Dyeing Yarn with KoolAid
Dyeing Yarn at Home
Sometimes you need a little bit of a color in your fiber arts projects. Or you cannot find a colorway that is perfect for your new project. Worry no longer! In this lens we'll go through some resources for dyeing yarn at home with common kitchen materials.
The dyeing techniques described in this lens work for dyeing natural wool fibers with kool-aid or food coloring in the comfort of your own kitchen. You will need to use alternate dyeing methods for acrylic and plant fibers. That being said, the technique will work if you are dealing with a wool-acrylic blend. Play around with the yarn you choose to dye and you will see how different brands will dye differently!
What do you need?
Materials, tools, inspiration....
The beauty of dyeing at home is that you can work with what you have!
WOOL: You need some kind of fiber. For dyeing with kitchen items, only 100% wool will take the dye. You can, however, use blends, as you will see in the links I have been able to dye Lion Brand Wool-Ease which is only 20% wool with food coloring. You will not be able to get 100% acrylic to hold with these methods.
DYE: Kool Aid and/or Food coloring (either paste that you dissolve in water or liquid in a dropper, I've used both). You want to make sure that any Kool Aid you use is sugar free! (I wouldn't want ants to try to eat my sweater!)
ACID: You need mildly acidic conditions to get the dye to take to the yarn. The acid source can be the citric acid in Kool Aid pouches, or it can be common white vinegar. Sometimes you may end up using both, as the amount of acid can mildly affect the tone of your color.
HEAT: The second thing you need to set the color to your wool is heat. I tend to use the microwave for handpainted colorways, and the stove top for dip-dyeing and single color batches.
CONTAINER: As you may have gathered from the heat section, you will need to have something to put the wool in when you are heating it. This can be a plate with seran wrap over it for the microwave, or a pot.
SAFETY: The only real personal danger here is burns. BUT the less dangerous danger is coloring yourself. I recommend using latex gloves just to keep your hands their flesh color. Use oven mitts when touching hot pots or plates coming out of the microwave. I will cover my work area with plastic bags or seran wrap so my art project doesn't leave stains on the work surface.
TIP: Before you begin
It helps to pre-soak your wool before you start the dyeing process. This helps the dye bath absorb evenly to the yarn.
Where to buy Kool-Aid Packets Online
My personal grocery store only carries 4 flavors of Kool-Aid. I found myself searching the city for others, and then eventually going online.
Handpainted Rainbow Colorway with Kool Aid
A specific example
As described on my blog at www.chemknits.com
I started with experimenting with Lion Brand Wool Ease yarn, and I wanted to try to make a rainbow handpainted colorway. To remind you, Wool Ease is only 20% wool, but as you will see that is enough for your kitchen dyeing to take hold. I loosely followed the protocol from Pea Soup, but I did not use nearly as much food coloring as they did.
ACID: KoolAid served as the basis for the acid in this project, no additional acid (vinegar) was used. (This is going to smell so yummy!)
THE YARN:
1 ball of Wool Ease was wound into a skein, and then soaked in room temperature water until it was completely saturated (a couple of hours should be sufficient. Make sure you check the inside of the skein, or you could end up with white patches like in a tie-dyed shirt)
THE TOOLS: A garbage bag over the work station (my kitchen table) a 10 mL syringe that I had from lab, but you don't really need anything to apply, you can just pour, small glasses (shot glasses will do), a microwave safe plate and seran wrap. Don't forget to protect your hands or they may change color too!
SETTING UP THE DYES: Red (2 packets Cherry Kool-Aid), Blue (2 packets Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade) and yellow (1 packet lemonade). Each were dissolved in 1/4 cup water. With a 10 mL syringe that I took from lab, I transferred 10-12 mL of each primary color into three smaller glasses. (9 glasses total) I then would use some McCormick food coloring, standard and NEON! varieties, to create my rainbow.
I then mixed the colors as follows (where 1 refers to the Big cup):
- Blue 1 - 10 drops of NEON blue
- Blue 2 - 5 drops NEON purple
- Blue 3 - 8 drops NEON pink, 5 drops NEON blue
Now looking at the liquid you cannot get a real sense of the colors. I dipped a fork into each dye sample, and made a mark on a paper towel to see how the colors came out.
The order to bring the best rainbow: R1, R2, R4, B2, B3, B1, B4, Y3, Y2, Y1, Y4, R3
APPLYING THE DYE: As I mentioned previously, I covered my kitchen table with trash bags and then covered them with paper towels to absorb any dye spills. I placed some seran wrap on the work space, and then put the skein in the center.
I applied the dye to the skein in sections (think about making a tie dyed T-shirt). You want to make sure you work the dye through the entire section by lightly pressing with my fingers, so that it reaches the middle of that portion of the skein. Of course, part of the beauty of hand painted yarn is that the repeats are not identical, so play around with this. After I applied all of my colors to the skein, I went through and with my fingers pushed the die so there would be some blending at color junctions, and so there would be no white spaces.
