Long Print Dyeing on Pure Wool
 |
| Pure Canadian wool |
 |
My helper - all thumbs toes! |
 |
| Eleven hanks |
 |
| KoolAid Flavours |
 |
| Just add boiling water and stir |
 |
| Ow! |
 |
| Very old drink mix |
 |
| Spreading |
 |
| Attempting stripes |
 |
| Cherry-grape-orange |
 |
| Delicious! |
 |
| Greenhouse effect? |
 |
| Hot day... |
 |
| ...but not hot enough |
 |
| Hotter |
 |
| A different kind of roast lamb |
 |
| That'll do |
 |
| Dye completely exhausted |
 |
| Rinsed and drying in the sun |
 |
| Berries and Cream |
This was a lot of work - more than anticipated - but it was a lot of fun and the colours of the finished yarn are beautiful and rich and complement each other perfectly. A follow-up to this will be to experiment with some yarn to see whether the Kool-Aid in fact would have made a colourfast dye in a day of sunshine in the back yard.
References:
Mahe, Marie-Christine. (2003).
Dyeing for grownups. Retrieved from http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer03/FEATaciddye.html
Porter, Kristi. (2002).
Dyed in the wool. Retrieved from http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html
White, Sarah E. (n.d.).
How to dye yarn with kool-aid. Retrieved from http://knitting.about.com/od/yarn/ss/dye-yarn-kool-aid.htm
Heather, This is truly spectacular! I loved the image of the exhausted baths. What a huge success! It will be gorgeous when knitted, crocheted, felted or woven!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations.
Thanks. Still trying to decide what to do with it, but for the moment I am enjoying just looking at it. I really didn't have any idea I would be so pleased with the results when I was doing it. Now, I don't want to use it up!
DeleteHeather this is a true testament of your patience. Who knew koolaid could produce such vibrant colors? I too, would like to see this knit into something - no pressure!
ReplyDeleteYour dye work is striking. I was looking in anticipation as I scrolled down the page to see the big reveal and I loved the results. The colors will certainly create a fabulous cohesive piece; when you consider how much work goes into hand dyeing fibres, it makes the piece all that more special.
ReplyDeleteI think you were genius to try and dye it outside the way you did, and a clear indication of your passion and interest to see it through when you had to move it into your oven to finish the process! I do hope you make something amazing with your yarn, perhaps we will get to see it at Provincial Conference? If you can find time to sit and knit between now and then that is! And remember we were talking about making a yert? Well I just heard today that there is a wedding here this weekend and they have rented two from somewhere down in the valley at a cost of $3700, maybe we should further our thoughts on the creation of one as a project? What do you think Cathy? Could this work as our next textile course?
ReplyDeleteI'm so in Jyl!
DeleteTruly Heather this project piece was just amazing. what patience you had in this and hopefully you will make it into something even more wonderful. When you tell your students how Kool- Aid can add some artistic value in life...as it has absolutely no nutritional value. A topic of discussion for sure about textiles, dyes and nutrition all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Storm….If it can permanently dye wool, is it good for my insides? On the other hand, it is a great way to get huge, bold results with students without using "officially" toxic dyes. It's not really that colour fast and will fade, but that is long enough for most teens.
ReplyDeleteHeather, not to suggest more work for you as clearly you did such an amazing job, but I wonder if still would have taken without much heat. I suspect you may not have had to bake it to still get your amazing colours. If you did a sample, say just solar dyeing like you did trapping the heat under plastic on a hot day, and you got similar results, you may be more likely to do it again if you knew you didn't have to go through the lengthy process of baking it in jars.
Wow! I love what you did with this yarn. Looked like a lot of work but the results are spectacular. I like to knit socks with yarn that is all different colours like this but never thought of dyeing it myself. It is always fun to see what kind of pattern emerges as the yarn is knit up. Very impressive project!
ReplyDelete