Crafty Saturday

October 2, 2007 · Filed under Knitting

On Saturday, Annika and I drove all the way out to San Gabriel to attend a fiber-arts yard sale. We were both primarily in search of wool that would work for diaper soakers*, and thus were delighted to find an entire bin of undyed fisherman’s wool for $10. Rubbing our hands together in cartoonish excitement, we purchased the bin and divided it between the two of us.

Unfortunately for me, most of my skeins turned out to be infested with moth larvae, and even the one that wasn’t infested was chewed through in about six or seven places. I threw out the buggy ones, but decided to keep the unbugged one and Kool-Aid dye it.

First I unwound the skein, cursing at all the moth-munched breakages, and washed it in mild soap and water.

Then I prepared my Kool-Aid, using three tablespoons of water to one packet of drink powder (except for the yellow, for which I used a lower ratio of water to powder because I didn’t want it to come out too pale).

Using my turkey baster (not just for lesbian inseminators anymore!), I carefully applied the Kool-Aid in stripes to the yarn.

Totally forgot to wear gloves. (It washed off by Monday, but I went around all weekend telling people to “look at the red hand of death!” This went over particularly well at the picnic we attended on Sunday.)

Microwaved it, washed it again, and hung it up to dry overnight.

Et voila!

Unfortunately, because only one skein turned out to be usable and the yarn itself is in such poor condition (Fisherman’s Wool from Sears, anyone? I’m guessing it’s about thirty years old), I may not be able to knit a whole soaker out of it. I think I’m going to stripe it with some Lamb’s Pride.

*(Annika says the wonderful pattern she has developed for soakers will be available soon at her Etsy shop).