Manic Monday

So, what do you do when you should work on Memorial Day, but you don't want to because everyone else has a holiday? You do 7 loads of laundry while dyeing self-striping yarn with KoolAid!

Step-by-step directions for KoolAid dyeing:

1. I used Bare Merino Wool Fingering Weight yarn from Knitpicks. First I used the needles I was going to knit my socks to knit one row with the undyed yarn. Then I measured the length of the piece of yarn that it took to knit that row. (My length was 26 inches.)

2. I decided that I wanted to use three colors and have each color span two rows. So, I placed two dining chairs 156 inches apart and wound all the yarn around them while avoiding feline marauders. The yarn then soaked in luke warm water and a glug (yes, that is an exact quantity!) of vinegar.


3. I then mixed up my three colors of KoolAid. The three jars below contain (from left to right): 4 packets Orange plus 1/2 packet Black Cherry, 4 packets Lemon-Lime plus 1/2 packet Black Cherry, 2 packets Black Cherry.


4. These jars were placed in a big pot that I filled up about halfway with water on the stove (next to my treasured Chantal tea kettle). The yarn was marked off in thirds and each third was placed in a jar. The water was brought to a boil and simmered until the yarn soaked up all the dye.


5. After the yarn cooled, it was rinsed and dried on a wooden rack.

Then I placed the yarn around a couple chairs again and got completely dizzy while winding it all into a ball.


I'm liking the way this yarn looks in the chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.