 15, 2002)

I use an old crock pot to dye with kool aid. I wet the yarn, put in the pot with the dissolved kool aid and plug it in. When the color is gone, the smell stays in the water. All I have to do is fish it out, rinse and hang to dry. Some of my things are still bright after years of use- and I felted some of them!
have fun-and it really does amaze me what some people think is safe to eat and drink!
betty


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

betty modin said:


> and it really does amaze me what some people think is safe to eat and drink!
> betty


me too.
i went to the grocery to get some more kool-aid. a mom with her toddler came by. 
i said i would never give my kids kool aid to drink while i was loading up. i guess she must have thought i'm nuts. :nana:

i overdyed my first batch and it sure loks saturated now. love the colors.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Did you know that you can use the icing dyes (like Wilton) for dyeing too? Totally aweome. I did some tonight and got really wild purple and blues!

There's a Ravelry group called "what a kool way to dye" with lots of info on using food safe dyes for wool.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

i found that last night and joined 
i think i'm totaly hooked. i don't need to buy those pretty color ful rovings anymore:heh:
do you have a recipe to dye with wiltons? how much dye for how much fiber? 
i assume we use vinegar too??


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Susanne I believe you can find some links to Kool-aide dyeing in the stickies up at the top of the forum. I'll see if I can find the links and post them here.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Here's one http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolaid/ There are others I thought were here but I can't find them I should go back and maybe repost them.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

i think i had a good recipe for kool aid. just was wondering how to figure out the amount of wilton dye and fiber. one drop to one ounce????
i guess some very smart people will come out and tell me to experiment. yeah, but to have a starting point would be great.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Here's one of my Kool Aid experiments, the flavor was/is TAMARINDO, I love the color so much I scoured the city for more packets, only found two. The brown is a Jacob...love working with Jacob!


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

marinemomtatt said:


> Here's one of my Kool Aid experiments, the flavor was/is TAMARINDO, I love the color so much I scoured the city for more packets, only found two. The brown is a Jacob...love working with Jacob!


that looks very nice. 
can you tell me what is special with jacob for you? what are you making with it?

here is my kool aid, overdyed a second time. yellow was the hardest and i used three packages for just under an ounce of 
fiber. still very pale but love all the others









colors where ice blue rasberry, crape, black cherry, magic twist (only had two and don't know which one) and lemon. still have some others to try. like orange and berry blue. only found one and need to hunt for some more.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Here's the Wilton's 'purple broken on purpose' that I did yesterday:










I didn't measure - the violet colouring jar had leaked at some point in the past: I immersed the jar in the water (with my gloves on!) and rinsed off the outer guck, and then dug out the cardboard lid liner piece which had fallen in the jar and added it to the pot. The water was a lovely dark purple and this was an experiment, so hey, in the skein went. 

The skein turned a bright pink with bits of darker purple, the pink was almost like a highlighter! This was very cool. While it soaked, I plyed up more yarn and then we added more vinegar and voila, the dyebath water turned blue! We dropped in the second skein and it started turning blue with just splashes of a light purple, as the reds in the purple dye had already come out of solution and reacted with the first skein. We left both skeins in, the highlighter-pink-and-purple skein turning quite a bit darker, and the blue-and-purple getting a deeper blue. After a bit we fished out the pink and purple skein and hung it up to dry, and left the other in until the dye bath was pretty well exhausted. 

There's a ton of detailed instructions on the Rav board - I just wing it, generally. 

ETA We don't seem to have as many KoolAid colours in Canada as you do in the US - so I've pretty well given up on KoolAid myself, I always get pinks and purples! My DH is a fabuloso cake decorator guy though (yep!) and so I mitch icing colours out of his stash when I need to dye.  We can get WAYYY nicer icing colours, and it's just as easy.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Wow! I seem to remember seeing some Wilton's at Michael's craft store. Those colors are just begging to be used for sure!

Jacob roving: I really like the way it spins up and I adore the color, brown with flecks of white.
The item pictured was a 'failed' felted hotpad, it's now a piece of wall art...~lol~...

A few years back I bought 3 lbs. of Kool Aid dyed fiber ($15.00), Purples and Reds, can you imagine how many packets the lady had to use?

Has anyone tried Easter Egg dye? I found a few pellets when cleaning out my 'craft' cupboard. I think I tried many years ago but I don't recall the instructions or the results.


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## sheepish (Dec 9, 2006)

The one thing I remember about kool-aid dyeing was that the blues I did were not light fast. That meant that some of the dyed fleece that I blended turned out looking very different, and sweaters changed colour, more in the areas that sun touched. 

Before using too much of the blue especially, try setting some in the sun for a few days and compare it to some left int the dark.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

tank you for the tip. my daughter loves the ice blue and want sweater with snowflakes with this. will put it in the sun and test


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## Ana Bluebird (Dec 8, 2002)

Oh, you people! Now I've got to dig out my kookaide and dye some wool. Those pictures are calling to me! Need to dye wool! Got to dye wool. Hey, and I was just getting ready to throw out an old rusty crock-pot! Now where did I put that koolaide?


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Kool-aide is not color fast, at least when I've used it.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

did you use it with vinegar?
what i heard is that people think they don't need to add vinegar because there is citric acid in the package. only with vinegar will it become color fast.

of course i have no clue, no experience at all. would like to know before i dye a sweater worth of fiber and finish


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Yep I used vinegar. Do a swatch or piece of wool or yarn and leave it on the windowsill in direct sunlight for awhile and see what happens. Some colors hold better than others. It would be a good experiment to do just so you know.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Marchwind said:


> Do a swatch or piece of wool or yarn and leave it on the windowsill in direct sunlight for awhile and see what happens.


Cover part of the swatch so the light doesn't get to it. You'll be able to see the difference in color more quickly.

(I know you were thinking this, Marchie!)


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Oh yea, right Cyndi. Thanks for getting my back  We have some really smart people on this forum.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

That's what happens when we get to know each other so well on this forum .... we finish each other's thoughts and sentences!


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## Nellie (Oct 18, 2006)

The color in Koolaid is just food coloring. The same as easter egg dyes and icing colors. It's all the same stuff.


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