Thursday 25 August 2011

Cunning Plan

Thank you for all the fantastic comments yesterday, especially about my hand dyed sock yarn *grins* I love it, so it was really great to get so many lovely comments. Plus, it ties very nicely in with today's post ;)

I recently bought some Kool Aid from a knitter having a bit of a clearout. Of course I immediately wanted to dye something, and very nearly bought some bare yarn to have a play with. Then I stopped myself, as the phrase "one more yarn purchase can't hurt" crossed my mind ;)

So, I refrained from buying more yarn, realising that I really didn't have to use the dye straight away. And then I had a cunning plan *modest smile* I could overdye some of the yarn in my stash. I had just the yarn:



I was given 6 balls of this by a colleague and haven't had any idea what to do with it. It's good stuff, Jaeger 100% superwash, but the colours just aren't me. I planned to keep it around anyway, knowing it would reveal its true purpose in time *laughs*

Anyway, I wound it into a loop - you can see how small the colour runs are, I can't imagine it would knit up into something I'd like - and grabbed 4 sachets of Grape Kool Aid. Bizarrely, as I dunked the yarn in the dye, it sucked up all of the colour straight away, leaving the water clear, very strange to watch. Apparently superwash wool does that!



And I ended up with this, which I think is really cool.


I love how the dark blue sections are still there, they just work in the overall colour better for me. Even better, I needed some superwash wool for secret knitting, and now I don't have to buy any for that (yarn purchases for present knitting don't count as breaking my no-yarn-buying plan).

Genius ;)

12 comments:

  1. great color! i will have to try the kool aid dye for some yarn. :)

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  2. What a great way to re-energize yarn from your stash so you feel like you bought something new :).

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  3. It looks fantastic, a much better colour

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  4. Very nice! I haven't tried over dying any yarn I have. I'm a bit scared that I'll get a brown icky mess.

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  5. Holy cow, look at the fantabulousness of the yarn now! Must have been weird watching all the color get sucked up.... So how do you "set" Kool Aid so it doesn't just wash out?

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  6. I have a fichu I knit with lace yarn that was white and blue. I am thinking I need to overdye it, just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe I need to pick up some Kool Aid tonight!!

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  7. Wow!! What a transformation! I am flabbergasted!

    –Cassandra

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  8. That's really cool, a much more subtle effect than the blueWHITE!blueWHITE!blueWHITE! Variegated sock yarn is insane stuff, isn't it? All mine has looked *completely* different actually knitted up. I'll stick my most horrendous example on my blog sometime later this week for your enjoyment/horror...

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  9. Looks awesome! And bonus points for not buying any yarn and recycling :o)

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  10. that turned out SO beautiful, I love it!

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  11. Gorgeous purple! Overdyeing is fun.

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