Koolaid dyeing is safe, fun, and quick. If you you find you enjoy dyeing with Koolaid, the process is not so different than with commercial dyes, but you are safe to dye in the kitchen with kitchen equipment. The yarn for the granny square in the picture was dyed with Koolaid in this process.
You'll need:
A metal, ceramic or glass bowl to soak the fibers
A counter to spread out the fiber for painting
A steamer (bamboo, or a double boiler type steamer is better than the foldable metal steamers that go inside a pot.)
Plastic spoons and small plastic containers for mixing up the liquid dye
New/clean foam brushes in 1-2" widths
Plastic wrap or lightweight plastic sheeting
1-4 ounces of yarn, roving, loose fleece or 1 yd+/- piece of fabric
Koolaid or similar brand of unsweetened drink mix, in desired colors, 4-8 packets or so
White vinegar, maybe 1-2 cups
Koolaid works best on protein, or animal fibers like wool, silk and alpaca. (Plant fibers can be dyed with Koolaid, but with less success. Here's a link to a thorough study, with some suggestions for best results .)
1. Fabric, yarn (skeined), roving and loose fiber can be dyed in the same way. To prepare for dyeing, soak fibers in a bowl with hot tap water and vinegar for about 20 minutes. Use about 1/2 cup vinegar to a gallon of water. New fabrics require simmering with some dish soap to get rid of stabilizers before soaking.
2. Make a paste of the Koolaid, by adding a small amount of hot tap water and mixing til no more powder is left. This is the most intense color; by adding more water you get more dye, but lighter color. A good starting point is one package of Kool-Aid per one ounce of fiber. Add just enough hot water to make a paintable consistency.
3. Squeeze out as much soak water as you can, and lay out wet fabric, yarn or fiber in a thin layer on a sheet of plastic wrap. Using a foam brush, apply the dye directly to the fiber. This method allows you to use as many colors as you wish. Work the dye into the fiber and flip it over to be sure it has saturated both sides.
4. Fold the fiber up in the plastic sheeting and fold securely into a packet. Use tape to secure it if needed. Put the packet in a steamer and steam for 30-45 minutes, depending on how full the steamer is. This sets the dye on the fiber.
5. Remove packets from the steamer and let cool for a bit. Put the dyed fiber in a bowl with hot water and rinse til no more dye rinses out. Hang to dry.
I have been a professional fiber artist for over 20 years and of all the many processes involved in fiber, dyeing is the most magical. I used to have a large studio with a dedicated dye kitchen, because I designed, sewed and dyed clothing, and then when I went into felted garments, I started dyeing wool too.
I’ve lost my studio, in the end due to climate change and flooding, so I am in a rented space sharing a tiny bathroom with my dye kitchen . But dyeing must continue! If only in a limited form.
This is the smallest, simplest setup to professionally dye animal fibers that I’ve found. Plant fibers require different dyes and processes that are not as easy in a small residential bathroom.
Wool is also magical in all its forms, and it’s an ideal fiber to dye because it takes color up beautifully, it’s light and quick drying and the dye bath “exhausts” or transfers all the dye to the fiber. This means much less waste dye that can stain your fixtures when washing up afterwrds
If you are a spinner, I recommend dyeing your own fiber. “Dyed in the wool” means consistency all the way through, and you will get unique yarn that is all your own. Wool commercial yarns are equally wonderful and unique and I’ve got instructions on how to prep both below.
Dyeing Process prep
This system requires very little room or time and with a little care, will not stain your counter, sink or bathtub and will give you great results - beautiful even saturated color. It is also safe, though keeping kids and pets away is recommended during a dyeing day, so a lockable door is handy.
My process uses acid dyes, available from Dharma Trading, Pro Chem or Earth Guild. You can get Jacquard acid dyes at JoAnn’s or similar chain store, but you will get less concentrated colors. However, they are fine to practice with and see if they work for you. I’d advise you to avoid Rit, which is not “fast” in light or wash.
Acid dyes usually come as a powder that has to be mixed with water to use. This is the only part of the process that has safety precautions, so please tune in to the next installment on what you need to do to mix liquid dyes. Mixed dyes will keep in a refrigerator for several months if necessary, with safety precautions taken to keep the containers separate from food.
