Dye With KOOL-ADE

Here is an article Ann wrote a few years ago.

KOOL-AID WOOL
     

           For years I owned Shetland sheep, and had all the beautiful naturally colored wool that I wanted. That is if I just wanted white, grays, browns, or blacks, or mix, or blend of any or all these colors. I was happy to spin with these beautiful colors for a long time. But just like anything else your passion wants to grow.
       One afternoon at my spinning group, one of the gal's brought up the subject of dyeing their yarn. I though why would I want to dye my beautiful wool that is already colored, I'm ahead of the game, right?  But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the possibilities that dyeing could open up. I could have reds, yellows, greens, blues, or a blend of both natural colors and dyed, I could have the rainbow at my fingertips.
       So to start to learn how to dye, I  wanted to start  with a simple dye. It had to be a dye that I could get easy, work with easy, and easy to understand, then I heard about dyeing with Kool-aid.  Anyone that has had children and has given them Kool-aid knows how hard it is to remove Kool-aid from little hands and mouths.
             
            Getting started is fairly easy, you will need to choose your fiber. Kool-aid only works on natural fibers: wool, mohair, llama, alpaca, cotton, your hair, [  green for St. Patties Day]. It doesn't work  on  synthetics. You do not have to use just white fiber. Because I have a wide variety of natural colored wool to choose from, I can choose to dye just white yarn or, dye gray yarn with grape or, blue raspberry to get an heather or steel blue. Put black cherry on dark brown to get a mahogany color, mix your colors, just let your imagination go.
    It doesn't  matter if you dye spun yarn, unspun fiber, or even commercial yarns. If you are going to use your colored yarn on a project, make sure that you dye enough yarn to complete it, other wise it can be a little difficult to get the same results if you run out when your are almost done with your project.

           While you are gathering up your equipment that you will need for dyeing , put you fiber, or yarn in hot water to soak for about 20 minutes . The fiber will take up the color better and more even when it is wet, but if you want to dye your yarn dry that is o.k., dry yarn does not soak up the dye evenly, so you may get mottled yarn. Dry fiber will even out when you card and spin it, also un spun fiber will not look as bright until it is spun.
         There are 3 ways to do kool-aid dyeing, the first is the stove top method, second, the microwave, and third, the kid friendly way using the sun. What you will need to dye, one ounce of fiber or yarn loosely tied into skeins, one package of unsweetened kool-aid per ounce of fiber, water, stainless steel or enamel pot, microwave safe dish, or gallon zip-lock bag, depending on your method of dyeing, long handled wooded spoon, rubber gloves, and your heat source. So lets get started dyeing.

         With the stove top method,  you first need to bring about 2 quarts of water just to boiling, add your unsweetened kool-aid, stir to mix throughly. Now take your fiber and  squeeze out the excess water, remember that your fiber is hot so be careful, now add your fiber to the dye pot. You will not need a mordant with kool-aid, as it is acidic enough on it's own.
          Gently squeeze the fiber with your spoon to make sure that the dye gets into all of the fiber. Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. The neat thing about dyeing with kool-aid, is that when you are done dyeing, your dye water will run clear, no color will be left in the water.  Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool to room temp. Now take your fiber out of the pot and squeezing out the excess water, rinse fiber in water the same temp. as the dye pot water, and hang to air dry.

         The microwave method, You will need, 1 gallon size zip-loch bag, 1 pyrex dish, and a colander.  While your fiber is soaking in warm water, mix up your kool-aid dye, one package of kool-aid to 2 quarts of cool water.  Put this mix into your plastic bag, take and squeeze  the excess water out of your fiber, than add the fiber to your kool-aid bag.
         Squeeze your fiber, gently, in the bag to distribute the dye evenly to all the fiber. Place the bag in your pyrex dish, put it in the microwave, and microwave for 2-3 minutes on high. Let it rest 2 minutes, you can squish the bag again to make sure the dye is evenly distributed.
        Now carefully check to see if the liquid is colorless : Caution- when checking your fiber, be careful when you are opening your bag, as steam will escape from the top of the bag. Do not put your face or hands over the top of the bag. If the liquid is not clear put it back into the microwave for another 2 minutes, let it rest 2 more minutes. Do this until you dye water is clear. Now take your bag and dump the fiber into a colander to drain, squeeze out excess water, and  rinse with water the same temp. as the dye water, squeeze out excess water, and hang to air dry.
         The last method, sun dyeing, is a kid friendly method. You will need 1 or more children,  1 gallon zip-lock bag, 2 quarts of cool water,  one package kool-aid, one ounce of fiber per child, and the sun. Put your 2 quarts of  cool water and kool-aid into the bag close, and squish together to mix. Place the fiber onto the bag close removing excess air from the bag, and close, squish again to distribute the dye evenly through out the fiber.
         Take outside and put in a sunny place. Let the bag sit several hours, or all day if possible. Let the bag cool, take the fiber out and rinse in water of the same temp., squeeze out excess water, and hang to air dry.

