I have tried for a long time to come up with an awesome way to dye yarn and other fabrics using household items. Of course, you can always use actual dyes, or perhaps tea bags depending on what hue you’re going for, but I wanted to try other things for a truly original-looking fabric. Luckily, Miss Make, along with a few other tutorial sites, gives a lovely tutorial with a completely unique idea: yarn dyed with Kool-Aid!
Take any white yarn (or fabric) you may have to start out with. Pick out the colors of Kool-Aid that you would like to use. You can choose to use all one color, or try to use multiple colors. Either way, your end product will be a great one.
Make sure your yarn is wrapped in a skein, rather than a ball. This makes it much easier to dye. Use a large pan such as a Pyrex dish and fill it with water. Add in your packet of Kool-Aid and mix it in the water until is has dissolved completely. Place part of your yarn into your dyed water and place the pan in the microwave. The rest of the yarn not in the water can hang out of the microwave. Microwave your yarn for five minutes, stirring about every minute or so. Once done, the water should be clear and your yarn should have absorbed the Kool-Aid.
Dump the yarn into a strainer and rinse your yarn with warm water. Mix your next chosen color (or the same color if you want!) in your Pyrex pan again. Let both ends of the yarn hang out of the pan and continue the same process. You will continue to do this until all your yarn has been dyed.
You can also just dye the entire skein of yarn all at once if you only want one color. It just depends how vibrant of a color you want. For a more vibrant color, (that may also be un-even for a homemade dyed look) dye your yarn part by part.
Once all your yarn has been dyed, allow for the skein to dry. Whatever your end product is, it will be washable, despite the yarn being dyed with Kool-Aid, which I think is pretty cool!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me at fbresibl@asu.edu.
