Coloring with Kool Aid

by Lynne of Cozy Cottage Creations

You know the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. In my case, it was more like “Running out of a needed supplies leads to learning something new!” Have you ever had this happen? You think you’ve got oodles and oodles of something, then all of sudden, you notice you’ve used it all up. And you want more. Right away! Well, I had been making a lot of needle felted apples and using a lovely light green roving as an accent fiber. You’d think it would be easy to find, but I discovered quickly that it’s not.

Orders and orders came to my home and, alas, they were never quite the right shade. So, I started poking around on the internet in search for the perfect green. After following link after link I stumbled upon something I had never thought of. Instructions on how to dye my own fiber! This is beyond me, I first thought, but as I perused the list of all the different ways to do it, I found one method that seemed impossibly possible. Did you know you can dye wool with Kool Aid in your microwave oven! It’s true! It’s easy! It’s fun! Here are the simple instructions:

1. Soak 1 oz. of clean white wool fiber in hot water for 10 minutes in a microwaveable dish.
2. Prepare 32 oz. of Kool Aid mixture. You can control the color by experimenting with different amounts of Kool Aid, or mixing colors. I achieved my green with a package of Lemonade mixed with just a few sprinkles of Berry Blue.
3. Pour the Kool Aid mixture over the fiber.
4. Place in the microwave and heat on high for 6 minutes.
5. Once done, let it continue to soak until all the color is absorbed and the water is clear.
6. Lay out on a towel to dry.
7. Use your wonderful new brightly colored wool for your desired purpose!

I can’t tell you how excited I was. The method works for two reasons: there is no agitation involved so the wool doesn’t felt to itself in the hot water, and the high level of vitamin C in the Kool Aid reacts with the wool which causes it to hold the color.

Wow – just when I thought I was having as much fun with wool as a person could have, a new technique to explore comes along. So far, I’ve used my own dyed fiber for apples, strawberries and a few Easter eggs that are in the works. Eventually, I’ll try dying wool with natural foods. I understand onion skins make a gorgeous banana yellow!