The Electric Kool-Aid (not really) Acid Test

I've been wearing my big ugly Clapotis lately, despite the fact that I hated the colors. It is soft and exceedingly warm, and it was MINE, damnit, so I wore it. So there.

Wearing it around Manhattan has been... an adventure. I've gotten a range of comments from totally random people on it, such as, "Wow, what an... interesting scarf." or "I LOVE IT! WHERE DID YOU GET IT?" or people giving my poor scarf a total stink face. I had a couple of random knitters pop out of the woodwork to ask if it was Noro (yes), but they declined to comment on the color until I mentioned how ugly it was. Then I got some heartfelt agreements. Heh.

ANYWAY, I'd had enough of the adventure, and honestly, making something so ugly got my knitting mojo into a little bit of a bind. Yesterday morning I took myself off to Target to buy groceries and found a huge selection of individual Kool-Aid packets, so I picked up some Black Cherry. Sounded appropriate. Y'all should have seen the look on the cashier's face when she got to the 50 packets of Kool-Aid. She desperately wanted to ask what they were for, but didn't. I was so tempted to tell her I was going to snort them (or something). 

In the afternoon I commenced dyeing. It didn't take long at all, only about an hour. The general rule of thumb is two packets of Kool-Aid for every 50 grams of yarn you're dyeing. I put a huge stockpot on the stove, filled it with water, dumped in the Kool-Aid and the Clapotis and let it heat until it simmered. Then I shut off the heat and let it cool. My apartment smelled like Black Cherry drink mix for a few hours afterwards. When I rinsed out the scarf, I had no bleeding at all. Pretty sweet.

The Before:

The After:

 I also have a couple of other projects going, and I finished tearing apart that sweater. I now have approximately five billion cakes of yarn waiting to be hanked, washed and dyed.