Kool Aid Yarn - Dyeing to Color
Making kool aid yarn is a safe and easy project for children and adults. Kids love coloring and making kool aid yarn is a great way for you to have fun with your child. From youngsters to teenagers, kids will love the colors they can dye their yarn to use in other projects.
Kool aid is considered an acid dye. Why? Because it contains citric acid to add tartness to the drink. This acid is needed for the dye reaction to happen.
To make kool aid yarn you must get the right kind of yarn. It must be some type of animal yarn. Wool yarn from sheep, alpaca, llama, etc. work. Synthetic yarn will not work. It will not take up the dye. Be sure to look closely at the yarn in the store where you are purchasing to make sure it is 100% wool.
Buy unsweetened kool aid. If you mistakenly get the sweetened kind, you will cook the sugar and end up with a sticky, icky mess instead of kool aid yarn.
Let the young children come with you to the store to pick out their special colors. One packet of drink mix will color about one ounce of yarn. This will depend on how dark you want your colors. There's no exact formula, so the kids can't make a mistake. Experimenting with the colors is half the fun of making kool aid yarn.
The darker colors make the coolest colors. Try reds, blues, and purple for some really fun coloring. All the other colors work, too. You can tie rubber bands around parts of the yarn that you don't want to color for a different effect.
Remember your colors will dry a shade or two lighter than the color they are while wet. Some of the color may come out in the rinsing, too. So, you may want to intentionally dye the yarn darker than what you really want to achieve the correct color. If you don't care how dark your color is, then don't worry about it.
You need heat and water to get the wool to take up the dye. You can use a microwave, the stove top, or the sun as your source of heat. Adults need to help young children if using the first two sources of heat.
Cool your yarn and dry it. You and your child are now ready to make some really cool projects.
Once adults and children make kool aid yarn you will be dyeing to make it again. It's easy, fun, and smells good, too.
Author: Debby McCandless
Visit this link for more information on making kool aid yarn. Debby McCandless raises alpacas and dyes their wool.