APPLYING THE HEAT TO SET THE COLOR: In this next step you want to try to keep parts of the skein separate so there isn't bleeding of the colors. Wrap up the skein with plastic wrap as best as you can, place it on a microwave safe plate and cover the plate with more plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 5 min (or until you hear it boiling) and then allow the plate and yarn to cool until you can touch it comfortably. Repeat this process. Make sure that the yarn is still wet during this whole process, if needed add some more (clear) water.
REMOVE THE EXCESS DYE: Allow the yarn to cool completely. Rinse the skein in lukewarm water until the water runs clear. Use some mild soap (dish soap is fine) and rinse the skein thoroughly. You may have a lot of dye to rinse out, or only a little. Hang the yarn to dry.
The colors have dimmed a bit, but remember that I was working with 80% acrylic, 20% wool yarn. If you were working with 100% wool the colors would be VIBRANT.
Look how pretty the final ball looks!
Where I purchase Undyed Wool
- KnitPicks
I buy yarn from KnitPicks for almost all of my projects. It is very affordable and a pleasure to knit with - A search for Undyed Wool
In early 2010, I did a search for undyed wool on my blog. Some of these price ranges may be out of date, but it worth checking out to see what other sources are available.
Photos from my first 100% Wool Colorway - Following the same procedure as the rainbow colorway above
Click thumbnail to view full-sizeDyeing Recipes by ChemKnits - With KoolAid and Beyond!
Some use KoolAid as the acid source, others use food coloring and vinegar, and the rest use a combination
- Hand Dyed Wool-Ease Yarn
It's only 20% wool, but that 20% can be dyed with Kool Aid just fine! - Hand Dyed with Wool Ease 2
Lion Brand Wool Ease Yarn - making more colors - Rainbow Colorway with Kool AId
Instead of making a single color in one pot, this yarn is hand painted to create a rainbow - Blue to Green
Wool-Ease yarn is colored in a blue to green colorway (hand painted) - First 100% wool coloway
Using KnitPicks Palette yarn (the undyed version), I used similar colors from blue to green in the previous link. This is the yarn that is highlighted in a photo slide on this lens - Dinky Dyeing
Small bits of 100% wool are dyed to act as accessories for snowmen and other holiday ornaments. - Dyeing for Oven Mitts
Worsted weight 100% wool is dyed to use in a felting project. See what happens to the colors after the felting has happened. - The Color Purple
People claim to have difficulty achieving the purple color when dyeing their own yarn. Here I take a scientific approach to what goes into a good purple yarn. - Bumble Yellow
I dyed some yellow to be a part of my bumble bee (free pattern) - Tea Dyed
I used tea to create more muted colors when combined with food coloring - Dip Dyeing
I explore dip dyeing instead of the handpainted technique I'm fond of. - Dyeing Wool Ease 3
Part 3 - creating colors for my 10 hour afghan - Dyeing Wool Ease 4
Part 4 - creating colors for my 10 hour afghan - Dyeing for Hedgehogs
I needed colors for the snout and nose-tip.
Photos of Projects with Handmade Yarn - Created by ChemKnits
Click thumbnail to view full-sizeProjects created with Hand Dyed Yarns - Some examples produced by ChemKnits
- 10 Hour Remnant Afghan
This wasn't created COMPLETELY out of hand dyed yarn, but I had so much white wool-ease left over after making a sampler afghan, that I dyed a bunch of it to turn into this thick cozy rainbow of a blanket. (Free Pattern is included) - NHM #7
These Scandinavian mittens were knit with an electric blue to yellow colorway as the contrast color, black as the main. You get a beautiful stained-glass like effect. - Butterfly Finger Puppet
Wings alive with a beautiful blue-green color (also is a free pattern!) - Butterfly Knitting Pattern
This owe you cannot stick your finger into - Housewarming Oven Mitts
How do the colors hold up after felting? - Starfish
It looks like a variegated yarn was used, but I really just used 3 different similarly colored purple/blues - Jar of Eyeballs
The Iris' were all from hand-dyed yarns
ColorSense

So this is not a book just for knitters, but it is important to think of color combinations and how they work. This is something that I have trouble with.
This book is a FANTASTIC reference. It not only discusses color theory, but gives pages and pages of examples. There are monochromatic, two color, three color, complementing color, contrasting anything you can imagine. Flipping through the pages looking at the color examples gives me so much inspiration. It is inspiring me to dye yarn, to knit colorways...
This lens earned a purple star on 12/08/2010!
Natural Dyeing

I have been experimenting with dyeing my own yarn. I checked these books out of the library to learn about more traditional (i.e. non-Kool-Aid) dyeing methods.
Natural Dyeing contains vibrant illustrations and step by step instructions for each of the dying projects. For each of the 31 dyes described, wool treated with each mordant type are shown, which gives a beginner like me a sense on how much you can vary color with different salts. There is a color chart index, listing all of the colors shown in the book. The instructions are clear for describing how to optimize dye uptake with different fibers.
Where to Buy Food Coloring
Handpainted yarns
Would you rather make your own or support another artist?
