I have been dyeing again.

Cheviot top, which I used to use lots of, but not so much recently. Not ideal for real next to the skin softness, but fantastic for socks. Takes colour fabulously.

The orangey shades here are dyed in my Redleaf. The blue/teal is one I invented to try to copy the sky in the wonderful September weather towards the end of the day - clear, clear blue just sinking towards teal.



And exactly the same colourways, but this time in the coloured BFL top. Infact, it was the same two dyebaths. I really do prefer how the natural oatmeal wool mutes and enriches the dyes.







And some special dyeing for my chum Carol, who asked for some dyed with short colour changes to help with the teaching of spinning. I have dyed up one special colourway for her - the eponymous 'Carol' but we felt like a change for this lot. And they haven't got names yet.


I'm not normally into pink, but I love how the two different pinks shade in and out and react with the greens.









I was thinking Scandinavian reds and blues here - which lean more towards Prussian and orange.










I think this will look lots better spun up than in the fibre. The yellow's a bit bright, but will stretch out beautifully into the maroon.





I do seem to keep going back to blues, greens and purples. But I'm not the only one.









I finished dyeing about 11 last night, having not started until Mark left for work about 8.30. At least using the ordinary merino rather than the superwash I don't have to start with a cold dyebath each time - reusing the same hot water for each lot (and there's three lots of two dyebaths here) saves time and energy. The last lot through was the Cheviot and BFL - there was 100g of each in each pot, and the blue had so much turquoise in it that it hadn't exhausted when I went to bed. I turned it all off and when I spun it out at about 5.25 this morning not only was the water crystal-clear, there was still some residual warmth too. Even wet wool holds heat.