Check out my Kool Yarns!

I spent most of last week at my dye pots playing with Kool Aid and Wilton's food coloring recipes.  Some of the recipes were given to me by my good friend, Beth, and others were happy accidents or new creations by me.  It's quite amazing the depth of color and range of color you can get simply with food coloring and Kool Aid packets.  I have learned much in this week and wanted to share my latest creations as well as some tips.

The above picture is one of my creations.  I call this "Forest Nymph."  This one was dyed using a combination of different Wilton's food colorings.  The brown food coloring broke a bit, which is why you can see a bit of red in the brown sections.  I like the effect and it makes it more of a chestnut colored brown.  This is super wash merino and nylon yarn, fingering weight, and a whopping 462 yards!  You can find it in my shop, HERE.  

Meet "Red Brick Schoolhouse" my lovely red color way I created with a recipe of Kool Aid I created.  The yarn is a soft twist merino fingering weight, 400 yards.  You can find it in my shop HERE.  

TIP:  When dyeing with Kool Aid, I HIGHLY recommend using Kool Aid packets and NOT the canisters.  Yes, buying the canisters is less expensive overall, but the ingredients are not the same.  The company puts sugar into the canisters while the packets are unsweetened.  In dye attempts using grape from canisters, I found that the grape color isn't nearly as dark and vibrant as it is when using the packets.  The sugar also lends to making the yarn stickier and can cause issues with burning (I haven't had this happen, but read it on a forum).  Unsweetened Kool Aid packets or even generic packets like they sell at Kroger are your best bet.

My friend Beth passed on a recipe to me for the above color way.  She named it "Moody" and was sweet enough to let me keep the name.  The first attempt I did of this here at home came out very dull in color, especially the purple parts.  Of course, I was using grape Kool Aid from a canister so I wasn't getting the color result I wanted.  I over dyed this skein with grape Kool Aid packets.  I LOVE IT!  It's so soft and squishy too.  Super wash merino/nylon yarn, 462 yards, fingering weight.  CLICK  HERE to see it in the shop.  

This is "Blue Ice"  on soft twist merino yarn.  This is based off a recipe from my friend Beth.  It's a vibrant blue with a few hints of purple and white in it.  You can find it in my shop, HERE.

OK, back to holiday crafting!  :)