Here is the story:
First I placed the beloved merino/mohair fiber into a vinegar and water soak for 30 minutes. The directions called for one cup of vinegar to one quart of water.
While the soak was processing, I then took these extremely expensive, hard to get ingredients, along with the same sophisticated equipment and mixed up these lovely dyes (aka grape, lime, and orange kool-aid). (one packet of kool-aid mixed with 2/3 cup of vinegar)
Once the soak was done, I drained as much water out of the pot until the water just covered the fiber and placed it on the stove until just under a boil, using a meat thermometer to get the water to about 135-140 degrees farenheit.
Using a serving spoon I carefully added the dye from the darkest to lightest in the pot; remember, a little goes a long way (about half the prepared dye mixture). Once the dye was added,I then put the heat down to medium, covered then simmered for 30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes was up, I used this sophisticated tool to drain some water out of the mixture. As you can see, the water is clear which means the fiber has completely soaked up the dye.
And here is the progress so far. It is now in the cooling stage. In about 2-3 hours, it will be rinsed out and laid flat to dry.
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank my friend, Mary, for giving me the inspiration to dye
and for youtube.com for providing me with the videos for instruction.