Some issues with methodology

When I was making sculpture I had a method for getting the effects I wanted, but I was working with oil paint on plaster. TOTALLY DIFFERENT than working with dye on fiber. So now I am trying different things, but so far I don't feel anything like a comfort level and I don't feel like I can get the effects I am envisioning. I have a picture in my head and I just can't get the fiber to come out like my mental picture.

I don't know if I have a setup that is conducive to really Getting Things Done in the dyeing department. I have:
* one large pot
* a really good hot plate (I read all the reviews on Amazon on a whole bunch of them until I found the one about which people had only positive things to say)
* a large folding table, covered with a clear plastic shower curtain
* five colors of Jacquard acid dyes, in cherry red, brilliant blue, sun yellow, chestnut brown, and black. Recently I decided I don't like this red and brown so I ordered crimson and regular brown, and sapphire blue as well to shake things up. Sun yellow seems to be the only primary-ish yellow they have in Jacquard. I don't know whether it's a good idea to mix dyes from different manufacturers, and I'm guessing not, so I'm going to stick with these for the time being
* beakers and squeeze bottles and sponge paint brushes and little eye droppers (none of which I currently use)
* a scale calibrated in grams and ounces. It doesn't measure the tiny quantities I'd prefer to measure, and it turns out that the scales I have used in organic chemistry lab, which are calibrated to much smaller measures, cost A LOT MORE.

When I mix colors, I currently measure out dry dye and mix it in hot water. Lately I have been using tiny amounts of dry dye in a pot of hot water on the hot plate. I began with acid dyes from the start (rather than, say, Kool-Aid) because I wanted deep intense colors, but lately I've been going for pastels. (Of course, when I say pastels, I mean washed out hues, but not baby blue and pink and Easter lavender and yellow and green.)

One thing I've heard from several dyers is they mix a bunch of dry dye into big jars of concentrate, which they then use to mix the colors. One of the members of my spinning guild told me to do it this way, so I went home and mixed up a jar of each of the dye colors I have ... and then I didn't dye anything for over a year, because I was so intimidated by the jars! By the end of that time, by the time I worked my nerve back up to venture into the studio, the dye had gone moldy in one of the containers, and solidified in the bottom of two others. I was able to use up the other two, but it was a failed experiment. So I decided to go back to my tried and true method.

Lately I've been feeling like I should try again with the liquid concentrate, but maybe I'll use a much less saturated concentrate than I did last time. Since the guideline I've been going by for saturated colors is to use a teaspoon of dye for a pound of fiber, and since I only dye 8 oz of fiber at a time, I try to keep the total amount of dye I use to a half-teaspoon per batch. I was thinking lately that I could try dissolving a teaspoon of dye in 32 oz of water (one for each color) and then use those concentrates to mix colors with. So if I want an unsaturated pale green, for example, I could mix a half-cup (4 oz, or 1/8 teaspoon of dye) of yellow and a half-cup of blue (and then mix in a little red or a little black to make it less of a pure color, as is my wont).

This would also allow me to begin to create reproducible dye recipes. So far I have just been eyeballing, and my record keeping is terrible anyway, but even if I kept meticulous records I would never be able to reproduce a previous color. And ultimately it would be desirable, I think, to be able to have a set of recipes for colors that I can make again and again.