         Now if you want to get a little more bold with your dyeing, get 2 one quart jars, one 9x13 cake pan, one large plastic bag, warm water, 1 ounce of wool, 2 different colors of dyes, make sure that the colors you choose will go together,[ like red and blue will make purple, yellow and blue will make green].
        Place your quart jars into the 9x13 cake pan, fill with warm water, add your kool-aid, one color per jar, and stir, now put  your pre-moistened fiber, into the quart jars, one end to each jar. Now carefully side pan with jars, into the plastic bag and close,[this to keep the fiber from drying out while the dye is taking], now wait.
        The colors will wick up the fiber on each end, and come together in the middle, that is why you need 2 colors that go together. Take the  jars out of the bag and remove fiber, rinse your fiber, and hang to air dry. You will have tie-dyed fiber.

           You can also use food dye that you get in the grocery store to dye your fiber. Just a couple  drops of coloring into 2 quarts of water, and ¼ cup vinegar per batch to acidify  your dye pot. Also try Easter egg dye, it is the same as with food dye, add ¼ cup a vinegar per batch, follow the steps as with the kool-aid.
          Let you imagination go, and you'll be delighted in what beautifully dyed fiber that you can make. At first I thought that I would not like dyeing my beautiful naturally colored wool, but now that I have tried, I  love dyeing my wool. Now I am trying natural plant dyes that I can find in my area, or am able to grow in my garden.

               

             
       
   

             

Drop Spindle

Last week we acquired an alpaca to fill out our fiber herd and we will be getting two more later in the  month. On top of that we were also very fortunate in receiving a large quantity of alpaca and llama fiber in the form of raw fleeces. All that fancy fiber got me thinking about how the fiber was used and processed back in the llama/alpaca homelands in the Andes. I'm afraid I don't really know much on the subject other than a little about the original fiber spinning tool, the drop spindle. Anyone interested in the fiber arts should learn to use this basic tool. I have seen many pictures of women in that region spinning with a spindle while going about their business. I have certainly never gotten to that level of expertise but I can make some yarn, even if it is a bit lumpy! Drop spindles are reasonably priced and learning to use one is a fun activity.  If you have a little time making your own is not difficult either. You can make them as plain or as fancy as you would like.We sold these at one time and will be doing so again at some point along with fiber to spin. Until then check them out on the web, needless to say, there are thousands of sites about them.

One New Arrival

Here is Sam, one of two recent additions to our homestead. Sam came to us from a local auction that Ann went to. With the extremely high hay prices in our area due to the drought, 'hobby' type animals are not worth much at auction. Ann bought this little guy for $10.00! While he is no show animal and does have some conformation problems, he was to nice to pass up. He is very docile, leads well, picks up his feet, and trailers easily. He is only two years old, so has a long life in front of him. The grand kids all approved.

A pony cart is now on the shopping list as well as a saddle for him. He carried his own hay back to the cabin with two bags set over his back. I think he will easily earn his keep around here.
I finally got my elder flower wine bottled one day last week. It needs a little time in the cellar to mellow out now but should be good by Yule. I'll be testing it at any rate! Not quite as good as last years but I think it will improve as it ages. Since we robbed the bees last week I can now start a batch of mead.

Here is a shot of our late afternoon sky a week or so ago. I heard that they had a bad dust storm out in the Dakotas which causes the cool color here. Bad for them, scenic for us.

Garden Clean-up

Here are a few of the last things coming out of the gardens this year. These cabbages are going to be made into sauerkraut as soon as we get time. They will keep in our root cellar for a couple weeks just fine. Now we have to get the gardens cleaned up and prepared for next spring. I planted 120 cloves of garlic in a raised bed last week. Those will get a nice blanket of rotten hay later this week. I still have Jerusalem Artichokes to dig and little ones to replant for next year. Other than that it is mostly just clean up. I've started spreading llama manure around on some of the garden and will finish that today if it does not rain too much. I like to get the manure on in the fall and worked in so it is broken down some when we plant. I'll also do a soil test to see if  we need to spread any lime on. I have a lot of fallen leaves to use for mulch , or I should say I will have, they are not raked up yet! Guess I better add that to my never ending list of stuff that needs to be done. As soon as I get a chance to snap a couple of pics I'll introduce you to the latest members of our homestead.

