Hedgehog Knits

Adventures in knitting from the eastern edge of Canada.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Fun with FD&C Red #6

I was browsing through the many fun yarns from the
big box of happiness last week and found this skein again. Now I can't imagine why anyone would ever want to knit with this particular colour, except maybe to knit dolls (it's even more flesh-coloured in person). Remebering my earlier plans to try dying it, I went out to browse the Kool-Aid offerings at my local supermarket. I've been wanting to try Kool-Aid dying for a while now, since all the cool kids in blog-land have been doing it and it looks like so much fun.

I think this is the first time in many years that I actually wished that I had a microwave. The microwave method does sound like the easiest way to do this, especially to do varigated colour. But that hardly seems like a reason to buy an appliance that would take up a lot of space in our tiny apartment kitchen, and would get very little use. So I went for the big-pot-on-the-stove method.


I didn't really buy enough Kool-aid for a 4 oz skein- I didn't think that I wanted dark colours, so I only bought one ice blue, and one grape. I followed the instructions I found on the Knit Picks website, but the minute I put the yarn in the pot, the dye was all sucked up, and unevenly distributed at that. I pulled it out and decided that I didn't like the result. Very splotchy and kind of grey. Figuring I didn't have much to lose at this point, I added the package of grape to the pot, and threw the yarn back in. Like magic, it turned into this gorgeous, sort of handpainted-looking purple and pink pastel mix. I love it!


Here's a swatch (although it looks a little pinker than it should in this photo).


I think I might save it for a baby sweater - it's only a small amount, and a wee cardigan in this would be adorable for a little girl. Not that there are any little girls in my life right now (just two nephews), but I seem to be at that age where everyone around me is having babies, and I tend to keep a stack of shower gifts ready in advance. Lets face it, I just love knitting small things.

So, with that under my belt, it was on to Kool-aid experiment number two. Since the purple turned out so nicely the first time, I thought I'd try for a slightly darker shade. The yarn is some vintage Red Heart worsted wool, about 3 oz of yarn to 2 packages of grape crystals, and then an extra 1 oz skein dyed with 3 packages of the "Magic Switchin' Secret" flavour - It's in a blue package, the crystals are orange, but they turn green in solution. Evidently, the yarn came out a bright lime green/chartreuse.


I've got a funky fair isle ear flap hat planned for someone special on my Christmas list, so I think I may try to work bits of these into that yet-to-be designed project. I consider it pretty good timing that the December issue of Canadian Living, which I picked up yesterday, has a pattern for just such a hat. I may use that as a starting point.

And speaking of Christmas, I'm off to do some top-secret shopping. I can't believe how fast the time is flying these days. I'm heading home for Christmas in just two weeks. Let's hope that I manage to get the knitting done a little earlier than last year - I was hiding at my in-laws seaming a sweater for my mom on Christmas Eve!

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ohhh, I'm in love with all your Kool Aid colours, K. I love the chartreuse green, even, that'd knit up so nice in a blend with some grey or blue.

11:02 a.m.  
Blogger Glenna C said...

Nice job with the Kool Aid!
I'm loving my KA yarn, I honestly think it's more fun than using "real" dyes ;)

2:57 p.m.  
Blogger Kelly said...

Hi guys!
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the colours for a first couple of attempts. And they sure do smell nice. We took some pictures of Molly in a basket of yarn over the weekend, and evidently she prefers grape - she kept trying to eat it! The photos will be posted soon, although a lot of them were fuzzy because she just won't stop moving!

3:15 p.m.  

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