The Journey Through Madness

[cinfulkarmah]

Brilliant me, cough-cough, suggested to DD that wouldn't dyeing yarn with Kool Aid be a great project for her science/educational fair? Needless to say I spent a ton of time this weekend with my little hands in wool and dye. Lol.

 

I have pictures on my blog from the dyeing process. We used three packaets of each color/flavor (we found 18 in all). I wanted the colors to be really rich & dark in order to show up better for the project.

 

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of our yarn test. We took 6 different types of yarn and dyed them to see what would happen. (From research I knew that only the protien based ones would really dye.) So I had a swatch of eahc yarn before dyeing, after dyeing and then after washing. When we get the project back from the school I will have to take pics and show you all.

 

What yarns did we test?

 

Bernat Softee Baby -- Seemed to take the dye, but really pale, but after washing all color was removed.

 

Darice Nylon Plus -- Took the dye. But it turned a different color than the dye itself. It was also dyed with a circle of wool. The same color turned the wool green (same shade as the Kool Aid) and turned the nylon gold. The plasticizers in nylon contain protein, and thus dyes with Kool Aid.

 

Lily Sugar 'n Cream -- Came out splotchy. After hand washing it faded some. Not truely dyed, just stained. My thought is that if it was to be machine washed with bleach the color would come out or fade even more.

 

Lion Brand Cotton-Ease -- Seemed to take the dye and turned a pretty shade of pale blue. Unfortunately after washing the dye came right out, leaving only a slightly blue tinge to the yarn.

 

Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool -- Took to the dye like a champ. No change after washing.

 

Lion Brand Wool-Ease -- This dyed as well. I am thinking because of the wool content. It did not dye as dark as the 100% wool. Although it did not seem to fade with hand washing, repeated machine washing could cause significant fading.

 

Whew! I'll let you all know when we have the other pictures added to my blog, so you can see the yarn testing itself.

[Donna]

Oh, what a cool science project!

[MiCountess]

What a neat idea! Thanks for sharing your science project

Michelle

[cinfulkarmah]

Oopsie! I forgot to post a direct link to the page for future archiving. Naughty girl!

 

http://justcinful.blogspot.com/2005/03/journey-into-madness.html

[cinfulkarmah]

Oh, what a cool science project!

 

Yeah, shame she only has one a year. Otherwise I could talk her into felting. Lol. Then hubby would be cool with extra yarn purchasing! Heehee. Oh well... There is always next year!

[Woven N Spun]

Neat-o and great job.

 

 

Whenever we dye wool here, we always use that as an art credit for school since the kids and I get all kinds of creative. They all get the color wheel out and decide what we should add to the dye pot (unless it's a custom order then mom takes control) and away we go.

 

It's fun and interesting and well.....it does tend to stain the hands as you found out

[Rosesandtea]

Did you use any kind of mordant?

[cinfulkarmah]

When I was looking up directions online for dyeing the yarn with Kool Aid there were a couple of different ways.

 

One said that they Kool Aid was acidic enough to bind with the yarn (protien) on it's own. Another just mentioned washing the wool beforehand (with Dawn liquid soap). All of them talked about soaking the yarn. Some mentioned just in plain water and others mentioned in water with a splash of vinegar.

 

Knowing that the vinegar would help set the yarn, and not wanting to take the chance on Kool-Aid alone (and having to re-do the whole experiment at the last minute) I went with the vinegar & water deal. (I did not wash the yarn beforehand since it is a commercial yarn and wasn't unprocessed to begin with.) I let the yarn soak in the water with vinegar added for about 30 minutes before dyeing.

 

It worked really well. If you are doing it as an experiment with the kiddos you may want to try both ways to see if there is any difference. If it is for you to use in your crafting endveavors I would err on the side of caution and add in that vinegar.

 

Some people say that their yarn has a Kool Aid and/or vinegary smell afterwards. Mine does not have that. I guess it may be because I either didn't use as much vinegar as they did or from letting the yarn dry outside. Either that or my nose just isn't working properly!

[Kathleen]

You did a great job and the colors turned out Fabulous! Oh your poor wrinkled, colorful fingers!

 

Temps me to try this kool-aid thing!