Equipment needed
A slow cooker/crockpot with a thermometer probe
The slow cooker is the most important part of the setup. A cooker with a timer and probe setting will mean you can walk away from it and do other things without having to monitor the temperature.
I have a 10 year old Hamilton Beach model I bought for $60 and it seems they hold a patent on the probe. An Amazon link is below for a model they have in stock. It is more now, about $80, but if you don’t want to spring for it, you’ll need the optional cooking thermometer.
Another model slow cooker will work if it can hit and hold a temperature of 180-200ºF for about an hour. You can repurpose a used crockpot, but you should not ever use that porcelain insert or lid ( or the thermometer) for food again.
To dye 4 ounces of fiber, the cooker will need to hold about 4000 ml comfortably, or about 1 gallon. A 6 quart cooker works fine.
Hamilton Beach 6QT Set & Forget Programmable Slow Cooker (33969A)
Submersible cooking thermometer ( optional. See slow cooker info above) Digital thermometers are perfect here, but if you are stuck with an old fashioned one, be sure the range of 100-200º can be clearly read, preferably in 20º increments.
Crockpot bags are similar to oven bags, and either can be used for dyeing. Be sure they are big enough to fit in the cooker.
2-4 Plastic containers with screw-on lids and 2-3 measuring cups in different sizes able to hold 100-500ml, or about 1/4 cup - 2 cups. Measurements on the side are essential.
A pitcher with measurements on the side, holding 1000ml or about a quart
4-6 Plastic spoons for mixing and stirring dyes
A set of measuring spoons (optional if using dye additives below)
A spoon with a long handle for stirring and lifting fiber in the pot
A plastic storage bin lid, preferably with a flat top, to use upside down, giving you a ledge to keep drips corralled. Be sure it fits on your counter with your cooker and a little newspaper covered workspace inside the lid.
A plastic colander and a plastic washtub to wash and drain the dyed fiber.
A deep plastic container that fits in your sink to hold utensils and containers that are covered in dye or additives for later washing, AND a large plastic funnel to keep waste dye water out of your sink or tub. I just use an empty gallon jug (white vinegar is usually in such a sturdy container) to cut in half and the top makes a perfect funnel while the bottom is my waste jug.
None of the above utensils or equipment should be used with food after it has been used for dyeing.
Materials and additives
Up to 4 ounces of fiber roving, or yarn made of wool, silk or other animal fibers. Fabric will be too bulky for this scale of setup.
About 250ml of liquid dye, per 4 ounces of fiber, about a cup, for a medium dark color result
1 tsp Sodium acetate (optional additive to hold acidity)
1 Tbs Glaubers salt (optional additive to ensure take-up)
50-75ml white vinegar, about 1/4 cup
4000 ml water
About colors
Mixing colors is it’s own long subject, but if you break the 250ml of dye into 100 of one color and 150 of another, you can get complex color mixes. Use primary colors to avoid browns. Use less dye to get lighter colors. Surprisingly beautiful results can happen.
Here is a quick tour of my tiny bathroom dye kitchen.
Preparing your yarn for dyeing
For best results, you should be dyeing white yarn or fiber. Yarn should be set up as a skein, with 4 figure-eight ties to keep it organized while dyeing. Be sure it's loose, as shown in the closeup, so the strands aren't packed together.
Here is a video about preparing fleece for dyeing
The next Dyeing in a Tiny Bathroom post will cover mixing powder into liquid dyes. I've added a new post for those not yet ready to dive into serious dyeing - Koolaid dyeing! Click here for the easiest dyeing you can do at home.
Then we’ll start dyeing! Follow me here, Instagram or Mastodon to get alerted to new installments.
Update 1/16/23
(h/t @Midnightjaz )
I have a wholesale account for PFD (prepared for dyeing) yarn, with Henry's Attic, and they have an amazing array of choices in all the fibers.
But most of you will never need to buy in bulk, so I have GREAT news for you - Dharma Trading is carrying Henry's Attic yarns now on their website, no need to get a wholesale account. DT is also the best source for dyes and additives. If my dye process doesn't work for you, they have a good knowledgebase of instructions for many fiber techniques.
