I'm a dyed-in-the-wool experimenter. Not everything turns out as expected. Sometimes the whole situation goes amok, and one is left with what might be called a mess. That's how I discovered a process for making a good work sweater.
There's a sweater in my closet that started out in color I don't care for. My plan was to make it teal to hide the royal blue stitches. So a year ago I dyed it with Rit. Rit doesn't work on wool. It ended up a with only a hint of light grey-green, though the blue was not now so prominent. I've read notes recently from several good yarn authorities on dyeing wool with Kool-Aid--it bonds well with the protein fibers. When I found the Kool-Aid trick, I planned to mix a bunch of the colors together to get a brown of some sort.
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| Splotchy sweater after first dye attempt |
With packages of all different flavors I went to work. I shouldn't have skipped so many chemistry classes in high school. In the giant pot of near-boiling Kool-Aid, there
was a color similar to brown. The sweater took the plunge into the pot. About then I realized that four packages might be enough for two balls of yarn, but would certainly not do much for a whole sweater. The color left in the sweater wasn't brown but a very splotchy rose.
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| Could we make a grey sweater with this? |
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| Some of the "dye" packets |
To the store again and back this time with six packs of blue splash raspberry (blue) and six packs of lemonade (yellow). Add to the pot additionally a grape and a cherry. The color was: well take a look for yourself. Actually, grey would be just fine, thank you. Going to every grocery store in town (I checked out all the major chains) to find lime Kool-Aid to turn this stuff brown is
not part of the
Things I get to do today.
The second swim for the sweater did
not make it grey. The dye was absorbed until there was none left in the water, but no grey showed up in the garment. The end result looked, well, like a great sweater to wear in the yard. Wait till the Paris designers get a load of my spring fashions. At least I'm sure the chickens won't be embarrassed to be seen with me.
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| What a lovely color for spring gardening! |
