Things I've learned about Koolaid

Koolaid is incredibly hard to find if you want more than the regular grape, orange and cherry! I remember a long time ago they used to have points on koolaid and my sister and mom and I would get loads of different flavors for the points things... i don't think we ever sent in for anything, but I do remember having a whole envelope of fruity smelling upc codes... Anyway, different flavors (colors) are ridiculously hard to find... so readers of my little blog... if you find any unusual flavors in your travels, please pick them up.
Okay, so what I've learned, besides that they're really hard to find?
1. Koolaid is cheapest at Safeway (.34/each)
2. Koolaid is second most cheapest at Superstore (.43/ea)
3. Koolaid is most expensive at Extra Foods (.49/ea) -- how can it be 6 cents more expensive at the SAME STORE??


But I remember when Koolaid was 16 cents each... SIXTEEN CENTS! Now it's 49 cents! That's quite an indication of the declining economy... or perhaps it's just an indication that it's been about 15 years since I purchased koolaid...

Now... what do I need various colors of koolaid for? Let me explain:

I'm off work this week... Thank God, because I don't know if I would have been able to make it to my August holiday without this time. Since I didn't want to sit around and do nothing, I thought I'd do something creative and interested. So I decided to handpaint yarn. Not knowing a single thing about dying yarn, I researched online for a few evenings and finally decided on two methods. One was an acid exhaust dye, which requires you to wear a respirator for the preparation and is incredibly toxic. And one was Koolaid dyeing. I decided that I wanted to try both, because I doubt this will be the last time I dye my own yarn.
It's not a difficult process, using either method. For the Acid Dye, you mix the powder (wearing your mask, and not using utensils you ever want to eat on again) and vinegar and hot water. After soaking the skein of yarn you want to dye in warm water and vinegar (I've heard anywhere from 30 min to over night... I soaked mine for between 30 and 90 min), you lay it out in a circle on saran wrap and paint on your colors. I learned a few things about yarn painting after I had finished... research is easier to understand and it's easier to find answers to specific questions after you've tried the technique. Anyway, once you paint your dye on (no details here... this isn't an instruction blog... I may write that later), you wrap the yarn in the saran and nuke it in the microwave for a while ( 2min, then a break, repeat three times). Once it's cooled, rinse and hang to dry. If you're too anxious (impatient) to wait for it to cool, dump out into the sink and rinse with water as hot as the yarn is (and it's HOT), and then gradually cool down the water and the yarn, otherwise it may felt.
The Koolaid method is a little different. The koolaid is mixed with 1/2 cup of water to each packet of koolaid (for stronger colors, 2 pkt to 1/2cup water). The yarn is soaked in plain water and a drop of dishsoap for around 30min to all night. Then the yarn can either be handpainted again, or I tried the method where you throw the yarn into a casserole dish, cover with water and then pour the color mixture over it, careful not to stir... the yarn then bakes covered in the microwave for 5 min intervals until the water turns clear (about 15 min or so).
The next method I'm going to try is using food dye paste. I think I've learned a bit about what I need to do to not get muddy colors where they meet, and how to get longer stretches of color, so I'm going to foray into the world tomorrow for more yarn and try my hand again. It's rather fun actually... coming up with the color schemes, seeing your yarn come to life and then naming the colors. I ended up doing the purple/blue/red one twice because once it dried, I wasn't happy with the results... that's the other nice thing... it's pretty hard to ruin yarn... you can always overdye it, or add dye, or in the worst case scenario, you could mix up a dark blue, green or purple and just cover the entire skein... but the knitting style I like is not going to be too concerned with if the color variation is perfect...