My favorite HA wool yarns to dye are their Superwash Merino yarns- machine washable, like Smartwool - like Kona or Zohar. Great color take-up and wonderful yarns!
And, if a rabbit hole into tie dyeing appeals, Dharma Trading is the tie-dye guru.
I wrote this post earlier this year but forgot to post it. It's pretty much true still, though I am just getting around to selling my house now and there are a few updates noted below. More news to come soon.
~~~~~~~~~~ 1/15/22
Nice Threads has been my business for 20 years or so now, and I can’t imagine not being busy with the fiber business 24/7, but as I mentioned in my last blog post, many things have changed for me. I no longer have a large studio suitable for making felted clothing, and in fact, I’ll have to sell my house/studio this summer and move permanently out of the Asheville area. I hate to leave the crafts and fiber community behind that I’ve loved, but I just can’t afford a house in the mountains anymore.
I am out of area for the SHCG, and therefore will no longer be a member of the guild. This was not by choice. But, I am still a member of Piedmont Craftsmen, a great group of artists based in Winston-Salem, and hope to be making other connections in this area soon.
I’ve been taking time to look through my inventories and come up with a way to get them out there without doing craft shows and festivals, and I’ve got the beginnings of a plan.
I’ve actually got 5 different lines of products, each with a different market, and not all will translate well to an online web store. Here they are with my tentative plan to market them:
Felt Garments & Accessories - This has been my high end line of Art to Wear, and my main business for the last 14 years. Unfortunately, I can no longer make large pieces so these 30 items will be the last in this collection. These pieces need to be seen in person and individually fitted, since felted garments have a completely different drape and wearability compared to woven or knitted items. They also don’t do well in shops, without a sales staff familiar with felt like I am. Unfortunately, I can’t physically do craft shows anymore - too much stress to set up and break down, and stand constantly for 3-4 days. But I could do trunk shows, in a shop, or other venue and give everyone a chance to touch and try on. I’m also open to some travel. Let me know if this sounds interesting.
Felted Bags and Baskets - I have been developing this lineup as a way to continue felting items that would sell in shops and online - no sizes or fitting required! I have a few bags on my webstore for sale and will be adding more as I get all my other ducks in a row [Update: I have 3 bags in the Piedmont Craftsmen's shop in Winston-Salem, and I'm making more right now for the shop site.]
River Daughters Festival Clothing - I recently revived this line of my designs, sewn in linens and silks and dyed in bright colors, perfect for music festivals and parties. Even though these are more easily sized, they will still be harder to sell online, so a plan to do nearby events is percolating. More news on this to come. [Update: maybe in the fall].
Crocheted and Knitted items - Normally I would just knit or crochet for myself, but when I closed the shop, I had so many dyed and spun yarns that I started working my way through them. Scarves, mitts and hats, in hand-spun and commercial yarns, will be up on the webstore as they get finished. There’s a few items up there from this winter, but keep checking back.
Yarns and things - I’ve begun to post my hand-dyed commercial and hands-on yarns, hand-dyed fleece for spinning and Twin Birch drop spindles on the webstore and will add more as I go along.
OMG, can I just stop working? NO, really, I can’t. So I ease into truly being retired and worry, what will I do with myself? I’m pretty sure I will continue to dye and spin and knit and crochet and maybe some small felting and weaving - but not too much!
For the last several years I've gone to the Nice Threads Facebook page to communicate with the outside world rather than here in the blog. But FB is great for quick takes and great photos, not much for personal messages. Since November 2019, I have been on hiatus from public shows, workshops and openings, as much of the world has done, from necessity to stay alive. Nearly two years have passed and a lot has changed for everyone. That phrase "outside world" has a more poignant meaning too as we enter the second wave of the pandemic. This is the first time I've tossed a message in a bottle out into that sea.
During that two years, I lost my basement studio to climate change and the development of my Black Mountain neighborhood. In 2016 it had started to flood frequently, due to much heavier rainfall, construction next door and the removal of about 20 huge hemlock trees across the street that protected my house downhill from the elements. Inevitably, with the increased heat, mold began to take over and now it needs remediation before I could re-use it. Just in time for lumber and all construction materials to skyrocket in cost. For that and other reasons, I'm selling my house as soon as I can make it habitable.
