Taryl for the win - I took some new yarn, handpainted it with the dyes and THEN nuked it - identical to the finished skein.  Mwahahahahaaaa!  Now I have an accurate way to test my results before painting the final product.

The only *minor* issue is that they start popping with steam in about four seconds - it's such a small quantity of water that it heats VERY quickly... so I may end up having to steam anyway lest I expload some yarn on accident, but for the time being this worked very well and until there's a ball of fire in the nuker I'll stick with it.  Pictures to come, I just had to give my triuphant status update.

Yes, I do indeed feel smarter now, thanks ;)