Kool-Aid dying

It was quite the crafty weekend last week. I took my first shot at yarn dying using some yarn I've been staring at for a while. The yarn was a gift from a friend whose grandma raises her own goats in Vermont (one more reason to want to relocate!).

The yarn was a bright peachy-orange, nothing I could ever imagine using for myself, and no one I could think of would be a good match for this either. Since I couldn't even think of giving the yarn away, I wanted to do something with it.


Enter the drink from days of yore. Many great tutorials exist, so I'll spare you the details. With the careful combination of one part strawberry and one part tropical punch, I soon had a bright flamingo pink yarn. It truly is magical that something I downed as a pre-teen could do such pretty things to wool. Oh, and the sweet smell of the concentrate...it brought back all sorts of random memories.


After staring at it hanging from the shower head for a few days, I decided it was worh trying again. I'd read that the amount of "dye" (kool-aid packets) to use was empirical, so I decided to repeat the process with three times as much dye.

I give you, with the help of four packets of grape and two of cherry:


This, now, is something I can live with. Hues range from a cherry red to a deep maroon. Very cool. And all done with hardly any effort on my part (you just let it sit on the stove and voila! dye zaps into the yarn), active toddler in tow, and not a single stain anywhere in my kitchen!

I was also gifted with the December zine from Craft Leftovers last month. On a whim I decided to make both of the recipes that were included. The soup turned out well - who doesn't love swiss cheese in their soup? - but as with all potato-based soups it was a bit bland for my taste. Next time I'll use more pepper. But the exciting recipe was the eggnog! I had absolutely no luck finding eggnog in the grocery store this holiday season, and was thrilled to come across this very simple, 4-ingredient recipe. I made the cooked version, without alcohol, and it turned out great. (And in case the idea of raw eggs makes you squeamish - check out this reassuring site. As yummy as it was, I did need some reassurance.)