A Better Month

I am happy to say that I am making progress knitting, spinning and dyeing! Today I did my first Kool Aid dyeing. First 4 oz. of Merino for the Ply by Night group on ravelry. The colors voted in were Black Cherry, Grape and one of the reds, I had Tropical Punch and Cherry. My process was:
1 - Mix the Kool Aid with water: 2 packages of Tropical Punch, 2 Grape , 4 Black Cherry.

2. After soaking 4 oz. of Merino, squeezed water out and placed one layer (back and forth from one side to the other) in rectangle corning ware dish. Then I poured each color on a third of the fiber, squished with my gloved fingers to ensure all was soaked, added water to almost cover then sprinkled with one package of Cherry on top. Covered dish with cling wrap.
3. I microwaved 1 1/2 min. several times with at least 5 min cooling period between each go around (about 4 times). I was too nervous about putting the fiber in the microwave to do 2 min at a time) until the dye was exhausted.

Project 2 was a combination of colors I wanted to try - Lemonade, Orange and Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade. Again I dissolved the dye in water. I used 5 Lemonade, 2 Orange and 4 Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade.

After the Merino/silk (50/50) soaked for over an hour and was squeezed out water and coiled one layer at a time in a round bowl. I poured dye on each layer. Bottom was blue, for the next layer I mixed blue and yellow (half and half), for the third layer I added some orange to the blue and yellow, the top layer I poured what blue was left, then what yellow was left followed by a little orange (did not use all of the orange dye). Pictures tomorrow of the dried fiber, of current spinning projects and knitting projects!