I have been staying with a friend in Hickory and I was glad to be in a two-person, three-kitty pod during lockdown and not by myself. What was a temporary move has become permanent, and I've moved the very basics of my fiber studio into the dining room of my rented suite of rooms. I can still spin, weave, knit and crochet, and even some small batch dyeing here, but large scale felting, as I have done for the last 20 years, is now out. And frankly, my back was starting to feel it too. I hate to leave Black Mountain and the Asheville fiber community but big change was in the cards.
The market for craft has changed along with the rest of my life, and that has been happening for awhile too. High end art to wear has become a difficult sell in a world where no one goes out anymore. I've been concentrating on less pricey crocheted pieces which are easy to fit into my small space, and I've started sewing again too. I had to - pandemic baking rendered my summer shorts drawer into the "not until I'm skinnier" drawer. Churning out more capacious shorts reminded me of my first fiber business, River Daughters, selling tie-dyed clothing, that I designed, sewed and dyed, at music and other outdoor festivals. I still have inventory and even signed up for a festival this fall in Florida. Which I probably won't go to after all, if the COVID crisis down there doesn't taper off. I am putting up some of my River Daughters pieces on the website, just in case. Check them out if you like.
So we learn and adapt and try again. Life changes a lot in two years. It will change again in the next two years. We have to get used to it. But the practice of the fiber arts will always be reassuring, familiar part of life for me. And I hope, for you too.
Among the many failings of our European hegemony has been the idea of Empire, both state and religious, in geographic terms in early history and in economic terms now. If your culture is great, then it will be greater when you force it on another population. The belief in manifest destiny has led to the domination of white culture across the globe, with an incredible myopia about the consequences.
Speaking to a good friend at a party back in the 90s, the discussion turned to products beginning to be made in new factories in Africa and SE Asia. This friend is a boomer male, white, well educated, of old established New England heritage. Probably socially liberal and a libertarian in other ways, but not vocal about it. But this was a party. He was telling us about his new plastic home improvement product being made in an unnamed country in Africa. He said how much good it was doing the “African villagers” to have employment. As a textiles person, I knew that traditional textile crafts in many countries in Africa are being discarded due to the demands of factory jobs. What were originally handmade, culturally symbolic garments of tribal affiliations and histories were being replaced with US used clothing that is shipped over there in bales and sold for pennies. An immense part of their culture is destroyed in the process. I mention this cultural loss to him and he says, smiling, "you can teach it back to them!"
My jaw dropped.
How could I possibly know the millennia of meaning that is woven into those fabrics? Every thread is a meditation on their lives - they take their blessings from the earth around them. There is plenty to do, but time to do it. Family and tribe are inseparable from their identity and everyone in the family is involved in the textile process. Their patterns are handed down, from mother to daughter and father to son, for generations untold. They wear their heritage proudly and other communities know and honor them and their history. The rich results are now familiar - sold to the wealthy in the western world, but too dear for the tribal population - in Ghanian strip weaving, also known as Kente cloth, and Mudcloth dyeing from Mali, just to name a few from the African continent.*
Textile collectors know the term “trade blankets.” Those are produced mainly by Pendleton, with Indian motifs interpreted by white mill designers. The mill proudly claims that Native Americans use them at their pow wows and ceremonies and that the blankets represent “a visual statement of Indianness.”** The truth is, trade blankets were once produced by the native population for their own use, but sold outside the trading posts to the white settlers when the colonizers began to dominate the west. A post owner suggested changes to the Native colors and designs - again, traditional designs and colors, handed down through the generations with cultural meaning - that would make them more attractive to European eyes. Needing the money in those desperate times, the Native weavers made the changes and now, those white-approved patterns are the tradition. The mills reinterpret the patterns and sell them back to their originators, a perfect capitalist success story. The ancient symbols that once were woven into their blankets are all but lost to history.
