Dyeing Wool

 One of the reasons I don't hook rugs as much as I like is being the perfectionist that I am and in this case a character flaw. I never have the right colors, so I order them and then it isn't the color in my head. I end up using what I have but I am not happy with it. I was thinking this year I wanted to learn to dye my own wool. I do want to use natural dyes but in a pinch I thought why not use Kool Aid. This morning I got up went to the grocery store and bought Kool Aid, the girl checking my groceries held the packages in her hand and said, " Are you having a party?" I told her I was going to use it to dye wool. She thought that was awesome.

 I bought all of these packages and I could hardly wait to get home to try it. I had this really ugly hot pink piece of wool I decided that if it flopped it was no great loss, I knew I would never use hot pink for anything, ever. That lovely red at the top is my hot pink now this lovely shade of red for the roosters comb in my rug. I used Cherry Kool-Aid for the color. I soaked my wool in boiling water while I was measuring out 6 ounces of hot water, two ounces of white vinegar and a whole packet of Kool-Aid. After 20 minutes of soaking in hot water, I added the wool to the pot on the stove that was almost boiling.  and put it in the pot until it adsorbed all of the color.  I rinsed it and took it outside to dry.

Yesterday I got a order of a yard of white wool so I cut it up to make this orange, for this color I used one orange packet and one tropical punch. I added 12 ounces of water to 4 ounce to vinegar. I did buy some Rit dye because I needed some brown wool. I did the same and cooked it until the color was adsorbed too.

This is some of the brown. This was a really ugly color of tan, last year I bought a bag of odds and ends from a wool place and there were colors I could use but more that I couldn't use. So I dyed this brown.
I just feel like my whole world changed. I am so excited that I can do this now. I don't know why I was afraid to try it.
I didn't even make that big of a mess. I just had to share it because it was so much fun!
I think I have found my new favorite hobby. I have always just used coffee and tea to dye things but this is so much more fun. Not to mention the house smells so good, just like Kool Aid.
~Kim~