Dyeing Adventure Continued

For my first hand-painted fiber I decided to do a colorway inspired by the Irish landscape--not the 40 shades of green, but green grass and trees, the deep brownish/black of peat and rocks, some golden browns, and natural creams and tans.   I sat down and figured out what I thought would be reasonable proportions in mixing the colors I was aiming for, tamped down the "I want to do it perfectly NOW" persona, and dove into the experiment.  The notebook turned out to be quite handy for notes as I go.

First, I put two sections of BFL (2 oz. each) to soak in warm water with a bit of Synthropol.

Then I set about mixing the colors:  2 shades of green, a golden tan (well, that was what I was aiming for), and a deep brown-black.

The soaked fiber is laid out on top of plastic wrap, ready to be painted, using the dye colors and stencil brushes.

The first 2 oz section painted.  It doesn't have enough light and unpainted areas, so plan to leave more "natural" in the second section.  The "golden tan" I had planned is much darker than imagined but... I like it!

The painted section is wrapped and rolled up in the plastic wrap, ready to go to the steamer--after I finish painting the second section.  The brown-black (which I actually mixed using purple) isn't QUITE what I had planned in my head, but it's all right.

Second section painted--better, but will probably wish that I had left even more natural, and done more with lighter tones.  We'll see what happens in the steamer.

And, because I like a couple of the colors and want to have some record of what the formulas produced (and because I have some dye left over), I use some small bits of Romney to do some samples.

They all go into the steamer, their own personal sauna.

When they come out and cool, I unwrap them.  The aqua I used to mix one of the greens has not absorbed--though every other color has absorbed completely.   The blue-green has migrated into the other green more than I would have liked, but for a first try I'm fairly happy with it.  (And the brown/purple/black is absolutely PERFECT!)   Next time I would mix more yellow with the first green, so there is more contrast between the two greens.

Now they wait to dry.  I could hardly wait to unwrap them--how will I wait until they dry to spin them???