Two weeks back a streak of hot weather and sunny days and leftover yarn from the blanket and a rediscovery of Kool-Aid / Weyler’s in a cabinet make me want to try solar dyeing. My first experience with Kool-Aid Dyeing came out pretty well, though I still haven’t worked up that yarn (or dyed the other skein).
I started with this:
Pretty, but I just didn’t love that brown-gold section.
I started just before 10, and the grape smell was delicious (4 packets of Wylers that I bought at Big Y – I checked Big Y today and they don’t have kool-aid packets.) This was on the front porch.
Around 12:30 I moved the bowl to the driveway – I think that temperature is acutally the temperature of the driveway, not the bowl – it was hard to hold it and get the focus on the camera and take the photo at the same time. Anyway, it was very warm.
Around 2:30, it clouded over and maybe 5 minutes later we had a HUGE thunderstorm with downpours.
Ta-dah! There is still a little hint of the brown-gold, but it doesn’t bother me so much any more. I adore the shade of purple this came out. It might become a Sunday Market Shawl for around the house, or Koolhaas.
I was thinking about doing this the last few days. I was going to use regular dye but since its been so HOT I haven't had the energy to even mix the dyes! Keeping my fingers crossed for some cooler weather. Say maybe 85-89 degrees!
I love the result!