You may not even know about these, but way back at the beginning of this blog, almost 3 years ago, I did a couple of kool-aid yarn dyeing tutorials. They were specifically how-tos for getting particular kinds of variegation (as opposed to dyeing basics) – part 1 being three blending colors, part 2 longer stripes of random-order solids. (I’ve just gone back and edited these old posts a little, changing some bad advice I’d given and some minor details, but not anything major.)
So, after 3 years and countless skeins of dyeing experience have now passed, I want to do a couple of new dyeing tutorials for you! (For the basics of dyeing, if you’re new to it, see the link list in my first tutorial, since this post is only meant for this particular variegation method, not for kool-aid dyeing in general.)
I recently dyed up a skein of bulky yarn (Imperial Stock Ranch Lopi) with 5 different colors in my crock pot, for a spotty, kettle dyed kind of look, as you can see above. Dyeing in a crock pot is different from dyeing in a pot on the stove because the water is more still, so the dye tends to stick to the yarn where it falls more, and colors tend to blend together less. This makes a variegated yarn with more defined colors, instead of just a few colors which are blended together. My specific flavors used were: Lemon Lime, Orange, Strawberry, Berry Blue, and Lemonade.
To get this look, you’ll need a crock pot (I got mine at my local Goodwill outlet for around $5), wool yarn (or a blend with other animal fibers like alpaca, angora, cashmere – a small percentage, like 15% or less, of something man made, like nylon or rayon, would be ok) in hank form, several colors of kool-aid, a large spoon, a colander, and vinegar is optional since kool-aid already has acid, but I usually use a little anyway because I feel like it might help with colorfastness.
So, start by filling the crock pot with water (and a little vinegar if you want) and submerging the yarn in there. Let it soak a bit, then turn on the heat and put the lid on – the yarn should soak for at least 15 minutes or so (longer is fine) before dyeing, and the lid should fog up to show that it’s hot. (My vintage pot only has two settings – medium and high – so I usually use medium and it works well.)
Now you can add your first colors – this is all up to you, but I’ll just tell you exactly how I made this particular yarn. First, I covered one half of the yarn in the pot with orange, and the other half with green (lemon lime), sprinkled directly from the packet into the pot. Orange and green are complimentary colors (edit: no they’re not! what was I thinking?! but they don’t always blend well, which I what I meant), which means you need to be careful about putting them together, but it doesn’t have to be avoided completely – green with some orange makes an olive green color, and orange with a little green makes a darker orange. So, I tried not to overlap them at all on purpose, but I knew that if they bled into each other a little, it would be fine.
Cover with the lid and let it sit until the dye fully absorbs into the yarn, so the water looks clear and the yarn is colored. Now use your spoon to turn the yarn over, so all the undyed yarn from the bottom is now on top. I tried to keep it arranged the way it was, just flipped, so that the bottom layer stayed orange on one side and green on the other side. I poured blue on the half that had green below, and red on the side that had orange below. This was because green and blue blend well, as do red and orange (blue+orange or red+green, not so much) and the top colors were likely to do some blending with the bottom colors. Red and blue were chosen to add next to each other for the same reason, to make some purple when they touch and blend.
Cover and let the dye absorb again, then use your spoon to turn the yarn around and search for white spots. I used my last color, yellow (lemonade), which would blend well with all of the other colors, especially since lemonade kool-aid is really light and subtle, to fill in any white spots I could find. When I found white, I’d arrange the yarn with the spoon so as much white as possible was on top, sprinkle on some lemonade, and cover to let it dye. Then I kept repeating the white investigation and dyeing until the yellow packet was all used up. (As you can see, the powder sits on the water surface a little before sinking to the yarn – if it doesn’t sink down right away, you can push it down with the spoon, but this might mix the colors more than you want.)
Once the dyeing is complete, turn off the heat, and let it sit in the water to cool for awhile (until cooled to room temperature is best, but not totally necessary). Now scoop the skein out with the spoon, into the colander in the sink, and let it cool all the way to room temperature there. Rinse a bit, with water of the same temperature, and squeeze the water out as much as you can, without twisting. Roll up in a towel to dry more, shake it out, then hang to dry (in the shower, or on a hanger in a doorway, or on a coat rack, etc) overnight or until totally dry. Ball up and knit!
A note about my yarn, and the colors I used… red bleeds like crazy, way more than any other color, so even though I used exactly equal amounts of the 5 colors, the red really took over the skein. (The photo below shows how much red there is.) So, if you are using the same (or similar) colors as me, and want more even variegation of the colors, I think it would be wise to use about half a packet of red instead of a whole packet.
But, that said, I still love this yarn, and knitting with hand-dyed variegated yarn (that you dyed yourself!) is unbelievably fun and satisfying, an experience I think every knitter should try! With yarn like this, every stitch is different from the last!