What color should I dye next? - Tell me what you think!
PS - How did you get the "This lens won the purple star" box? I got one the other day, and I'd love to post this cute box on the lens...
Ooh, I don't know but I wish you could come to my house and do it! This looks fun!
Great tutorial. My daughter has dyed wool and alpaca fiber this way. Very economical and safe.
I'm just getting into wool.. spinning and the like and am going to have to dye my own wool soon.. I'm looking forward to this! :) Blessed!
I love the purple ones....greens are also good!
These really come out great
I love this, great instructions and photos. Great lens. Blessed by The Squid Angels Epic Back To School Bus Trip!
Another fantastic lens! Getting lensrolled to my knitting lenses. :)
I really enjoyed this lens. During my Girl Scout days, I made and dyed paper. I never thought to dye my own wool.
You sure deserved that purple star this is an excellent instructional lens. It has wonderful pics so full of the colors of the rainbow. Great!
Just wanted to let you know that this lens is now featured on Celebrating Teachable Moments http://www.facebook.com/teachable
Fascinating! Of course I knew that Jello stained clothing but it never occurred to me to use it to dye wool. What a cleaver idea! Thank you for all the wonderfully detailed instructions as well.
Blessed by a SquidAngel!
What a fabulous project! April Fool's blessings today, and featured on Blessed by Tandemonimom!
Didn't know you could dye things with kool-aid!
With Love and Gratitude,
Jeremiah
Amazing lens - never would have thought of trying to dye my own yarns! Big Thumbs up and Like from me!
I read about dyeing yarn with Koolaid but never got around to it. Now that I have stumbled upon your lens and lensrolled into The Joy of Wool Felting, I am also dusting it with Angel magic.
This lens makes me smile. Liked and blessed too.
What is Koolaid?
@indigoj: Oops, I don't know why it does that. By the way, congratulations Dr Chem! :)
It's a pity we don't have KoolAid here, this looks like so much fun!
It's a pity we don't have KoolAid here, this looks like so much fun!
I'm loving this lens and many of your others too. I'll be back, I need to make time for projects like these.
Wow! This is fabulous! I have never actually heard of dyeing yarn with koolaid before. Awesome!
Great lens, I love the idea to use Kool Aid... I never thought that it's good for drinking anyway :) Congrats on Purple Star!
I knew Kool Aid had some other uses besides drinking it (it's not really that useful that way). Cool looking yarn- nice work!
Congrats on the purple star ... well-deserved. Blessed!
Nice lens - -blessed!
PS. Your projects are beautiful
What a great lens! I am on the threshold of dyeing! I mean, I just bought some undyed wool. I don't have any dye yet, and I think I will try this KoolAid technique - thanks to your instructions. Hee hee,, I like the jar of eyeballs!
really cool lens and a great idea for using kool aid as a dye
R - these are stunning! it's really fun going through all of your new stuff!!
Great lens! Congratulations on the purple star...this lens was good enough for it! :) I love the way you explained the steps, it makes me want to dye my own yarn.
*blessed*
I always hated when the koolAid powder spilled on the counter and stained it. Never thought about using it to dye things though! Very KOOL...hahaha!
Congratulations, I think I have burst now! lol....It is very clever and definitely something I would try with my daughter called Rebecca too!
Whoa this is really cool I knew that you could use kool aid to make play dough but not dye yarn that's super! and i bet it smells amazing too :)
Congrats on the purple star award on this lens, very well deserved! Great job! :)
Great step by step tutorial! I've never dyed yarn before, only embroidery flosses, but mostly the same process.
Thanks for this lens! I have always wondered about how to do this, but never found a good place for directions!
This looks so easy and the results are beautiful. Your finished knitted creations are immaculate!
This looks really fascinating. What is it about koolaid that makes it work? I don't think I can get koolaid here in Australia, so I'd have to look for a substitute.
I love dyeing fabric but hate the toxicity of it. I wish Kool-Aid would dye cotton! My mom is a spinner, though, and has been wanting to dye some fleece. And I've been wanting to try Kool-Aid dyeing. Maybe I could get her to try this. Great lens!
Wow, that is really ... kool! I never knew you could dye with Kool Aid, but it does make sense. Really creative.
I'm no knitter, but the title of your lens sure got my attention. How creative and original!
Well I do know that Kool-Aid makes a good dye because my friend's daughter used different colors of it on her hair for Halloween one year instead of the usual Halloween hair coloring. The color was so permanent that she had to grow her hair out and cut it off to get rid of her neon colored hair. Very neat lens.
What a brilliant idea. I would have never thought of using Kool Aid for a dye. :)
Very enjoyable lens with a ton of focused info- excellent and angel blessed.
Awesome lens! So pretty! I'd love to see some more examples of different colour combinations though!
Purple! This is a great lens. Dyeing yarn looks like a lot of fun (and a lot of work.)
I'll have to try this one day.
purple! This looks like lots of fun. Hope you don't confuse it with kool aid! haha.
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