From left to right in the photo above we have a microwave-safe dish, with a coil of sliver (precise content unknown, beyond “it’s wool from Canadian sheep”) in it, and my four test dyes: brown, royal blue, yellow, and copper. The fibre weighed barely 1/4 oz. I used maybe a tablespoon to two tablespoons of the dye solution for each colour, perhaps more of the blue and less of the copper.

The fibre, with the dyes poured over it, just before it’s put in the microwave for its series of two-minute heatings. You can see how the blue and yellow are blending and being pulled around the dish by capillary action. Clockwise from upper left: blue, yellow, copper, brown.

The fibre, now dyed, after the dye has set and the water has been poured off. (Yeah, I apologize for not using a consistent background colour.)

The teeny-tiny braid of dried fibre, posing with the big ball o’fibre that had its origins in a 3 oz bag stuffed full of mill ends and scrap that I picked through, combed/carded, then dizzed off with a button and rolled the resulting sliver into a ball.

In my opinion, the dyed fibre looks rather like a mangled parakeet. But this particular little dead budgie is my dead budgie, dyed all by myself. Now I know how things react with one another, and how the process works. Blue is very aggressive, as is yellow. (That’s why so much of this is blue, yellow, and green.) The brown needs a lot more dye to water ratio for a stronger colour. The copper is almost unnoticeable.

I call this experiment a success in the gaining experience department. Next experiment: to see what happens when it’s spun.

(I have done other stuff today, namely finish a never-ending editorial evaluation. I decided to treat myself to this test while making dinner. No dinners were dyed in the course of this experiment.)

ETA: OOOH! I could conduct Another Experiment and try overdyeing the fibre with more brown to tone it down/enrich the brown tones! Must plot.