Ok, here is my mini step by step guide to the way I did my kool aid wool dying. It is by no means the only way to do it, but I find this way easy and I like the blended results. I was a bit rubbish at remembering to take photos for every single step though, but hopefully took enough for the basic idea.
I did two lots yesterday so I'll show you both of them.
Here's what I started with, a selection of kool aid packages (need to be the unsweetened kind), and some 100% wool which happened to be a cream colour. You can use wool that is already dyed, but you will obviously get different results, a darker grey for example might give you more heathery colours. The kool aid colours are pretty neon, I have to say, I did not do a lot of experimentation in mixing colours yet, just wanted to get a feel for the process and see what I could come up with.
Next, I unravelled some of the wool from the ball around some chairs to make it into long pieces I could twist into chunks. Bear in mind that the amount of wool vs. amount of kool aid affects the result. I did fairly small pieces, as I didn't know how it would come out.
After that, I put the wool on to soak in some warm water with a very small squidge of dish soap in it to clean the wool. Here, my wool is fairly spread out, you can keep it more tied together if you wish, just don't tie it too tight or it will be like tie dye and those bits would dye well (unless you want that effect!).
Some guides said to add vinegar to the water, some said you didn't have to as the kool aid was acidic anyway. I did to the first batch I dyed, but after that didn't bother and it seems to have worked fine. While that is soaking for about half an hour, you can make up your kool aid mixes. Obviously use more packets for a more intense colour, although some of them are pretty intense anyway, such as the Blue colour.
I mainly used two packets of the powder, with not too much water, just a few inches at most. Bear in mind that the powder has the colouring on, and as I found out, it is VERY easy to get the powder on your fingers when opening the packets and if you don't wear gloves, your fingers will get dyed.
Here's the two lots I did, on the left is 2 packets of Grape and 2 of Black Cherry, and on the right 2 packets of Orange and 2 of Cherry.
Once the 30 mins is up, you can drain almost all the water from the wool, just leave it swimming in a bit. If you're going to use the same dish to soak and dye in, make sure it is a microwave safe dish.
Now the fun part. Set you dish somewhere where you can work that is right near the microwave, the less you have to jostle the dish to get it in the microwave, the better. Starting with the lightest colour first, pour in one corner. You can go slow and make sure half the wool is well covered with the dye. I liked to concentrate the colour into one corner. If it hasn't covered quite half you can get a plastic spoon and poke the wool into the coloured liquid a bit to make sure the wool gets dyed.
Here is me having put the Orange side in first.
Then put the other side in, again I concentrated in one corner, and let the two colours mingle in the middle. At this stage I did minimal poking as I didn't want to colours to mix beyond what was naturally happening, I only poked to make sure the wool got covered in the liquid. Here's the Orange and Cherry together, and then the Grape and Black Cherry.
Slowly and carefully, put the dish in the microwave. Cook for 2 minutes, let sit for several minutes, cook 2 minutes etc until the water around the wool is pretty clear, so that the wool has absorbed all the colour. On this one you can still see a bit of colour in the water, but it is still quite clear compared to how it was. Be careful to let your wool sit and cool a bit between bursts in the microwave, and that there is enough water in there, you don't want to be scorching your wool.
Let your wool sit for a few minutes as it will be very hot. Run your hot tap, and when the wool is cool enough to handle, rinse your wool. If you shock the wool with cold water, apparently it will felt.
Squeeze as much water as you can out first with just hands gently, and then roll in a towel and press to squeeze more of the water out. Hang up to dry and voila! You should have dyed wool. It is supposed to be colourfast, but a friend has said that hers did bleed a bit in the wash. I'll probably hand wash my stuff anyway.
Here's the wet versions of the two I made here, and then the dry versions.
I did two lots yesterday so I'll show you both of them.
Here's what I started with, a selection of kool aid packages (need to be the unsweetened kind), and some 100% wool which happened to be a cream colour. You can use wool that is already dyed, but you will obviously get different results, a darker grey for example might give you more heathery colours. The kool aid colours are pretty neon, I have to say, I did not do a lot of experimentation in mixing colours yet, just wanted to get a feel for the process and see what I could come up with.
Next, I unravelled some of the wool from the ball around some chairs to make it into long pieces I could twist into chunks. Bear in mind that the amount of wool vs. amount of kool aid affects the result. I did fairly small pieces, as I didn't know how it would come out.
After that, I put the wool on to soak in some warm water with a very small squidge of dish soap in it to clean the wool. Here, my wool is fairly spread out, you can keep it more tied together if you wish, just don't tie it too tight or it will be like tie dye and those bits would dye well (unless you want that effect!).
Some guides said to add vinegar to the water, some said you didn't have to as the kool aid was acidic anyway. I did to the first batch I dyed, but after that didn't bother and it seems to have worked fine. While that is soaking for about half an hour, you can make up your kool aid mixes. Obviously use more packets for a more intense colour, although some of them are pretty intense anyway, such as the Blue colour.
I mainly used two packets of the powder, with not too much water, just a few inches at most. Bear in mind that the powder has the colouring on, and as I found out, it is VERY easy to get the powder on your fingers when opening the packets and if you don't wear gloves, your fingers will get dyed.
Here's the two lots I did, on the left is 2 packets of Grape and 2 of Black Cherry, and on the right 2 packets of Orange and 2 of Cherry.
Once the 30 mins is up, you can drain almost all the water from the wool, just leave it swimming in a bit. If you're going to use the same dish to soak and dye in, make sure it is a microwave safe dish.
Now the fun part. Set you dish somewhere where you can work that is right near the microwave, the less you have to jostle the dish to get it in the microwave, the better. Starting with the lightest colour first, pour in one corner. You can go slow and make sure half the wool is well covered with the dye. I liked to concentrate the colour into one corner. If it hasn't covered quite half you can get a plastic spoon and poke the wool into the coloured liquid a bit to make sure the wool gets dyed.
Here is me having put the Orange side in first.
Then put the other side in, again I concentrated in one corner, and let the two colours mingle in the middle. At this stage I did minimal poking as I didn't want to colours to mix beyond what was naturally happening, I only poked to make sure the wool got covered in the liquid. Here's the Orange and Cherry together, and then the Grape and Black Cherry.
Slowly and carefully, put the dish in the microwave. Cook for 2 minutes, let sit for several minutes, cook 2 minutes etc until the water around the wool is pretty clear, so that the wool has absorbed all the colour. On this one you can still see a bit of colour in the water, but it is still quite clear compared to how it was. Be careful to let your wool sit and cool a bit between bursts in the microwave, and that there is enough water in there, you don't want to be scorching your wool.
Let your wool sit for a few minutes as it will be very hot. Run your hot tap, and when the wool is cool enough to handle, rinse your wool. If you shock the wool with cold water, apparently it will felt.
Squeeze as much water as you can out first with just hands gently, and then roll in a towel and press to squeeze more of the water out. Hang up to dry and voila! You should have dyed wool. It is supposed to be colourfast, but a friend has said that hers did bleed a bit in the wash. I'll probably hand wash my stuff anyway.
Here's the wet versions of the two I made here, and then the dry versions.
