Kool aid dying

Whenever I read about something, I nearly always have to try it. I have no real interest in custom dying yarn, but this sounded like fun. Turns out, it is. The problem is what I decided to do with the dyed yarn. The project I settled on was a fair isle sweater manually patterned on the Bond. The process was slow and tedious and I haven't gotten farther than making one piece. Plus there's my tendency to work on a project till I find something else that catches my attention, and then the first project gets put on hold indefinitely. That's why updates here are far between. Here's what I've got so far:

Looks pretty good, but I don't know about that bright blue. Kool aid is limited in the blues available, so this is the best I could do. I really wanted to include the whole spectrum because it was so heavy on reds. The plan was to have warm stripes alternating with cool stripes with yellow being the unifier. I don't think the blue is quite as loud in person.

The pattern is one I dug up on the internet. Getting a pleasing color sequence turned out to be quite difficult. I tried many combinations before settling on this one. It was accomplished using the two carriage technique. I highly recommend this to anyone who does fair isle on the Bond. It is far preferable to hand knitting every contrast stitch.

The dying is quite easy and there's no science to it. The yarn will absorb all the dye from the bath, leaving the water clear. The quantity of kool aid in the bath determines the intensity. Due to the nature of the process, you can't really stop once you like the color, so you have to start with the right amount of powder rather than try to stop early. It's well documented on the web, so I'm not going to give the particulars. When it's cool, rinse it well, and most of the smell will come out in the rinse. I believe this only works with natural fibers, or it could be only wool. I'm not sure. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. The hot water will cause the wool to felt, so don't agitate it too quickly or it will ball into a prickly mess. Also, if you're trying to match dye lots, make careful notes about the quantity of powder used. Even then, the results are unpredictable. I haven't washed this yet, so I don't know how colorfast it is. I've read that it doesn't fade but don't know for sure.