Dye Disaster!

I've learned a big lesson from this - keep it small and simple.  I have a "commission" from a friend to make her a bag.  It's been in the works since April so I don't think she's expecting too much at this stage but I've slowly been collecting items that would suit her eclictic taste.  She loves paua so I test swatched a paua dyed yarn to felt and it came out brilliantly.  Unfortunately it's a whole lot different when you're dyeing in bulk.  The most I've dyed at once is around 150grams - dying what looks to be around 500 or 600 grams is totally different - especially in paint mode.  I chose a crock pot method, painting the wool and wrapping it in glad wrap and then steaming it in the crock pot instead of the oven.  What I got was a faded mess of pinks in amongst the purple and grey green where the teal should be bright - gutted.  But I can't give up - I have to get it right so that I can get going on it and as one of my "30 Days of Me" short term goals I promised myself I'd finish the redye process.  So I ordered in the purple and teal food colouring (I'll make sure I add that to the list of costs) and am currently redyeing sections - this time in the microwave.  The wool sucks up the colour instantly - I've almost been through the entire new pottle of gel colour on one short section.  The rest I'll use on the little section of purple in another area.  I think it's looking mildly ok but I'm not all that happy.  I'm currently doing a vinegar soak for the teal section that was quite greyed - will dye that tomorrow.  I'm acutally pretty sure that I'll have so much of this left over I'll be able to make another bag - I'm hoping that I can get my Felt store up and running focusing on bags.  I've never used so much food colouring - reckong I've used close to two full pottles of gel on this project alone and yet I've only used a teaspoon on other dye projects!

I'm happy with the outcome compared to how it did look and I've learned a valuable lesson.