Oh yeah, I should show you, this is the same method I used to dye these yarns (and more):
Fun! Yay! And I’d love to see your yarns dyed using this how-to! (you could link to photos in the comments, or add them to the leethal flickr group!)
Lee Does Stuff 
Fun! I like how the finished product turned out. I saw this in Craft & wanted to stop by & take a look. Thanks for posting!
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what lovely variegated wool! I'm sorry we can't buy Kool-aid here in Australia (as far as I know, anyway!) I have used Queen food dye but it is liquid, so may not work as well as the powder in that it would spread too easily?
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Hi Jean! Send me your address and some color/flavor choices and I would be happy to send you some 🙂 I would hate for a fellow crafter to miss out on this very cool tutorial. I can't wait to do it myself!
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Hate to burst a bubble in what otherwise is a great tutorial, but green and orange are not complimentary colors. The complimentary pairs are: Blue + Orange; Red + Green; Purple + Yellow. Of course, I do remember reading that compliments are technically any 2 that create brown, which they do, it is just a yellowy brown… Not sure that thats correct though.Only minor, and the rest of the tutorial is fantastic! Thanks!
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Holy Cow! I can't wait to try this. My 10 yo DD just saw this post and is already planning her colors. So stinkin' cool.
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This is so cool! I'll have to give this a try.
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What a great tutorial! I think I will actually do this!
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I think that when the yarn comes from a protein based source the acid in Kool-aid will be enough to make it color-fast than if it were to come from a plant source.
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Thanks for the inspiration. I've been wanting to attempt that!
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I think i'll need to find a crockpot! How clever.
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I can't wait to try this. I loaned my older crock pot out. When I get it back, it is going to happen. Thanks for the great tutorials.
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Hello, your yarn colors are beautiful! Would this work with strips I tore from a cotton t-shirt? I received a t-shirt at a St. Paddy's Day party, checked to make sure it was 100% cotton and tore it into strips while hanging out with friends. They were all very curious about what I was doing and I told them they'd have to wait and see, but that I was going to try dying the strips with jello. Then, lo and behold, I found this site! I want to make a cotton curled strip necklace with multi-colors. Thanks much for the tutorial.
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these kinds of dyes (kool-aid, food coloring, easter egg dye, and probably jello, though I've never tried it) only absorb into animal fibers (wool, alpaca, angora, cashmere, etc), not plant fibers (cotton, bamboo, hemp, etc), so no, it won't work on cotton t-shirt fabric. if you google cotton dyeing, or something like that, you'll find lots of tutorials and techniques that will work for you.
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OMG what fun! Who would have thought you could use the crock pot for this?? Wondering about dying other things like fabric and lace with this method……………..
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I dyed 2 hanks of the Ruffles tape yarn by LionBrand this week-end.It only comes in a few colors, and I wanted pink, so I dyed the white . I used 2 packs of pink-lemonade and 1/2 pack of cherry kool-aid to make a very pretty pink. We had beautiful weather this week-end so I put it out on a clothes rack and it was dry in a couple of hours. Love it, and it was so easy !!
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Lovely! I linked to this on my weekly roundup, post is under my name. Thanks so much for sharing – especially the tips and tricks. :>)
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Thanks so much for this! My son and I are going to try it for a 4H project!
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so does the color come out when you wash it? like example you make a blanket, when you wash it would it bleed out?
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I did not let the yarn cool completely before rinsing and now have bleed from the cherry and blue. What can I do now to stop the bleeding? Thanks.
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sounds like it didn't fully absorb in the first place, or else it wouldn't be bleeding. you can put it in a microwave-safe dish and microwave it for 2 minutes, then let cool completely. that should help the dye set in and prevent bleeding. if it's bleeding really badly, then do the 2 minutes, let sit 2 minutes, then microwave another 2 minutes (don't microwave over 2 mins at a time, or it could cause felting).or, just put it back in the crock pot, and repeat dying it, making sure it fully absorbs the dye and cools completely.good luck!
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Great tutorial. Love the finished product, and will def try this myself. Am wondering, though, what those dyes are doing to our children's insides when they drink the stuff?
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Awesome tutorial! Thanks for sharing. I have some spare roving in my closet that is just dying (ha ha!) to be my guinea pig for this method. 🙂
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Thank you so much for this tutorial. I dyed my first skein of yarn yesterday using this tutorial. It turned out gorgeous, all candy colored and yummy looking. I went to the store today to buy a bunch more kool-aid so I can dye the other 3 skeins I have.
