Midwest Fiber Company

Sales Catalog | Fiber Artists | Processing Mills | Links | Tips/Articles | Fiber Workshops/Events | Home

DYEING (for wool)

With Kool-Aid or Wilton Icing colors

3/2/2003 by Judy Smith, Five Points Llamas, Williamsport, OH

I started out spinning sheep wool and was so glad when I changed over to llama and alpaca wools. The difference is like night (sheep – course, medium to fine with lots of crimp) and day (lama – medium to fine that has a silky-sexy feel and not as much crimp). There is quite a range of colors to be had, but where would I find a good pumpkin orange (for the Circleville, OH, Pumpkin Show entry) or a Kelly Green (for my St. Patty’s Day scarf)? Then I heard someone mention using Kool-Aid for dyeing, while attending a Guild demo of commercial dyes. I didn’t like the idea of using containers that would not be able to be used for anything else (due to the contamination from the chemicals in the commercial dyes). And Kool-Aid is eatable! Just remember, you must use this on protein fibers, such as wool (hair) and not acrylic, nylon or cotton. So here I go…

First it was Kool-Aid and the oven. Having the Kool-Aid packages (with no sweetener) up in the cupboard was no trouble and restocking is usually cheap, I started experimenting with the Black Cherry. I found several articles on the web and chose to use the “oven” method.

I used my glass 13” x 9” cake pan, about 2 oz. of sheep wool (roving) and the drink mix (I had about 4 packages on hand).

Then I snaked the dry wool back and forth in the pan, so that it laid flat.

Add enough luke-warm water until the wool was covered. I then pushed the wool down with my hands to make sure all the wool was wet and that any air pockets were gone.

Now comes the color! I cut off the top of the Kool-Aid package, to make sure that I would get all the mix and started sprinkling the drink mix in a line about 2” from the side of the pan, perpendicular to the snaked roving and about an inch wide. I only got about half the way down the pan, so I opened another Kool-Aid package of the same color and sprinkled away. I ended up making 2 stripes across the pan with 4 Kool-Aid packages. I didn’t want a solid color roving but a variegated dark red and white one.

Then it was time for the oven - 350º for 30 minutes. I took the pan out and let the wool cool down to luke-warm – I couldn’t wait to get it in the sink to see how much color rinsed out! I was so surprised to see that there was very little color coming out in the water and the second and third rinses had none.

After drying, I spun the roving on my spinning wheel to a nice sport weight yarn and ended up with a lovely, variegated skein. The colors were anything from light pink to the dark red with white in between.

Note: some drink packages have more mix than others, so you may need more packages with certain flavors. Check out The Piper's Soft Drink Color Card for a drink mix color chart.

One thing to be said about rinsing the roving – do not agitate (to see if there is any extra color to rinse out) or you will have a FELTED roving and won’t be able to draft (pull apart) for spinning.

Then another dyeing method, using the Wilton icing colors. This was after reading an article in a favorite knitting magazine. The method used is just about the same as Kool-Aid, only this is for solid colored wool roving or spun yarn.

According to the Wilton.com website, they have 30 colors. These are in paste form and are very concentrated (you’ll see as you read on). A little goes a very long way. The article said that spot dyeing can be done with a syringe (minus any needles such as a baby medicine syringe, I tried this but found that I picked up too much dye with the syringe, so make a diluted solution first).

The first time I tried the icing dye I used a skein of sheep’s wool that I had just finished spinning. Make a skein by using a niddy noddy to wind the yarn into a hank (you can also wind on your arm [thumb to elbow] or the back of a straight chair). Tie loosely in four places with scrap yarn. Remember that if you tie it too tight it will resist the dye (just like tie-dye). I had just washed the skein and it had not been dried yet.

Using the glass cake pan, I poured in 4 cups of water and using a dinner knife, dug out some of the dye. Boy, was this a mistake! I put the dye into the water and used a spoon to dissolve the color.

I put the skein into the pan and, as before, pushed it into the water, only using spoons.

This was baked at 300º for 30 minutes. The skein was removed after it had cooled some and I found lots of color left in the pan.

As I rinsed the skein, I found that a lot of color came out in the water, but there was still ample color left in the wool.

Therefore, too much dye in the pan!

I went back and read the article and it said to use a Popsicle stick to get the dye and this was much better. I dipped a Popsicle stick about ½” in and swished the stick in the pan of water until the dye was dissolved. Also this time I added 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of white vinegar, to open the fiber shaft and accept more of the dye. And this time I could see through the dye to the bottom of the pan.

Repeating the skein dyeing as before. When the skein cooled and was rinsed, there was no color left in the water and none rinsed out. The skein color was still dark.

There are other dyeing variations:

Crockpot – similar to the baking method (submerse the skein or roving). Cook on high until the dye bath is exhausted (about 30 to 45 minutes). To cool, I dip some of the water into a smaller container then add the wool. Rinse when cool.

Microwave – same as the baking method, but use a “microwave safe dish”. Submerse in the dye bath and cook on high for 3-minute intervals (cook 3, cool 3, cook 3, etc). Check dye bath for color and when there is no color, cool and rinse.

Stove top – submerse the wool and let it come to a boil, and then take it off the burner. Cool and rinse.

“Sun” dyeing – Mix the dye bath in a large jar, and add the dampened yarn. Put a lid on to keep from making a mess. Place outside in the sun or in your closed car on a warm day. When the dye is exhausted, it’s done. Cool and rinse.

“Trash Bag” dyeing – Dampen the yarn with a mixture of water and vinegar. Squeeze out most of the water and add the paste color directly to the wool with a Popsicle stick. Put into a zip-lock plastic bag and squish the yarn to distribute the color. Use more than one color for a handpainted look. Place inside a black trash bag, twist the top and set in the sun for several hours. Rinse.

Just remember these dyes are permanent and don’t wash out!

Have a good time.