Attempting to Spin With a Drop Spindle

This last week, I went out and bought a drop spindle and some roving.  The one I bought was $22, much less of an investment than a spinning wheel. (Also way smaller and no complicated moving parts)  Here is my first sorry attempt at spinning.  Looks more like dreadlocks than yarn.

This is my drop spindle with some brown fiber I making into dreadlocks yarn.

It's not the most frustrating craft I've attempted, but it's right up there.  Soldering is #1 on my frustration scale, and #2 is throwing on a potters wheel.  Right now this is at #3 on my frustration scale. 

Ive been watching various Youtube videos on spinning with a drop spindle, particularly this one:

http://youtu.be/rPUORvO-GZE

But I think, I can only get so much from watching a video.  I think I need a live human to help me with this.

I've found a local class I'm planning to take to learn how to use the drop spindle.  There is also a beginning spinning wheel class.  The only thing is, I need a wheel for the class.  I would like to find something to rent - I sure have no clue what to buy!  I'll have to see how that goes.

And some more Kool-aid dyeing.  This was white roving that I dyed with yellow food coloring, and lemonade, orange, black cherry and grape Kool-aid. Hopefully it will end up as yummy yarn and not rope or dreadlocks!

Miss Fugly Yarn, Meet Mr. Kool-Aid

Last year around this time, I bought a bag of wool yarn at Goodwill for $2.50.  It was quarantined to the green house where I figured the temperature extremes would kill any wool moths.  Of course I forgot about it and found it when we cleaned the greenhouse out in spring. 

At it has been sitting in a corner with a pile of my junk since then.  There are 4 different colors of yarn and 3 of them are/were ugly with a capital "UGH".  Here are two of them - a much too bright obnoxious red and a nasty, nasty green.

Bet you are wondering why are their Kool-Aid packets in this picture.  In the world of ugly wool yarn, Kool-Aid makes everything better! 

Kool-Aid will dye protein fibers such as wool, alpaca, etc.  These animal based fibers need an acid type dye and Kool-aid has ascorbic and citric acids.  Note, this won't work with cotton or acrylic.


First I  washed and rinsed the yarn.  I washed it mainly because it was a thrift store buy.  If it had been new yarn, I would have just soaked it in tepid water.

I added water and a package of black cherry Kool-Aid to my pan here.  I also added a glug of vinegar just to make sure.  Then I added the fugly green yarn and turned on the heat!

It didn't take very long, before the water was clear and the yarn absorbed all the dye! Err, Kool-aid.

I didn't let the water boil and I did not stir the yarn.  I also waited till the yarn was cool enough to handle and before rinsed it in warm water.  I was pleased that I didn't end up with a felted mess.


Here are the green yarn and red yarn after being overdyed with the Kool-aid. The green was over-dyed with black cherry and the red was over-dyed with grape.

Here is all the yarn I bought at Goodwill.

The yarn in the front right of the picture, was the only one of the three I liked and didn't dye.  I washed it, and what a pain!  It bled really bad.  I added vinegar a couple of times.  Then with the last rinse, I added a huge glug of vinegar.  And it finally stopped bleading color.  But now it smells like pickles. . .

The yarn on the left started out as an ugly beige.  I added two packages of lemonade, two of black cherry and one of grape.  Took it out, decided it needed more.  I over-dyed it with two more packages of black cherry.


Oh yeah, this was way too much fun! And so easy!  I bought some food coloring today to try out as well.  I have some Lion brand fisherman's wool and some Knitpicks blank yarn I want to dye.

I have been wanting to try this for a long time.  There was an article in Knitty  about Kool-aid dyeing a few years ago.  Ever since I saw that article, I've been wanting to try it.  There are also several  YouTube videos on dyeing yarn with Kool-aid and food coloring. (Oh boy, YouTube is a dangerous place, can you say "spinning wheel").