Dyeing for Rams & Yowes

I have fallen in love with a pattern and I have swatched this last week.
The pattern is Rams & Yowes (pronounced ewes).
I decided to use two colors of Noro Silk Garden Sock (sport weight) to make a cowl for a swatch. I wanted to make sure my stranding was even and try out different ways of stranding the floats on the private side of the knitting.

As you can see in the final picture,

the bottom, where I started, I was securing the the floats every 6 stitches to make the floats shorter. I was getting a puckering. The middle set of sheep I switched to two handed stranding and secured the long floats every 8 stitches. Again puckering. The last set of sheep, though harder to see because of the back ground color being too light, are just long floats. This set was done with me dropping the color and knitting like I normally do. I like the results, if not the color, of this set of sheep.
Then I took a black and white picture to see what colors worked best together.

I like the contrast of the colors at the bottom best. So I decided to go for bold colors for the back ground and a lighter color for the animals on the blanket. The wool I am using comes from Shady side farm. It is a 2 ply mill spun, 1700 yards. The pattern calls for over 2000 yards, but I figure The extra is for the icord, and I am not sure I will do that part.
I set up my dye pots this morning. I used liquid food dye and gel frosting dye. All kettle dye style of bringing the wool to a simmer as it soaks in vinegar water then pulling the wool.


Then I pulled the wool, mixed the colors in the separated water

I thought this picture of the steam was pretty.

and put the wool back in the different colors.





I let the wool sit until the water was clear. This means there is no more dye for the wool to take up.
The colors I came out with-


and how they will play together in the blanket

I can't wait until it is all dry and I can cake it up. I really want to start the blanket.