How I Dye Felted Beads

I dyed beads today. Since I had nothing else for the blog, I thought I'd document my process.

First, I soak the beads in warm water with a little vinegar added (when I do this with Kool-Aid, I don't need to use the vinegar)...

I know what you're thinking. How much vinegar? How long? Yeah, I don't really pay that much attention. If I had to ballpark it, I'd say I used about a cup of vinegar. Maybe less (a cup wasn't much considering that this was a 2 liter container).

I let it soak until the beads were waterlogged. (I had breakfast, started my laundry, and watched some TV before starting the dyeing process.) I'd guess it was about an hour.

Then I divvied up the beads into four containers...

Well, first I filled each glass container with about an inch's worth of warm water. Then I put in the food coloring. And then I added the beads (and took the picture).

I put the containers in the microwave for 2 minutes. Then, with oven mitts, I took them out and let them sit. Before they got too cool, I repeated the process. The idea was to keep the water near boiling temperature until the dye soaked in.

There is a lot of dead time during this procedure. I managed to check all my email, read all of the blogs I follow, do a couple loads of laundry, wash my sheets and make up my bed, and play a good hour's worth of solitaire (this version) all while occasionally checking in and reheating the water.

In a little over two hours, I had this...

It might be hard to see from this picture (if you click on it, you can get a larger view), but the water got clearer while the beads got color. (Except for the blue. I used too much dye in the blue container.)

Then I poured out the water and washed the beads...

...and I laid them out to dry. It should take about a day (although, considering how cool it's been here, it might take longer).

The next thing I need to learn is how to mix colors better. I was doing a lot of guessing with these. I wanted a lighter orange, a darker green, and periwinkle. I wasn't too particular about the purple, and I really like how that turned out. As for the other colors...

I suppose I should start a notebook with recipes. Who am I kidding? I doubt I'll ever be able to manage precision with this.

Picking a Color

I've been knitting beads. (Again.) Since I finally learned how to get close up shots on my camera (yes, this was an obvious thing, but it took me way too long to figure it out), I have better pictures.

Here's what they look like after I've knit them...

Then I run them through the washing machine to felt them...

And then I dye them...

Aren't those colors pretty?

I mention this all for a reason. I have no idea what color to try next.

I used food dyes for them. (These.) I've exhausted the box. But, there are recipes for other colors. It's time to experiment, but I don't know which color to try next.

I can actually do four batches at the same time, so it's not like I really need to narrow things down too much. I guess it's just the plethora of choices that's making choosing so hard. That, and I have another box of food dyes to play with as well.

Any ideas? I'm open to suggestions.

Orange Knitted Beads

Yesterday I promised to post pictures of my dyed beads. I had a chance to take pictures today. Here is how it all turned out...

Near the top left-hand corner are white beads before felting. In the middle are the felted white beads. And then near the bottom right-hand corner are the white beads after being dyed using orange Kool-Aid.

It was a very easy process. I can't wait to try more.

Where Did All the Kool-Aid Go?

Remember my crazy project? Since then I've been accumulating beads. I've got containers full. And I have ideas on what to do with them.

The main problem with the project is finding wool yarn in pretty colors. There aren't many colors in the yarn store. The next step was to go online, but I have been too lazy (or busy) to do this.

I mentioned the color issue to my sister-in-law, and she suggested using white wool and dyeing the beads later. Genius.

I've never dyed anything before. But I remembered reading this article a while back. I didn't think too much of it at the time for I didn't really work with wool. But wool is necessary for felting, so suddenly this method was feasible.

Using Kool-Aid to dye wool? Brilliant!

So, I went to the grocery store in search of pretty Kool-Aid. What did I find? Red and purple. Um, if you go back and look at the picture, you'll see that I have those colors already. Although, I did find orange, yellow, and pink, too.

However, I did not find green or blue. Drat!

I bought the orange, and today I thought to try it. It turned out better than I expected. The orange is so day-glow, and I mean that in a good way. I'll post pictures soon. First I need to let the beads dry.

Now, I'm on the hunt for green and blue Kool-Aid flavors. I've looked a couple places. No luck. I know they exist. At least, they existed when that article was written.

I have no idea where else to try. Anyone have any ideas?