Sunday, June 04, 2006

Here's something fun I've been doing the past week or so. First I went to Goodwill and got this:


It was 3.99, marked half-price, so I paid 1.98 for it. It's 100% wool and from Italy. I unraveled it, starting by taking out the side seams and then removing the sleeves and unravled each sleeve, the neck, the back and front separately. I wound it around the legs of a little table I inheirited from my Grandma, then washed each big loop of yarn, hung it up to dry and then wound each one up into a neat skein like this:


Then, through the wonders of the internet and Craftster, I learned how to dye the wool using Kool-Aid. It was so much fun! And so easy. Ridiculously easy. I just soaked the yarn in some warm water, while that was soaking I mixed up 2 packages of Cherry Watermelon Kool Aid with some water and some vinegar, and heated it up on the stove. When it was almost boiling I turned off the burner, popped the wool into the hot Kool Aid and within a few seconds it had magically absorbed the color of the Kool Aid. I put white wool into a pot of bright red Kool Aid and 20 seconds later I had pink wool in a pot of clear water. It's alchemy, I'm convinced of it! So then I cooled it off, rinsed and re-washed the wool, hung it up to dry again, and got this:


That was so much fun, I decided to make some more. This time I mixed up some Berry Blue Kool Aid and (separately) some Mango, and dipped half the skein in each color, and got this:


For some reason this time the blue didn't totally soak up into the wool, there was some light blue water left, so I took the baby skein that came from the neck of the sweater, dunked it into the light blue water, and got a nice little light aqua skein. Blogger doesn't want me to post any more photos, though, so I will have to show that one a different time!

I'm also working away on Lilly's Babette blanket, I'm using 100% merino wool for it, but more of a worsted weight rather than the superfine the pattern calls for. I love how that wool feels going through my hands!

I've also been scrapbooking some, doing my June design team projects, and gearing up for summer vacation which officially began yesterday. I think I'm going to be a busy, busy girl for the next few months!

2 Comments:

Blogger Mary Jo said...

That is amazing what you did with the wool!!

June 05, 2006 7:08 AM  
Blogger Angela said...

Loving the yellow/blue yarn. So clear and crisp!

June 10, 2006 1:02 PM  

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