Here is a pic of a mangle or sugar beet. We put in a patch of them most years as feed for the critters. Cattle love them but they have to be cut up for them. We tried making our own sugar last year but that was a flop. Wanted to try again this year but we didn't have the rain we needed to get a decent crop. Not thinning the planting on time just aggravated the lack of moisture.This one, about 8 inches long, is sadly one of the larger ones. On a good year it would be a runt. If you like a challenge,organic gardening would be a good hobby for you. Just about the time you think you know something about raising a certain crop, mother nature throws you a curve ball and it all goes out the window!

Honey Thieves

We finally got around to stealing some honey from our bees. The drought conditions over most of the summer made me wonder if the bees would have been able to find enough nectar flowers to end up with much honey. Neither of the two hives seem to have had any trouble, both had a full box we could abscond with and still leave enough honey to feed the hive through the winter. Both hives are now down to two boxes which should be the optimum size for them to overwinter in.So far the Warre' type hive seems to be a success for us.( see third or fourth link at side for info about Warre' hive)

Here are a couple sections of comb we kept intact to cut comb honey from. The bees in this hive followed the top bars very nicely and had few connections between combs. The other hive was less obliging and had a very interesting labyrinth of comb.Both hives had moved brood rearing to lower sections of the hive and were using the top box strictly for honey storage. There were a few cells that still held pollen, the uncapped ones you can see on both combs. We took a total of 30 pounds of honey from the two hives.

That is a small amount compared to standard boxes but I am happy with what we got. If we can get these bees to survive the winter I will be overjoyed.
 Just to show how good bees are at finding anything sweet, here is a pic of one of the boxes we took off .This is less than 12 hours later and a quarter of a mile away. Within three hours of finding the box they had all the bits of honey left in the box cleaned up and returned to the hive. There were several hundred bees working there continually.

Jerusalem Artichoke

Jerusalem Artichokes are a native perennial plant that can reach over eight feet in height. As you can see, using the five foot shovel for comparison, mine did that easily this year. Helianthus tuberosus, is a sunflower and not related to artichokes at all. They are grown for the edible tubers they produce in abundance even in a dry year like this one was.  Most text about Jerusalem Artichokes say you can use them any way you use a potato but they are not that good boiled having a somewhat watery texture when cooked that way. I think they are good in a stir fry, they have a texture similar to water chestnuts then.The tubers store their carbohydrates as inulin rather than starch so they are a good choice for people who have issues with carbohydrates and may be helpful for people with diabetes.
 The flower is about three inches across but looks more like a daisy than a sunflower. Here in zone three they seldom flower before frost but that has little effect on tuber production. The tubers are dug in late fall giving the plant as much time as possible to fatten the tubers.

The tubers in this pic are about average size, large being about like a medium size potato. Each plant will have a dozen or so tubers. The small ones go back in the ground immediately for next years crop. Any you miss will send up plants next year. They grow best in full sun,average garden soil seems fine. I throw the stalks over the fence to the cows and they seem to relish them. Even the big stalks get eaten after they have eaten the leaves off. Artichokes don't seem to have many problems with bugs or diseases. I have been growing these for over twenty years from the original tubers I planted. A fun and easy addition to the garden even if it is not exactly a main crop.

Roasted Dandelion Root

Here is a pic of a nice big fat dandelion root just perfect for roasting. Roasted dandelion root is often called a coffee substitute but I don't think many hard core coffee drinkers like myself would agree with that. I do however think it makes a good additive and flavoring to real coffee. I think it gives a flavor very similar to New Orleans style chicory coffee. To me, it seems to make the coffee very smooth,and slightly nutty flavored. Since it grows almost every where and is easy to process I think it is a good plant to add to my wild food store house. I would be very careful about where you gathered your dandelion root, avoid any area that has might have been sprayed with herbicides,etc.
 I roast the roots as soon as possible after gathering them. If they are left to start drying out much of the sugar in the roots will be converted to starches. Roasting immediately will caramelize those sugars resulting in a much richer, fuller taste. Chop the root into pieces small enough to fit into your coffee grinder while the root is raw. It will be as tough as wood when it is dry but very brittle. It should be roasted until it is  quite dark, almost black. It will powder in your coffee grinder rather than being in little crumbles. We substitute one tablespoon of the powdered root for one tablespoon of the coffee. This is with a regular percolator so you may need to experiment with other types of coffee making.