Dyeing and Felting

[PurlyGyrl]

OK all you dyers, a couple of quick questions for you. If I kool-aid dye some bare wool yarn, say a nice bright University of Tennessee Big Orange:

1) Will I be able to felt it later? I plan on making felted clogs for my UT freshman niece and am having a hard finding the correct orange color wool. So maybe I'll dye it myself :shrug:?

And if I can felt it after dyeing:

2) Will the kool-aid dye stay "set" in the felting process? Or will it be a nice shade of PEACH after felting?

Thanks in advance for any information you guys can pass along:muah:

[mullerslanefarm]

I used some FD&C dyes (made for cold process soap making) with vinegar & citric acid mordant to dye yarn that I knitted & felted into clogs.

The color kept well through repeated felting processes.

[PurlyGyrl]

Thanks for the info. My worry is that a heat process dye--koolaid or other dye--would shrink the yarn. Then when I knit the clogs and try to felt them I'll end up with clown clogs--big floppy clogs:teehee:

[mullerslanefarm]

I will depend on the fiber you use I suppose and how you handle the fiber during the dyeing session.

I spun up some Icelandic thel with a bit of the tog still in it. I ladi the skeins of yarn on top of newspaper and plastic wrap. Handpainted the yarn, then wrapped in the plastic wrap and microwaved it. There was no exposure to bubbling, agitating heat to felt the yarn