dyeing with kool aid and other sugars

I took a class last fall called Kitchen Dyeing at the Textile Center.  I fully expected to peel some onions and hull some avocados, but what the teacher had meant was dyeing with Kool Aid and egg dye and the like.  The description for this season's version of the class has made that more clear, and since this was the first time the class was offered, I truly cannot hold it against anyone, though I have to admit, my face must have fell like some disappointed preschooler's.  I must clarify:  I don't have anything against this method, but it's not for me.  I have a deep sugar sensitivity due to my PCOS, and the smell is awfully cloying.  I also have a romantic notion linked to marching out in the woods and gathering up (well, sumac and sorrel) bits, or looking to the produce aisle to see how I can alter my woolies.

Either, way I got to practice variegation and painting on silk hankies, which was so soft and sticky.  You can get some dramatically vibrant color and after washing and soaking, the smell fades away.  I had notions of making some kind of fiber felted landscape with these pieces, but I ended up giving them away on a pay-it-forward site.