playing with dye

I knit my husband's socks and I usually buy hand dyed wool and then I thought, why am I doing this, I could do it myself! I haven't done proper dyeing since I left college, only really used it to paint a background and so on, so when a workshop with the International Felters group I belong to came along, I thought I would refresh my skills....and I think I needed to do so! The day arrived to find me with my wool wetted out in white vinegar over night and me with an abscess under my tooth. Going to the dentist won out and then I had some wool to deal with. I thought I would try the spotting technique (I was in too much pain to faff with mixing dyes). I used acid dyes with a microwave instead of a dye bath and these are the results. The image above is 25%nylon/75% merino which I squeezed too dry. I had to squirt some of the water and vinegar mixture over it to get the dye to migrate. The image below is 100% merino. This one I left too wet and my blue dye virtually subsumed my red.......oh well, back to the drawing board!