Dyeing

So at the moment I'm in California, visiting Stanford. I think I'll likely won't go there; I didn't like it as much as I liked MIT. The weather was really nice today while I was outside, and I was really happy to walk around surrounded by green with a brilliant blue sky (with some fluffy clouds in it) above.

This evening my sister and I tried to dye some yarn with Kool-Aid. The colors turned out paler than I expected (which was strange, as I used more than the required amount of Kool-Aid... maybe I should have added some vinegar? some sites recommend that, but others say it's unnecessary). (For a quick page on Kool-Aid dying, see here.) Anyone know why? Anyway, here are the results:

(you can click on the picture for a larger view).
The yarns on the right are my sister's and my attempts at variegated yarn. Her yellow-and-orange turned out nicer than my red-and-purple (maybe because I was also trying to mix some colors. To make the variegated yarn we just squirted different colors of dye onto portions of the yarn. For some reason, it doesn't really end up mixing, and actually ends up variegated; I really wasn't expecting that, but I was glad that it happened.

I wish that the colors were more vibrant... I'll play around a little more, and if it keeps ending up like this I'll try out acid dyes. Some people like pastel colors like this (and it seems to work great for them) but I can't say that I'm that thrilled by them.