Blueness

On Sunday afternoon, I attempted to dye my first hank of yarn with Kool-Aid. I went with Knitpicks Bare - Merino Wool Fingering Weight. It's only $3.99 for 440 yards, and I figured that was a good price for something I'd likely mess up.

I won't write all the details here for fear of leading someone else astray. However, if you want to try it yourself, I highly recommend these instructions.

After washing the wool, I mixed up the Kool-Aid (ice blue raspberry lemonade), and I placed the wool in the mixture in my biggest pasta pot and covered it with water. Then I began cooking it. Before it started to boil, I turned off the heat and covered the pot.



Then I made lunch. :)


After about 30 minutes of noshing and trying to learn lines for my play, I went back to the stove and discovered this:



(And this:)


I let the wool cool for a bit, tried to learn more lines, washed it once more, then hung it up to dry after a call to my mother to find out if that was really such a good idea.

It took forever to dry, but lookie!

You can't see it so much here, but the dye job turned out a little more uneven than I'd hoped. I figure I did two things wrong:

1. Press the wool when it's soaking, before putting it in the pot, so that all the air bubbles are pressed out.

2. I should have turned the wool over earlier in the process, so the part closest to the surface could soak up some of that ice blue raspberry lemonade, too.

However, it means I get some lovely varigated light blue yarn now. I think perhaps a shawl? Any thoughts?

I am so going to try this again with black cherry.