There was a bit of drama with my Dye-O-Rama yarn. See, I thought that I had mastered the Kool-Aid and could move up to Wilton's icing dyes. Oh, how wrong I was...

Also, I receive my yarn and it's terribly... exciting!

When last we spoke on this topic, I had enjoyed my first foray into the joy of Kool-Aid dying yarn. I had a taste of success and I wanted more. But before I was willing to jump in again, I needed to test out a few things...

Like what was the full and broad spectrum of the Kool-Aid's palette? So I set up a day by myself ('cause who else could stomach this nonsense?), and got to dyeing a bunch of miniskeins. Basically, I took one 440 yard skein of KnitPicks D.Y.O. sock yarn and, with the use of my mini-niddy-noddy from MSWF, made 46 tiny skeins of yarn. (Can you smell the crazy yet?)

These miniskiens were dyed in little pots (donated -and cleaned- baby food jars donated by The Squid himself) on the stove top. I used one packet of Kool-Aid per jar, which makes for a very concentrated mixture and very bright colors. Because I had more mini skeins than flavors, I mixed a few colors up, over- and double-dyed a few, and played with techniques (leaving them in a tight skein). Heck, I even tried coffee!

I wish I would've taken a picture of all the mini skeins drying on the clothesline, but I didn't. I've got some thoughts and ideas for these mini skeins, but for now they seem to like hanging out with our new garden gnome, G'nome, from IKEA. (Sorry if you find him a little phallic; trust me - I did not see it when I bought him. Color me innocent.)

The mini skeins DID become useful when we had another Kool-Aid dying event over at Chris' house. They served as a free-for-all color wheel.

Along with some of my knitgrrls (Angi, Skitter, P-la, and blogless Aubyn), I dyed up a pretty skein of blue, green, and greener self-striping sock yarn. This was done with the basics: KnitPicks Dye Your Own sock yarn and Kool-Aid. And I was instantly impressed with myself.

This smug satisfaction was quickly wiped from my psyche when I attempted to use Wilton dyes. I was dreaming of making a skein of wonderfully inspired self-striping sock yarn for my Dye-O-Rama pal. It would be sections of black with bits of golden brown and white interrupted by bands of light, dusky blue reminiscent of the ocean. It would be called 'Java at the beach' in celebration of her dog.

But what I dreamt of and what I made [shudder] were two very different things. First, I didn't realize the problems people were having with the Wilton dyes. It seems that some colors, such as Black and Cornflower Blue for instance, didn't create their namesake colors. Instead they would separate into other colors: colors that really had no business on my dream yarn.

The Black became fuchsia and green. And when mixed with my bits of golden brown (Tamarindo Kool-Aid), this became a batch of camouflaged hunter yarn. Which may have been fine, except that I had already worked on those stripes. And the Cornflower Blue, what of it? That turned purple and denim blue with bits of bright turquoise! Eep!

I know, I know. You may see it and think it's not bad, or even [gasp] attractive. But trust me, it's not. It's... "interesting." Interesting in that same way that boy you had a crush on in 6th grade called you that to his friends. Interesting in a way that wouldn't be caught dead talking to you at the skate rink on Saturday. Interesting in that way that you cursed your braces, glasses, short hair, and late-blooming tomboy-body. Yeah, like all of that.

I got over all that "interesting" stuff then, and I will now, too. But is it something I could gift to another knitter? Perhaps not. But I couldn't let it end there, so I worked myself up for another day.

Although definitely not the color I was going for, the Cornflower Blue results were attractive. I bargained with one of my knitgrrls for another skein of KnitPicks D.Y.O. and tried my luck.

This time I kept the yarn in its tightly wound skein and used a lot of the dye in the first bath. I was trying for deep purples. For the second bath, I used less dye and unwound the skein to get some of those denimy blues throughout. It still wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but closer.

So which skein did I send to my Dye-O-Rama pal? You'll just have to wait and see (much like she does)!

Bonus! I've just received my hand dyed yarn from my pal and I. Love. It! My pal is Maria of agujetas y punto, and she calls the yarn "Jeans with a Twist." Check it - Vannakin went for the mail run for us today. (Oh, sure. It's more of a walk or a stroll for us, but for Vannakin it's a marathon!). Anyhoo, I catch her doing her posing thing on top of the mailbox and I just had to wonder why.

What a happy surprise it was to see her pull out this gorgeous yarn: dyed just for me! I guess in all her excitement, Vannakin ripped off the packaging and stuffed the notes aside, along with our regular mail. (It's all been recovered now. Thanks.) Well, I could barely contain my excitement as well, and no sooner had I ripped the yarn from Vannakins stiff, wooden paws did I wind it up into a cake ready for the needles! Ooh, la la!

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