Try Dying...yarn that is

I thought it would be a Christmas break fun project for the kids to dye some yarn with Koolaid. So I bought 4 skeins of wool and LOTS of Koolaid and gave it as a Christmas present. Well, somehow they had trouble seeing the fun in it that I saw. "Oh yarn....thanks (?)" But attitudes changed when we got down to doing it (after a week of my begging -- "Can we dye yarn today?").

First up, Kid-A. She jumped in quite eagerly...mixing colors...splish-splashing spots all over the yarn. Then we moved the yarn too much and the colors started to bleed all together. We were kind of disappointed that the bright reds and oranges and yellows mushed into a tomato color. I quickly started making promises to order more yarn for another attempt. Disappointment hit a low point when we put the yarn on a plate to cool and it looked like raw hamburger! The yarn was unimpressive as it hung to dry Monday and Tuesday, but when I started to roll it into a ball, it began to show possibilities. Today, she is wearing a pair of socks that she loves! All the different shades really showed up in the knitting and she feels tons of pride in knowing she dyed it herself!

Dye-job #2, Kid-B. After watching the "hamburger" accident, he was much more careful to place his dye in three distinct sections: blue, orange, and black. I wound the ball last night, and it looks like a nicely varigated yarn. His only disappointment is that his "black" looks more purple-ish (it was made from grape) but I think we'll be happy. Originally I didn't think he'd like a pair of hand-knit socks, but we'll see...

Dye-job #3, Kid-S. She's the art student in the family. So she VERY carefully placed her colors and mixed. This is a new medium for her, but she seemed to enjoy it. I'll be starting a moebius wrap today out of the yarn -- we're all very curious to see how that turns out!

Dye-job #4, Kid-K. She's the engineer-minded child. She wanted larger stripes in blue and green, so she spent our whole dying time re-winding her yarn around our bannister...up and down...up and down...up and down and created a very large loop of yarn -- only to find out we were out of blue Koolaid. She'll dye another day. No rush however, because she'll want to knit the socks herself, and she already has a pair on the needles!