Time for some colour
Friday, October 6, 2006 at 4:19PM 
My goodness, my feet have hardly touched the ground in the last couple of weeks, but finally, I'm getting my head above water and set aside this afternoon for some "me time". I just received the parcel of wool felt I'd ordered some time ago and armed with a bag full of different Kool-aid flavours, I set to and began to dye.
I began by soaking the felt in a bowl of detergent for a while, to wet it thoroughly.
To begin with I used the microwave method. Dissolved a packet of Kool-aid in a small amount of water, added the wet felt, and cooked on high until the water was clear. I soon discovered that it was taking rather longer in the microwave than it normally does on the hob, so I put a kettle on to boil and did the rest in a saucepan. Same procedure - dissolve the powder, dilute with boiling water and add the felt. Stir a little and boil until the water is clear, about 5 mins maximum.
Rinsed in cold water and hung the dyed felt to dry, pegging the empty packet on the felt so that I have a record of which flavour dyed which colour. Interesting to note that the colour of the packet doesn't always indicate the colour of the dye.
And for once, I remembered that using the "invisible" kool-aid wasn't sensible.
Reader Comments (6)
So what does your house smell like ?
That's something else I need to try when I get more than a few days at home !!!
Have you used Kool Aid for dyeing before? I have friends who have used it and they told me that it faded badly.
In answer to Jesse's comment, I think I'd be wary of using KoolAid for anything other than fun, ephemeral projects for that very reason. Having said that, I have some Knitpicks yarn which I intend to dye for socks. They should be a good test of colour-fastness; watch this space for a report!
I will be very interested - i love the colours but wonder about colourfastness. I have a friend coming from the States in November - I must ask her to bring my a bunch of flavours!
Lovely colours, Gill. I must have a go sometime - I have a few which someone sent me in a swap ages ago. have you ever tried mixing packets to make new colours?
What is kool aid? I am a Brit and so haven't seen these before? Thanks