This in a nutshell is what has happened over and over again, this genial paternalism that assumes that whites will determine what is valuable to keep and what can be allowed to the 'conquered' indigenous people. For they have been conquered, just as native peoples in every continent have been conquered. These days, we do it economically. The villagers' landscape is being re-shaped to fit global interests and they are being pushed inexorably into an economy and culture that holds no meaning to them. Abruptly changing to a western lifestyle has led to depression, crime, domestic violence, drugs and alcohol abuse.
The spread of white European empire has been ruinous for indigenous cultures, without exception. With the 21st century dawning, I think we will see many cultures re-blooming, as the white hegemony fails and indigenous cultures reclaim their heritage, without our help, thank you. Those stories are starting to be retold. You can see it in the upsurge in Native tribal political actions and in the huge success of the Black Panther movie. These groups see the world in a radically different way that we can’t hope to understand without stopping and truly seeing its value. Empire is not the way to the future but a dead-end, meaningless churn of commerce and exploitation. Community and connection to the earth can be a better path. Maybe we should listen to them instead.
* A delightful compendium of the best known textile traditions of the African continent with lots of images:
My Anything Fiber Sale table, piled with goodies - cheap!
My mother would laugh so hard if she knew of my current involvement with one rather large yard sale, of which we all know. She was a yard sale queen. She roped me into helping her and it was always fun because she made it fun, but one thing drove me crazy. She would put out her knick knacks to sell and price them too high - $20 - 30. Worse, she’d put out her jelly jars and old dirty ashtrays and mark them at $2-5 each. Mom’s addiction to knick knacks was legendary and she would buy up other people’s stuff and resell it at her own sale with a hefty markup. Maybe there was a budding merchant instinct in her, but she rarely sold much of anything. I thought at the time she didn’t want to let her things go, but couldn’t admit it.
She also had a lot of expensive fine craft objects, paintings and other nice decorative things, quite a collection. Every closet was filled with boxes and bags of stuff, many things in their original packaging, never opened. Mom confided in me once that she planned to sell it all if she needed the money. Of course, that was relevant since she was an older divorced woman. That was the moment when I saw that these objects held a protective power for her. In the end, she didn’t sell any of it, and I had to clear out her house and get rid of all the wonderful furnishings and decorative stuff. I thought she would probably be sad about it, but she made me executor, so she had to know what I'd do.
And, naturally I had a yard sale, though it was now an estate sale, so we had a good turnout. I marked everything to sell. A nickel. A dime, A quarter. The most expensive thing was around $10 but nearly everything else was a dollar or less. It was a madhouse, a buying frenzy the likes of which I had never seen before. People were bidding on each box as I carried it out of the house, sight unseen. We got rid of nearly everything, though my sisters and I still have a lot of her art and craft collection.
In a way, I had my revenge on my mom for her cautious yard sale pricing, and felt vindicated and not a little self-righteous. But really, there was a thrill in seeing people’s excitement as they got something wonderful for so little. And something once loved is loved again.
So that is the back story of my connection to yard sales. Along the way, I also have had experience and training in producing events like concerts and big meetings. I’ve done several Convergences as vendor coordinator, and have been a craft vendor myself in many, many shows, large and small. So it was fate and the universe pushing me in that direction, not me setting out to do this.
I have seen buying frenzies again - every year! - at the Anything Fiber Sale, and excited people bubbling over about their great buys and good sales. In setting that in motion, I am content. But my mother is cackling in my ear!!
As an adherent of the practice of traditional fiber arts, I notice when books, TV or movies represent those practices. Sometimes it’s embarrassing - I cringed during the Mists of Avalon mini-series scene depicting spinning as the actress pedals at top speed hunched over a castle wheel, clutching finished yarn at the orifice, letting it take up on the bobbin and then yanking back on it. No drafting, no fiber, just have her pedal the hell out of a modern wheel and call it spinning.
Just a few weeks ago, I watched a favorite tv series character refer to “fine Scottish cotton” and was stopped in my tracks. The time period was early 1700s, and it mainly grew in America and India at the time, so that reference was baffling. Wool was the main fiber in Scotland then, not cotton, and it was actually against the law to manufacture cotton fabric in Britain, to protect the wool industry. If it was made in Scotland during that time, it was made from wool.
