Seeing purple

I've been playing around with wool and Rit dye, as a little change from Koolaid. I've been trying to get a particular shade of purple, so I keep trying smaller and smaller amounts of dye.

I'm using the liquid stuff, not the powder. From left to right, I used 2 oz, 1 oz, and 1/2 oz dye per 100g yarn. (I also added 1/3 c vinegar to each dyepot.) Doesn't the one on the right look just like the one in the middle? OK, I confess, I haven't been doing this as scientifically as I could. When I used 1 oz dye, I actually had a little more than 100g yarn (how much more? I don't know, just a little...). And the skein on the right is a different brand from the other two, so I suppose that could affect results as well. Oh, and I used more water on the last skein, but the same amount of vinegar, so that would affect the pH also. Man, I really didn't follow proper protocol with this, did I? Oh well, as long as I write down everything when I finally get the color I want, I should be OK.

With this cold weather (looks like St. Louis will actually have a winter this year), I need another pair of thick wool socks, so the middle skein has already been cast on as a pair of socks for me. I am still working on the cuffed ankle socks, but I made a mistake 3 rounds back (how on earth did I accidentally do an m1?). I guess I'm going to have to tink 3 rounds, which doesn't thrill me, so I decided not to think about it for now.

The sun is out, and the ice is starting to melt off the trees. I'm hoping this will help Ameren UE restore power to the half million St. Louisans who are w/o electricity, including the b/f's father. Yep, it's a replay of the storms from last July. Now, if you ask a St. Louisan, "Where were you in the blackout of '06?" they can answer, "Which one?"