I had Kool Aid. I had yarn. What monstrosity could I create? Read on dear reader, read on.
Firstly, Kool Aid. Do people actually drink this stuff? Reading the ingredients I realised most of the colourings, with descriptive names such as Red 40 and Blue 1, have been banned from UK foods for several years for inducing hyperactivity in kids. The smell is something else. Imagine the sickliest bubble gum smell combined with artificial strawberry flavour, then multiply it by a gazillion. Despite the weather being cold I had to open the back door to let the relatively fresh London air in.
Would you really drink something this blue?
To be fair this is made up much stronger than the instructions for drinking, but it's still pretty vile. Luckily this technicolour beverage is for dyeing, not drinking. I'm sure there's a bad pun in there with dyeing and dying. Please leave a comment if you think of one.
I made up sachets of Ice Blue Raspberry (as seen above), Lemon-Lime (lurid green), Mango (orange-yellow), cherry (red), Lemonade (pale yellow) and grape (not sure how to describe this, bruise coloured, uninviting black-purple sludge).
I had planned on a fairly tasteful colour way but the excitement, and maybe the noxious fumes, took hold.
Here's the presoaked superwash sockyarn before...
and after.
I applied the colours (except the grape) using a syringe as suggested in this excellent Knitty.com article. I love the colours the Kool Aid has created but am not keen on where some of them have merged, especially the blue and the red, it just looks mucky, not purple as expected. Maybe I bit off more than I can chew using five colours on my second dye experiment. Ah well, it is an experiment.
I'm calling this Mucky Macaw. I'll see how it dries and have a rethink.
Firstly, Kool Aid. Do people actually drink this stuff? Reading the ingredients I realised most of the colourings, with descriptive names such as Red 40 and Blue 1, have been banned from UK foods for several years for inducing hyperactivity in kids. The smell is something else. Imagine the sickliest bubble gum smell combined with artificial strawberry flavour, then multiply it by a gazillion. Despite the weather being cold I had to open the back door to let the relatively fresh London air in.
Would you really drink something this blue?
To be fair this is made up much stronger than the instructions for drinking, but it's still pretty vile. Luckily this technicolour beverage is for dyeing, not drinking. I'm sure there's a bad pun in there with dyeing and dying. Please leave a comment if you think of one.
I made up sachets of Ice Blue Raspberry (as seen above), Lemon-Lime (lurid green), Mango (orange-yellow), cherry (red), Lemonade (pale yellow) and grape (not sure how to describe this, bruise coloured, uninviting black-purple sludge).
I had planned on a fairly tasteful colour way but the excitement, and maybe the noxious fumes, took hold.
Here's the presoaked superwash sockyarn before...
and after.
I applied the colours (except the grape) using a syringe as suggested in this excellent Knitty.com article. I love the colours the Kool Aid has created but am not keen on where some of them have merged, especially the blue and the red, it just looks mucky, not purple as expected. Maybe I bit off more than I can chew using five colours on my second dye experiment. Ah well, it is an experiment.
I'm calling this Mucky Macaw. I'll see how it dries and have a rethink.
Comments