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Long have I loved gazing upon your knitting patterns both here on the site and, of course, Ravelry. My initial research into some dyeing basics before I set down this road turned up your site pretty much instantly, so I knew I had a source I could trust for good instruction. Using a method founded in what you've detailed here with a few tweaks to suit what I'd like to do (mostly the addition of food coloring and a little extra acid as needed) I'm churning out some really beautiful yarns. The house socks I'm dreaming up in bulk for everyone I know (managed a handmade Christmas last year – I hope to never go back, I'm STILL overpoweringly proud of myself) need a quantity of yarn that's almost perfect for dyeing in my little crock. Which means I get to experiment wildly with every batch. It's easy enough to do the fun part and leave it alone to do its thing over the course of a lazy afternoon, that I don't feel like I'm adding a monumental amount of effort to my project, or like I'm going to burn out on this in a few more skeins. My partner even whipped up a niddy noddy out of some household odds and ends so I didn't have to wind my hanks around the dining chairs (snort as if I ever 'dine' in them at my table). Anyway, thanks again. I can't wait to post some photos once I've got a few more colors done – I need somewhere to show them off that isn't full of people who will be receiving the finished products in December!
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So great!! That is some serious handmade gifting! Can't wait to see the pictures! Thanks! 🙂
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nice shades!!
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Very cool, cheaper option, prolly good for recycled yarns
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how wonderful! i love it…I didn’t realize you could dye variagated with kool-aid….thanks for sharing!
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Totally excited to do this. I bought hanks of wool @ the Md Sheep & Wool Festival to dye and just too chicken to try it but with your tutorial I & using a crockpot I am ready to go. Thanks!
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How did you get the yarn into the thingey in the first picture? Did you do it yourself?
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it’s a center-pull ball – I have a ball winder 😉 you can do it yourself… this blog shows how to do it using a paper towel roll: http://knitswithballs.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-make-center-pull-ball.html or this shows how to do it with your thumb: http://www.ehow.com/how_4758899_centerpull-ball-of-yarn.html
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AAAAAAAA!!!!! THANKYOUSOMUCHIAMFOREVERINYOURDEBT!!!!! This is SO COOL! Thanks!
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does it bleed onto clothing when you wear it?
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nope, it doesn’t bleed at all!
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About how long does it take to dye in the crockpot — from start to finish? I ask as I have a Fiber Club with a group of 9-13 yo girls and I’d like to try this with them. I’m wondering if I did the vinegar/water soak before they came and then showed them about the dye … so does it take hours or minutes or what?
THANKS so much
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Usually around 15-20 minutes to absorb the dye, so to do a few different layers of color like this, around an hour-ish total… it can vary, but I think that’s usually about right. Have fun!
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Looks great! Waiting for warmer weather to try this out. Can’t wait!
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Wonderful and such vibrant colors. Cant wait to try this out when it gets a little warmer here and I can hang all my colorful yarn outside to dry.
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How cool is this? Love it! Love my slow cookers for making dinner, and now another use for them…you just can’t beat that with a stick!
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Hello! I can’t tell, did you use sugar free kool aid? Or doesn’t it matter ? Thank you!! I’m getting ready to try it right now with some sugar free!!!
~Laurie
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oh it definitely matters – no sugar! sugar could make for a disastrously sticky wool situation 😉
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I have been a knitter since I was in fifth grade, and I am now almost 60. This is a crazy wonderful idea. One more step to making it just a little more homemade! Thank you sincerely, Diane
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I wanna learn to knit so bad im 20 and i have always wanted to learn how but my grandmother was never able to teach me so i never learned i would love to learn!
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Check out Youtube. I wanted to learn to crochet but again my grandma never got to show me. My aunt suggested You Tube. She was right! I have learned so much! It’s all I do in my free time now lol
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i never had a grandmother who could teach me, so i just taught myself! i mostly used books, but these days you’ll probably be fine with the internet alone. or check out your local yarn store, they probably have learn-to-knit classes!
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I agree with the others. I had one grandmother who taught me two stitches in knitting and nothing in crochet. Anyway, she was out of my life by the time I was 8 anyway — and she didn’t like me — but I loved knitting. So I took my allowance and went to the local variety store around the corner and bought the now-famous Red Heart learning-how books and I taught myself. I can only imagine if I had the internet. There are terrific videos on YouTube. You’ll find that no matter how long you have these skills you can always learn something new and YouTube has been invaluable. Good luck and have fun. One of my favs for knitting is The Knit Witch on YouTube. Very nice video tutorials, extremely well-done.
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There are really only 2 main stitches in knitting…everything else is a variant of those 2
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So many variations though.
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I went to Walmart and Michaels and bought a knitters loom, I make scarfs, afghans, hats, all kinds of things with it. There are several videos on youtube if you would like to watch them show you how easy it is to do. It is sooooo easy, my 9 year old uses it to make hats. Good Luck!
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The public library usually has some kind of knitting/ crochet group and people ready o help
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Try you tube or class at a local yarn store I did both at 52 and I love it 🙂
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You tube is very good to show you how to knit. You should start with sashey scarf……. By a ball of sashey wool and needle 5 and you tube your good to go
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I learned when I was about 8. My dad and I opened a World Book Encyclopedia and did what it said. Pre-internet days.
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