Did you know that, in Canada, Kool Aid flavour packets are VERY hard to come by? Goes to show how often I’ve bought Kool Aid through the years, that I only discovered this after trying to buy some to dye yarn. I was out of luck. When a small local convenience store was advertised as selling these flavour packets, I had to go immediately and buy some. I managed to snag 10 packets total, a mix of Blue Raspberry Lemonade, Pink Lemonade, Strawberry, and Orange. Funnily enough, a few days later, there was another local store boasting flavour packets, and I bought another handful of flavours, including Cherry, Black Cherry, and Mixed Berry. After a final purchase from a LYS, I had two undyed skeins ready for experimenting.
Skein one I knew I wanted to try speckles, but I really didn’t have a plan. I added one pack each of Pink Lemonade and Strawberry to an empty spice shaker, I got my skein wet and laid out on a baking tray, and I got to shaking the colour on the yarn. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have added them together if I wanted a visible difference in the speckles, but I wasn’t mad how it turned out. I microwaved my yarn to heat and set the colour.
This was my first time using a colour source that had a scent to it! It was probably the biggest difference, in my mind. The smell coming out of my microwave was very fruity!
I am very happy with how the speckles turned out, in fact, I think it came out just as I hoped it would.
I decided on my plan for Skein 2 after watching a few of ChemKnits YouTube videos. Dip Dyeing was a technique I hadn’t tried before, so that’s what I did with Skein 2 and the four packs of Black Cherry Kool-Aid. My previous dyeing has largely been in the slow cooker with Wilton colours, and it takes hours for the dye to absorb and the dye bath to exhaust, and I was amazed at how quickly the colour absorbed and how quick the dyeing process was. I might have to try Kool-Aid in the slow cooker to see if the time difference is a difference in methods or materials.
Ultimately, this has been a huge success and I’m extremely pleased with my two new skeins.
In The Rounds 
2 thoughts on “Another Adventure in Dyeing”