Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Yarn Dyeing with a Jr. Mad Scientist

A few weeks ago I went over to a friend's house to dye some yarn. Loads of fun and smelled great! *We used Koolaid* I came home with my two hanks of yarn and Boy was excited. Really. He looked at my yarn, looked at me and said (with a smirk of course) "I could do that." Oh yeah kiddo? Game on.
I ordered some blank yarn and bought all the Koolaid I could find, just for him! He was really excited. He kept coming up with colors that he needed... yellow/green for ****, purple/green for ****, cherry/red/purple for ****.    ***Can't put the names in there because he's worried about copyright infringements; Not that he is infringing upon anything, but 'what if someone steals my names Mom?' Sigh.... this kid is killing me. He does have awesome names for his yarn already!
I'm serious. My kid has been super stoked about this. He's watched YouTube videos on how to dye yarn, looked at yarn online, watched other tutorials and even tried to convince me to spend $100 on some cold water dye. Um. No. Let's start with the Koolaid. I'm going to need a coupon or something here soon........
Today was the day! We pre-soaked the yarn before he went to bed last night and soon as he got his math and science done this morning.... we were on it!

I let him do three 440 yard hanks of sock yarn and one of worsted weight... oh man was it fun!! I let him do one all by himself and although I kept telling him 'if you add too much, the colors will muddle...' His answer to that one.. "it's okay, I'll just name it Muddle something or other." Whatever dude.
Our hands are messy, our kitchen is a disaster zone ~ thank goodness for magic erasers!!
But.... when yarn is hanging in the tree outside to dry... who cares how messy it is! We sure had fun!
This one is something very special he made for our favorite Aunt at home in Michigan. **IF she sees this I know she won't tell him! It's a surprise so he says I can't even tell you what koolaid he used! Secret formula or something I guess!
The yarn to the left (fingering yarn) didn't turn out exactly how he wanted so he said I could tell you the name.... are you ready?  Unicorn Barf!
How cool is that? Yarn dangling in a tree? Such a nice wind today to dry these babies right up!
Off we go to the store for more Koolaid.
Sighing loudly....
maybe I should just suck it up and order him the dye.
A little word to the wise here...
wear some gloves!

 
**Mine look soooo much darker in real life. Purple to my knuckles!