Dye Day!

                                                   Oh , hey! This is my 100th post!

Time to dye yarn with Grade 5!  I've posted this before, but we use kool-aide to dye the yarn. I soak natural hanks of yarn from Brown Sheep  in vinegar and water overnight, and dye the next day.

After having done this for many years, I think I've finally streamlined this and have it down!  This can be done in one 50 minute class if you are prepared, but more time is better.  The yarn sits in the sun in those baggies for days (I have the students put them out in the morning, and bring back in at the end of the school day). The next class we have in a week, we will rinse and hang the yarn to dry.

Have I mentioned I have 2 fifth grades, both at about 30 students...that's a lot of dyeing!

Yarn dye 5th grade

First week of school has been a whirlwind!!

Between school starting and a huge wedding in Lake Tahoe, with out of state family visitors and weeks of fun activities, it has been pretty crazy staying on top of things!  Last relatives left yesterday, and now I can concentrate on school...that said, I am pretty impressed by what we got done.  At times it felt like I was running a marathon!

So, here is the batch of dyed yarn from the new 5th graders!  I didn't get a shot of it drying on the fence darn it, but here it is hanging in the window of the classroom (this is about a third of it).  The colors are vibrant!

We used only Kool-aide this year!

We soaked the hanks of wool (untreated hanks from Brown Sheep) in a water and vinegar bath for a couple of days first.

Then, the wool is pulled out, coiled on a plastic wrapped table, and the Kool-aide is sprinkled on top.

Coils are put in gallon plastic bags with the child's name on it and set in the sun on the black top play ground.

Bags were brought in at the end of the day and stored for a few days until next class time-rinsing.

I fill three large pails with cool water, the kids pull the yarn out, gently dunk, dunk, dunk...squeeze like milking a cow (don't want to felt it!) then hang it up to dry.  I was amazed that not a DROP of colour came out of the yarn!  It is really really really colour fast, and it soaked up every bit of it!
These will make a hat and two wrist warmers for each child in 4 needle knitting.

WHAT I LEARNED...

The colour of the Kool-aide dye is the colour of the ice cubes on the packet, NOT the colour of the packet itself (thank you Victoria...)

Next year we may mix the Kool-aide with a bit of water to be spooned on the yarn, OR the yarn has to still be pretty wet to soak up the crystals...

It easily takes 2 hours to dye with 30 children.

From the wedding...and baby makes three!
Love my boys...

First finished hat and wrist warmer set of the school year (5th grade 4 needle knitting)!!!  Look at the hand dyed yarn!  I love this, I love how every single child dyed their own wool!  Socks are next (the sock yarn was bought variegated yarn...pre-dyed).  Not every student will finish all three projects, but most will....this is a class of go-getters!

First Day of 2011-12

Oh boy, here we go again!

Probably one of the best opening rose ceremonies yet!  Our new music teacher had faculty and staff singing an African song in 4 parts, and we all came up to the front like a flash mob at the beginning...it was pretty cool, ya had to be there!

I did have one class today, 5th grade.  We just talked about our Summers, I gave them the skinny on the year, then we had some free time...some still had their cross stitch from last year, and were working on those--how fabulous!
What we will be doing in 5th:
 *Last minute addition of pencil roll ups, something we do in 6th grade, but the class has a need, so here we go first thing...pencil roll ups.
 *Dyeing our wool for hats...next week in small groups while others are sewing pencil roll ups.
 *Refresher in knitting and purling and casting on...most should remember, this was a great knitting group.
 *Hats, wrist warmers, socks.
 *Later we will get an old fleece they harvested and card, dye and drop spindle spin it!  I am hopefull to make rock drop spindles...the school has some of the regular kind, but I like the idea of walking down to the river, finding their rock, spinning, then returning that rock.  This may happen in Nov or Dec, we shall see.
 *For those high achievers, or those who are just frustrated with knitting but tried their best, we will crochet a little at the end....it seemed to be all the rage with last year's 5th at the end of the year, so why not?!