Kool-Aid Dyeing

Oh My Goodness! I have been bitten by the needle felting bug, and as I usually do with new projects, I have gone completely overboard. I have wool all over the place! I can see now that I will have to sell some of it because I won’t be able to use it all up in two lifetimes. I even got some natural cotswold locks and washed them and they are now beautiful. You can see them in the back.

I ordered a DVD set from Kay Petal, but all my wool has gotten here first. I will have to play with it until my instructions and needles get here. I found a really great buy on some natural Merino Roving and have been looking at some interesting sites that talk about Kool-Aid dying. It looks easy enough, so I decided to try it.

First I tried the microwave. I mixed up my Kool-Aid in a glass dish with a lid, then I added my yard of roving and nuked it for a minute at a time until all the color had been absorbed. It is so surprising to see the water becomes almost clear.

Then  decided to try boiling several batches at once, so I got out my largest pan, put some canning rings in the bottom and started filling some pint jars with different flavors of Kool-Aid. After filling the pan with water to about an inch from the jar tops, I brought it to a simmer and let it simmer with the lid on for about 35 minutes until most of the color had been absorbed into the wool.

Then I took the roving out and rinsed them in warm water and hung them out to dry on a plastic clothes hanger. I was so afraid of felting it all that I didn’t move it around enough, so the dye isn’t even, but it will be wonderful for shading.

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