Hey, Kool-Ade!

I did some kool-ade dying last week and it was so much fun! I got together with two friends and our 6 kids, and we dyed up a storm. I practiced on some kitchen cotton first, just to get an idea of how the dyes worked. Then I dyed a hank of fingering weight superwash wool in a bunch of wild colors. I was nervous because it looked kind of ugly while I was doing it, but as I wind it into a cake, it's looking kind of neat. Pictures later -- I got sidetracked while winding it and never got back to it.

I dyed a second hank of the same yarn in flame colors. I really like how it came out:



The kids tie-dyed some cotton t-shirts. Here they are, modeling their work:





Jack's shirt front is also decorated with chocolate ice cream.





Sadly, I have it on good authority that cotton does not take kool-ade well as a dye, so the shirts won't look like this again. My wool should stay dyed, though.

I'm going to make a sock monkey out of some of this yarn...after the Marathon of Christmas Knitting ends.

I cast on another project today -- the DNA scarf. It's a fun little pattern, although I found the directions a bit confusing at first and then decided to frog the whole thing after 2 inches so that I could change one aspect of the design. I forgot how annoying it is to use a cable needle. I'm going to give cabling without a needle a try after I get used to the pattern.

One tip for those interested in kool-ade dyeing: wear gloves! I can't stress it enough. My hands ended up nearly black from all the kool-aid, and the only thing that cleaned them up was bleach. Even that didn't get the color out from under my nails. Today (almost a week later) the color finally wore off.

After the kool-ade practice, I think I'm ready to try some of my acid dyes. I like more muted colors better than the brights of kool-ade, so I think I'll enjoy being able to blend my own colors even more.