Handpainted Wool Color Progressions

So I recently started handpainting tencel yarn for sale on etsy again. I hadn't done much of this for a few months and I felt that for these new batches I should try to be more systematic about it. My color choices have been pretty random -- blues and greens and purples one week, oranges and reds the next. And I hit on this notion that if I started with a four color combination, and then changed out one color at a time for each batch, that I would have an interesting body of yarn at the end, and the skeins would work together if one chose to use them in combinations, either knitting or weaving.

Well, kinda.

I've done three batches now with this idea in mind. The first batch was a fall colors combination:

The next batch I called Rainbow Sherbert:

I changed out the gold and burgundy for plum and raspberry. So my theory was already losing steam, having changed two colors instead of just one.  The third batch I called Northwoods:

And, again I changed two colors instead of one -- brown and green for plum and red.

At the end of each "dye lot" I painted some Lamb's Pride worsted yarn I had on hand, and I was very satisfied with how these turned out. The colors are more subtle, yet very warm and rich. I will definitely try to put them all together in a knitting project and I'm sure the progression will work well.

Voila (click to go the Flickr image):