Koolaid and the crock pot

Koolaid and the crockpot, sort of sounds like a dark and stormy night? Naw, I don't think so either. But last Thursday night Amanda and I combined the two plus four ounces of pencil roving to get the multicolored mass you see in the pic.

We'd been the to local yarn store: The Whole Ball of Yarn, an excellent source for natural and local sourced fiber. Among the yarn and tools was a four ounce ball of cream colored pencil roving from Wasco County sheep (Imperial Sheep Ranch out of Shaniko).

When we got home I had some Koolaid in the cupboard~~ it just took off from there. We unwound the roving into a loose doughnut, stuffed into my crockpot, fill the pot to the top with lukewarm water and 3/4c of white vinegar. We turned it on high and dribbled Cherry, Black Cherry and Grape koolaid in splotches all over the wool and water filled crock pot.

Two hours later, the pot was steaming and the water was clear. All the dye had migrated into the fiber. One of the best party tricks I've ever seen. To keep from shocking the wool with a temperature change, we turned the crockpot off, which let it sit and cool all night.

In the morning we drained the water off, sopped the wool in towels and hung it up on a dowel by the gas heater stove. After lunch it was dry and Amanda tried out her new drop spindle. Voila!! Some hours later, the ombre single strand of yarn was plied into two ply bulky yarn of the most eye catching color complexity.