Kool-Aid not just for wool

[Catana]

Happened to read an old blog post by a Crochetviller. She had experimented with Kool-Aid dyeing cotton, and it didn't work very well. 99% of the articles about Kool-Aid dyeing only mention wool, but silk also dyes beautifully. I just did my first skein of silk and will also be trying blends--silk with cotton or linen. Since only the silk will take the dye, the results should be interesting.

[xantha]

I heard that silk doesn't take quite as well as wool does. Untrue?

 

I have some tussah but haven't tried to dye it yet.

[Tiggzie]

Hmm I haven't tried Kool Aid with silk...

 

I don't pay attention to what I can or cannot dye I dyed 100% acrylic yarn with hair dye (orange, red and purple) and 6 months later, the colours are still in the flowers I made with the yarn. *shrug* The colours aren't that bright, but I aimed for muted (used only a teaspoon or dye). I'll try it again and aim for nice bright colours and see what happens.

[Catana]

I heard that silk doesn't take quite as well as wool does. Untrue?

 

I have some tussah but haven't tried to dye it yet.

 

It might depend on the kind of dye. In an article on silk, it said specifically that silk colors are so brilliant because it absorbs dye so well. The silk yarn I just used was an off-white, and I deliberately didn't go for a bright color so I can't judge about the brilliance. But it did absorb nearly all of the dye in the solution I made.

 

I do plan to experiment with some silk fabrics that could use some color improvement.

 

Tiggzie, I also do stuff like that just to see what will happen. Acrylic obviously takes some kinds of dye, so why not see if there's something that will work at home?

[noricum]

I think with different fibres you just need to know what the correct mordant is. Don't ask me though... I'm clueless.

 

I do, however, do silk painting... but I use special heat-set silk paints for that.