why not purple???

I've been dyeing sock wool the last few days - part of my big (3.5 kg) sock wool cone has changed from snowy white cone into colourful skeins... I am using mostly acid dyes, though the golden yellow was dyed with the last dahlia flowers I was able to pick. dyeing with acid dyes is faster - and I can make semi-solids or paint on the yarn, if I want to. so here are two "reds":

I wound most of the undyed skein around a wooden spoon and only the dangling bit dyed golden yellow in the dahlias. for the upper skein I wound the yellow around the spoon handle and left the rest in the concentrated red. eventually I dropped it all into the nearly, but not quite used up dyebath, so the yellow turned orange as well. (the handle slipped into the pot once, thanks to DS, who "just had to see what's inside"... that's where the funny stripes on the left come from!)
the second one was done nearly the same, only towards the end I left some of the yellow out of the bath (it dropped in as well, but I fished it out quickly, so there's only a slight red haze on the yellow:))

 and this is the purple mystery! I know, it looks blue - but it isnt! really! it's strong purple...
the yellow in this photo is pretty much correct in colour.....

but the rest looks more like this! not even this is purple enough, but I tried every conceivable light I could find, changed the settings of the camera about 1000 times - didn't work. purple doesn't want to be photographed by my camera!

the last resort - trying to scan. and yes, this comes much closer to the real colour - and you can even see the real yellow - and the funny looking blend of yellow plus purple.... the mysteries of photography - why is purple such a no-go? the only way I came close (but not quite) - was to use a red filter.... 
the second skein is purple with some very dark blue areas - invisible here. I sometimes prefer semi-solids, because they show patterns much better.

I also started on christmas presents - this is going to be the table mat. knitted in herrringbone (pattern in B. Walker, and also online in their study group) instead of crocheted hexagons. this pattern is perfect for a table mat: it's not too boring to knit, lies flat without blocking and makes a reasonably dense, but not hard fabric. I am going to use three colours, the dark green, the "brown" (which is slightly more mauve in real life) and some dark burgundy red, nearly brown. when the main part is finished I am going to knit a border around to clean off the edges. it knits up reasonably quickly - but it's a good thing I'll only need two - I think with a larger family I'd be bored out of my mind after two sets:))

and of course there are still some things in the kitchen that need doing: I finished picking everything but chaenomeles and sloes... and I made some elderberry soup, which I love (and have to eat alone, as noone here shares my delight:)). I use elderberry juice, add cloves, cinnamon stick, sugar , lemon peel and some corn flour to thicken it slightly. sometimes I add semolina dumplings, but I have to share those with the men in the household (if you don't like elderberry soup, you can always eat the dumplings with cinnamon/sugar/butter:))  - and I was to lazy to make them and clean up the mess in the kitchen afterwards. elderberries are very good for (or rather against!) colds and infections, so I am sure I'll stay healthy all autumn and winter:)) the white bits of course are dots of cream - I like the coloured spiral - and funnily enough the camera liked to show this purple! should I spread some cream over my purple sockwool, maybe????