Kool-Aid Dyeing with Kids

Have you ever done Kool-Aid dyeing? I have, and I loved the results, which you can read about over on About. It’s really quick and easy, and because Kool-Aid is safe to drink you don’t need any special equipment like you would if you used harsher dyes — just use a regular pot on the regular stove.

But what if you want to involve your kids in the really fun process of dyeing yarn? Palak over at Make it Handmade wanted to do just that, and she’s got some great tips for doing just that.

She used a slow cooker instead of a pot on the stove and dyed the yarn in two stages so some of it is a little darker than the rest, giving a subtle striping to finished knits made with it without any trouble at all. She also threw in an already knit hat to give it some color, which is just brilliant.

Have you ever dyed with kids? I don’t have a slow cooker but that’s such a great idea!

[Photo via Make it Handmade.]

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From the front, the Simply Me Blouse from NORgardknitters looks like a plain, boxy, garter stitch sweater. The kind of thing you’d want to throw on every day, like the knit version of a sweatshirt.

But when you look at the back, you realize there’s more going on than meets the eye.

This sweater also has a giant pleat on the back, giving lots of volume and interest without making the knitting any harder.

Simply Me is worked from the top down, starting with the yoke being worked back and forth in rows. Extra stitches are cast on at the back to form the pleat (which is crocheted closed when the knitting is done) and the body is joined in the round under the underarms.

But if you know anything about knitting in the round, you know that to make garter stitch you have to knit and round and purl a round. To avoid that this pattern uses short rows so you can still knit every round and come out with garter stitch.

The sweater has a wide boatneck and a cropped, boxy shape with three-quarter sleeves. There’s no edging to interrupt the pretty waves of garter stitch.

The pattern comes in six sizes, to fit a bust from 31.5-33.5 inches, or 80-85 cm, up to 43 to 47 inches, or 110-120 cm. But there is a lot of positive ease worked into the pattern, so if you want less ease you can work it for a larger range of sizes. There are lots of projects on the project page on Ravelry, most of which show it in a solid color, but you can also see ideas for stripes or a fade. It calls for DK weight yarn.

You can find the Simply Me Blouse pattern on Ravelry, where it is available in English, Danish, French, German and Norwegian.

[Photo: NORgardknitters]

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