6 January 09

Alpaca Koolaid

I found myself in this funky yarn store in Woodland with a scary McCain truck outside and plastic lining on the windows looking for bulky cashmere for my mother’s birthday scarf but all they had was baby alpaca so I took it and ran away but the color wasn’t quite right so remembering you could dye yarn with Koolaid I dove into Safeway where I never go and where I won’t be recognized buying koolaid for god’s sake but I don’t even know what aisle it would be on is it with spices or sodas or even controlled substances but a kindly mother helped me without raising any eyebrows which gave me pause because she ought to have unless she dyes her own yarn too and I got home and filled the crockpot with water and four packets of grape koolaid and the alpaca and the house stank of summer 1967 and I pulled out this bordeaux-colored handful of worms and rinsed it and dried it and rolled it up and knitted it and the cats would just NOT leave it alone worse than catnip it was and they pulled and snagged at it so I had to do it over and this time it’s blocking in the car with no way for cats to get in. But you should smell the car.

You probably can. From wherever you are.

Posted by at 07:41 PM in Knitting | Link |

  1. I can imagine the smell, heh. I bet it’s a beautiful scarf.


    — marja-leena    6. January 2009, 22:34    Link

  2. Well it sounds as though it looks lovely… let us hope she loves the smell of summer 1967 unless you have a deodourising plan :-)


    — Lady P    7. January 2009, 06:14    Link

  3. Thanks for the belly laugh! So funny I had to read it out loud to George. I can smell your grape Koolaid car all the way to Florida.


    — Gainor    7. January 2009, 17:36    Link

  4. … and when all else fails, she can boil her scarf for, um, really awful tea.


    — Ron Sullivan    8. January 2009, 00:23    Link

  5. Well now … and who said that knitting was an innocent or dull hobby? If you keep this up, we might have to stage an intervention. :)

    Thanks for the laugh this morning.


    — maria    9. January 2009, 12:00    Link

  6. Laughing! Having dyed yarn with KoolAde myself, I can attest to the pungency of the fragrance! The bad news – you might want to rinse it with a bit of vinegar to help set the dye, which will make the yarn smell even more… intriguing. The good news – the smell does eventually fade!


    — Rana    10. January 2009, 11:00    Link

  7. :-)


    — dale    10. January 2009, 17:25    Link

  8. I remember the smell of the summer of 1967, and was delighted to be transported there so abruptly. Delightful post.


    — Jarrett    18. January 2009, 05:38    Link

  9. The grocery store nearest my house has “Kool Aid” on the aisle marker…


    — Lynn    27. January 2009, 12:14    Link

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