irish spring and hummingbirds in silk

there used to be a tv ad in germany: all green and clear running water, sunshine and flowers (it was for a shampoo) - well, dream on - this is what "Irish Spring" was like today - ok, there is some blue sky visible, but more by accident than anything else.... the snow cover came and went several times today - and there is more forecast for tonight! the poor daffs are sodden and hanging to the ground....

but look on the bright side - there is nothing like a spot of dyeing when the weather outside is grey. after testing one skein yesterday, I decided to change to the silk/wool mix instead of the silk/cashmere (less "hairy", not scratchy, but the cashmere gives a lot of halo to the yarn!). and even though the colours weren't exactly what I wanted them to be (the gaywool dyes don't come in clear base colours and the mixing can be a bit of a surprise!) - I think I am quite happy with them now. I painted all skeins on the kitchen sink - much higher than the table and if an accident does happen - so what!

after painting I wrapped all skeins into cling film, steamed them and rinsed them out after they had cooled off.

this is the ball of silk/cashmere I painted yesterday (just a small one) and the colours do look fairly similar at first, maybe a bit more intense on the silk/wool mix, but that's only a marginal difference.

this is the first pattern of the "pretty as a peacock" shawl - but when I test knitted yesterday I found that there was too much yellow in it - and the colour spread is too patchy. I divided the skein with a ruler and painted each colour sequence 4 times, hence the spotty spread. this time I didn't I spread the sequence only once around the skein, a lot more green and blue in full areas and less yellow altogether! now I hope that I can find several nice "feathery" lace patterns for my hummingbird challenge shawl - I am itching to start knitting, though of course I have to finish the leaf border on the spring shawl first!