(Almost) Instant Gratification

One weekend in May I was so annoyed after spending the better part of the day doing school related work that I needed a quick dye project to lift my spirits. So I got out some yellow Easter egg dye tablets and some orange and red KoolAid to dye a skein of yarn and a braid of fibre. Now yellow, orange and light red are usually not my colours, but

1. that is in fact the reason why I have a good collection of yellow and orange dye tablets by now.

2. the same is true for orange and light red KoolAid (it's not available where I live - but some awesome ravelers that I had the pleasure to exchange swap packages with have been so kind as to send me some in the past... the blues, greens and darker shades usually get used up fairly quickly).

3. I had a feeling that I should dye something fiery.

I started out by dyeing both yarn and fibre a light yellow using Easter egg dyes. Then I put the yarn into a casserole dish and sprinkled it randomly with orange, and red KoolAid. Wrapped it in oven proof plastic wrap and popped into the oven at 90°C for about an hour. 

The braid stayed in the dye pot, just covered with wather and I added dissolved KoolAid in certain spots.

I was quite happy with the yarn after rinsing and drying - and my 7 yo immediately fell in love, with it, too.

The fibre braid on the other hand seemed to be missing something. The yellow splotches didn't work for me, and the rest was too bright overall for my taste. 

So it went back into the dye pot, and I added some cyan coloured Easter egg dye here and there in an attempt to cover up the yellow and mute the overall brightness ... which to a certain degree dispersed throughout the dyebath. 

The result is simply stunning! It reminds me of verdigris on copper - I truly love it, and can't wait to spin it up (once my wheel is clear of an older project that has been lingering there for far too long).