[DeerMother]

I scored about 900 yards of Bainin Aran wool yarn for free!!! It is an off white color and I would like to dye it. I don't plan on doing a lot of dyeing in the near future, so would like this to be a cheap and easy project. Is Koolaid my best bet so I can avoid having to get mordants/fixers? Also, I'm having a hard time understanding directions I've seen for winding from a ball/skein to a hank. Any tips there?

 

[fallriverfox]

Yeah, Koolaid's a piece of cake. Knitty has a good tutorial:
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html
And also, a lot of mordants and dyes are toxic and Koolaid isn't dangerous like that.

Do you have a swift? I just wind my yarn onto my swift to make skeins. Before I did that, I just used something big. You could use a piece of strong cardboard about three feet long (give or take) You just wind the yarn around until you have enough on and then tie the ends together. Before you slide it off, take about 6" lengths of yarn and weave it through the yarn, like figure eights only with four loops not two, and loosely tie it off. Do that in 3 or four spots. That keeps the skein in it's loop shape and keeps it from knotting horribly. It's really important to tie them loosely or the dye won't penetrate beneath and then you get white spots on the yarn.

Have fun!

 

[mamasthree]

kool-aid is easy and fun...or you can try cake dye (for icing). you need a lot of kool-aid to get vibrant colors. they are used in the same way, the cake dyes are just more concentrated.

have fun!

 

[flapjack]

With that quantity, you're looking at about 5-600g, I would think. Koolaid's probably going to work out quite expensive, so maybe look at Wiltons instead. Or a packet of Dylon.

 

[feest]

if you only plan on doing one or two colors i'd go with acid dharma dyes, they're relativly cheep and the colors run true and deep http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/en...lnav=dyes.html.

 

[cristeen]

Food coloring - the regular stuff you buy in the baking aisle, works quite well. The only fixer you need is white vinegar. A package of the 4 basic colors will cost about $4, and that's more than plenty.

I've dyed something like 20 (100g) skeins so far with my first box of food coloring, and I still have some left.