August 31, 2009
I love making wool diaper covers for my little monkey. And I love color. The problem is that wool that's been pre-dyed is more expensive than undyed, and there's no guarantee that you'll find the color or dye pattern that you want.
But did you know that dyeing wool, or any other animal fiber for that matter, with Kool-Aid of all things, is fun and easy? If you are interested, my favorite tutorial can be found here. Read through the tutorial and look at the pictures and decide if this is a project that interests you.
That being said, I did deviate from the tutorial slightly. This is what I did different:
1. I didn't have a syringe of the suggested size, so I just poured slowly and carefully onto the parts I wanted dyed.
2. I didn't have gloves, but scrubbing your hands with baking soda (and not that hard!) takes any dye off.
3. Before I did the heat set method, I carefully squeezed out the excess water by sections.
4. I used the microwave heat set method, but because I was dyeing a full 8oz of yarn at once, I did 2 minutes, flipped the yarn over, did it again, and then once more.
In the end, I came out with some nicely colored yarn. It is purple, violet, and red, but unfortunately the red next to the purple looks pink, but it's still nice.
If you have a little time and patience, this project is well worth the effort.
*Note: You cannot use this dye method for cotton or synthetic fibers. Animal fibers (including silk) only!
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