I nearly die while dying

OK, so I have this great batch of cashmere merino fiber. I've decided to dye it before spinning in spite of the possibility of felting it. I was unable to forgo the pleasure of spinning beautifully colored fiber.

I chose the cold pour method from "The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook". Though I'd never tried this technique, it was chosen instead of the more dangerous bring it to an almost boil and then simmer it one. The word cold had a great deal of appeal.

Half of the fiber would be a deep, royal purple with some variegation in depth of color due to the pouring and squishing method. This proceeded nicely. I'm glad I tried this, less complicated dye lot first or I might never have tried another.

Once this was gift wrapped in its very own plastic wrap package, I began batch two. I had covered my kitchen counter with heavy duty poly and placed the plastic wrap on top. The plan was to snake the roving from one end to the other and apply blue red to one end and royal blue to the other and hope that they would run together amicably into some interesting blends of the two colors. The results could then be plied with each other and or with the purple.

Imagine my horror when the middle portion instead turned to a particularly bilious shade of...brown! Thoughts of how I had, in spite of all my planning, ruined my formerly fabulous fiber staggered through my head.

At this point, DH wandered through the kitchen, noted my consternation (thirty years together have given him a keen eye for emotions of this sort) and its cause and assured me that it would turn out just fine, all my other fiber projects have. What supreme confidence!

It gave me the courage to soldier on. Fortunately I had LOTS of purple dye from the first batch left over. I applied it liberally (thank goodness for heavy duty poly) over the entire batch and squished and tilted until I liked what I was seeing. This was wrapped up and both batches were steamed. The directions advise that a dyer should let her fiber cool overnight to avoid felting. It wasn't easy, but I managed to wait.

I couldn't have been happier with the results as you see above. Batch two turned out just as I'd envisioned and I learned a thing or two about multicolor batch dying.