Adventures in Dyeing

I spent a good portion of the Tour de Fleece watching my teammates turn out so many awesome hand-dyed fibers and seeing how beautifully they spun up. While I did think my purchased fibers were beautiful, I still felt like I was missing out on the fun of making my own colors. Not going to lie, I was a little jealous. Not in the angry spiteful way, but in the way that made me know I just had to try it for myself.
Sometimes peer pressure is a very good thing!

I ended up finding a killer deal on some undyed Shetland wool, and now it's my turn to play. I have some Koolaid on standby, but first some natural dyeing.

I looked at tons sources beforehand and pestered (and post stalked) my fellow Ravelers for hints and advice first. One of them was the person who linked me the blog with instructions for dyeing with blueberries and dyeing with tea. My info on fiber prep came from this Knitty article

Since I am practically allergic to following directions, I decided to document my whole process, so I would know what worked (and what to avoid) for future adventures. And since I was going to do all that, why not share it will anyone stumbling onto here?

( and since this post is full of pictures, I cut to save those of you who aren't fiber junkies )