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...