Dyeing's All the Rage

When I first heard of dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid last year, I thought, "Wow, so unique, and nobody knows about it but me." I soon found out that everybody BUT me had heard about it, and I was late to the party.

That may be an exaggeration, as I suppose some of you may not have heard about it either. As a matter of fact, I gave a little talk at one of my knit/crochet groups about it not too long ago. Several of them are coming to my house this Saturday to have a "Dyeing Party".


I am not going to give you instructions here on how to dye your yarn because there are some great sites that can do it so much better than I can. What I will do is show you a few things I have dyed, then at the end of the post I will give you links to some of my favorite sites for Kool-Aid dyeing.


Some beginner tips, though, are to use Kool-Aid on animal fibers---not acrylic or cotton, definitely presoak your yarn, and do it with friends. When you gather to dye, enjoyment is increased, depending on the size of your kitchen and the amount of wine you drink.

The first yarns I dyed I did on the stove top, and  I like that method. I've also dyed yarn using the microwave. Other methods include using a crockpot, but I haven't tried that yet.

But by whatever method, I've really gotten addicted to dyeing. I didn't know it would be so much fun. It got started when some friends of some friends dyed their yarn. Then the friends invited me to dye yarn.

Before going to my first dyeing party, I read about KA dyeing on the internet by doing a search. Because I had done my background work, people started looking to me for instruction. I'm by no means an expert. I just pass along what the experts have taught me.

• What a Kool way to Dye, a Ravelry Group, has some of the better resources. Within the group's "Newbies Start Here" forum, you will find links to other sites that I will not repeat here.
• Dye Your Yarn is a brand new web site, and the author has wonderful pictures and tutorials. It is the best site I've seen.  
•  KnitPicks has some tutorials, and the KnitPicks Community has forums on yarn dyeing. I enjoy belonging to this forum. The members are great enablers.

 I am looking forward to my friends coming on Saturday. I've got my yarn ready and the colors picked out. I'm dying to dye.