Playing with Kool Aid

Saturday afternoon, following a fun Yarn Swap with Vicki, Laurie, Jewel, and Donna, Vicki and I decided to make the best of some old (and slightly smelly) 100% virgin wool from a long ago stash (really, does anyone remember Lee Wards?) and here's what we did We started with this

then we "hanked it up"

After that I mixed up some Orange Flavored Kool Aid with a little warm water until dissolved. We added a quarter of water to the color. Meanwhile, the hanked-up ugly yarn rested in tepid water until it was nice and soaked. We then lowered it carefully into the glass bowl of orange Kool Aid zapped it in the microwave for 2 minutes, squished it down with the spoon; nuked it for 2 more minutes and as it cooled down the last of the color absorbed into the wool and the water became clear!

We then gave it a quick rinse in tepid water (the lovely aroma of orange Kool Aid permeated the air) and hung it up to dry:

Resulting in a totally different yarn (shown here with Tropical Fruit Punch Skein - processed the same day, with the same technique)Somehow I failed to get photos of the red, which is actually a lovely, faded sort of tomatoish red. So, now you see how cool it is to have a yarn swap, exchange for something inspiring, and when you get stuck with your own yarn turn it into something new and magnificent! What's not to love? Thank Goodness it's Tuesday and I have a yarn shop. :-)