Every once in a while, the universe likes to send me a reminder that I’m not really in control. Sometimes the reminder is subtle, sometimes it is not.

Fortunately, this time it is at least gentle.

I kicked off my crafty weekend with a dye day. A friend of mine has been wanting to try her hand at throwing color on fiber, and she came over for the morning on Saturday. I have another friend who has been very nice about giving me rides all the time, and she helped me pick up the loom, so I wanted to make her a small skein of handspun to show my appreciation. Her color is green, and sometimes purple, but not the tone of either that I tend to wear. I go for blue-greens and saturated colors, she loves the yellow greens that remind me of baby leaves unfolding in the springtime.

I knew roughly which green I wanted, and went over to the sample cards to pick the potion to get it. We decided on a mixture of three dyes for the green, shot through with a very strong solution of burgundy. Something to evoke pale green and dark lilac.

We made the solutions, painted them onto the yarns, rolled them up in their cellophane cinnamon rolls, and steamed. Then we waited impatiently while the fiber cooled enough to touch without felting. As with watched pots, hot wool cooling in August takes quite a while if you are standing around waiting for it.

Finally, the fiber was cool, and it was time to see what we got.

Acid green and almost-brown.

That last picture doesn’t quite give you a sense for how day-glow that green is. This one is a little better:

I still like it, and I like it more and more as the days go by, but it is definitely not evoking lilacs.

I’m ok with this, because I really enjoy being  just on the magic side of control when dyeing, but a leeettle closer to the mark would have been nice!

I think I will spin it anyway and see what happens. It may turn into the most glorious skein I’ve ever made. Or I might overdye. But I will not get too excited about being able to dye whatever I want. Instead, I think I will glory in the unexpected.

The other piece of roving was much closer to what I’d planned, though again not exactly on the mark. This one I dyed first with black, hoping for a medium grey base. Then I added concentrated burgundy intended to be an accent color. What I got is a burgundy with a little bit of grey.

It’s hard to hold a grudge, though. Do you see that color?