Kool-Aid not just for wool

[Catana]

Happened to read an old blog post by a Crochetviller. She had experimented with Kool-Aid dyeing cotton, and it didn't work very well. 99% of the articles about Kool-Aid dyeing only mention wool, but silk also dyes beautifully. I just did my first skein of silk and will also be trying blends--silk with cotton or linen. Since only the silk will take the dye, the results should be interesting.

[xantha]

I heard that silk doesn't take quite as well as wool does. Untrue?

I have some tussah but haven't tried to dye it yet. :)

[Tiggzie]

Hmm I haven't tried Kool Aid with silk...

I don't pay attention to what I can or cannot dye :lol I dyed 100% acrylic yarn with hair dye (orange, red and purple) and 6 months later, the colours are still in the flowers I made with the yarn. *shrug* The colours aren't that bright, but I aimed for muted (used only a teaspoon or dye). I'll try it again and aim for nice bright colours and see what happens.

[Catana]

I heard that silk doesn't take quite as well as wool does. Untrue?

I have some tussah but haven't tried to dye it yet. :)

It might depend on the kind of dye. In an article on silk, it said specifically that silk colors are so brilliant because it absorbs dye so well. The silk yarn I just used was an off-white, and I deliberately didn't go for a bright color so I can't judge about the brilliance. But it did absorb nearly all of the dye in the solution I made.

I do plan to experiment with some silk fabrics that could use some color improvement.

Tiggzie, I also do stuff like that just to see what will happen. Acrylic obviously takes some kinds of dye, so why not see if there's something that will work at home?

[noricum]

I think with different fibres you just need to know what the correct mordant is. Don't ask me though... I'm clueless. ;)

I do, however, do silk painting... but I use special heat-set silk paints for that.