A book titled “Weavers” that I picked up to read, a fantasy, but based in a medieval village setting was so poorly researched that I had to complain on Amazon. The author had the titular heroine winding balls of yarn as her cottage industry. Not spinning, not weaving, no explanation of where the yarn came from, no description of loom or wheel or any other equipment. Amazingly, the author was defended by some of her readers on the Amazon page, who told me to get down off my soapbox. Their explanation was that Weaver was her last name, not her activity; they obviously are ignorant of where last names came from in that era, and since this is a Young Adult love story, those historical facts don’t seem to matter to them.
And that’s my beef with shoddy research - these young people are growing up with no idea of how cloth is made, and the media could care less about sharing all the fascinating details of historical fiber. Wars have been fought, empires built and laws enacted over fibers, fabrics and dyes, and yet so few remember. And there are tens of thousands of traditional fiber practitioners - millions if you include the craftsmen in the third world still practicing their cultural fiber crafts - who participate in making cloth from scratch. It’s not an extinct practice, museum-bound and misunderstood. It’s a living craft, looking forwards AND backwards, filled with magic and skill. I find it tragic that the fiber arts are so poorly understood and are nearly forgotten. That was my main impetus in opening the shop and gallery, to educate, to advocate for the fiber arts. If I could keep that knowledge alive, one person at a time, that was worth the effort. Now that the shop is closed, it’s a little harder. So instead, I complain.
The most recent thorn in my side is an episode of Outlander, a historical novel turned into a cable series on Starz. The books themselves are meticulously researched - I have found few errors in them, and none in the area of the fiber arts - but the tv series is another matter. Firstly, the costuming is decently authentic in most ways, but the women in the series are wearing bulky knitted shrugs, wristlets and scarves, not period at all. Bulky yarn is a modern creation, and knitting during that time was mainly for socks and stockings, and not for decorative and not very warm wraps.
But the real kicker was the Outlander episode that included a waulking scene where a group of village women are waulking wool cloth. More or less accurate to start, including chants, urine and a length of wool tartan. I was thrilled since waulking is a large part of what I do as a felter. AND THEN, the woman tells Claire that the urine is for setting the dyes. NOT TRUE! and what a loss of an opportunity to tell a story. Urine and the pounding is for fulling the cloth, that is, making the cloth hard and dense so that the plaid is weatherproof and warm, even in the wet cold Scots weather. That process allows it to be the go-to piece of clothing for Scots outlaws and clansmen traveling rough through the Highlands. Also, if the dyes weren’t set yet, the colors would run and blend in the waulking, and the clan pattern would be lost entirely, even the muted hunting plaids in the show. Vegetable dyes are set in the dyeing process as well, not in a later process. Just not accurate at all, and they could have Googled waulking and gotten more accurate information.
Shoddy. Just shoddy. All I could think was that they asked a museum docent and not a practicing weaver or felter. Of which they have thousands in Scotland where the show is produced.
You can tell that I take all of these transgressions personally. And all of us should. I’d be willing to bet that many of you have noticed similar mistakes, and cringed. We should complain, and regularly. I have half-kiddingly suggested that we stage flash-mobs at gyms that offer “Spinning” classes, to demonstrate the real spinning process, the one that pre-dates the stationary bicycle. Why they thought we were done with the term so they could appropriate it, I don’t know.
So I do think we should complain, and often.* Fiber practices are nearly invisible in our culture, other than knitting and quilting, and so many knitters and quilters themselves are ignorant of the depth of the craft they practice. If we want the fiber arts to continue in this new millennium, it’s up to us to forge that visibility. And keep the media aware that we are keeping an eye on them.
PS: You can check out this website, Frockflicks.com that comments on period authenticity, from a historian's standpoint, if not a fiber artist's. It's a bit snarky, and fun.
* UPDATE And, we should acknowledge authors and media that get it right. I just emailed an author who described in thrilling accuracy the process of spinning linen. She interviewed a farmer/spinner and watched YouTube videos to get the terms and process correct. I got a wonderful note back from her, and I hope that she will take up spinning because of her interest. This is only a benefit to all of us, to encourage and teach. The book is Entreat Me, by Grace Draven. Thanks, Grace!!!
