Hand spun and hand dyed

This is my first batch of yarn spun on my new drop spindle.  The drop spindle is a little easier for learning to spin because it is slower than the wheel.  I have more time to concentrate on drafting consistently.  I am still not great at being consistent, but I think I'm getting better.

This is also my first batch of dying yarn.  I just used food coloring and used a combination of yarn dying techniques that I have read about in books, including this one, and the directions on the food coloring box.  I figured that wool is a protein fiber and egg shells are protein, so food coloring should work on wool if it works on eggs.  I heated a couple cups of water to just barely a simmer and added vinegar and food coloring as specified on the box.  I used 65 drops of blue and 15 of red.  The water looked really blue so I expected the yarn to be more close to indigo than purple, but I still like how it turned out.  I was surprised to see how differently some parts of the  yarn took the dye.  I am excited to knit something with it to see how it looks knit up!