Per a fairly recent changelog entry, it is no longer possible to dye bundled items. I hadn't seen this one coming nor participated in discussions regarding it, so it caught me a bit by surprise. I think I can understand why this change occured. Say you had a really rare dye and about a trillion skeins of thread. You only had to use said dye on the thread and you'd have a huge supply of this super rare-coloured thread. This isn't really realistic, so I figure it's fair enough that it happened. However, the way dyes work post-change is incredibly inefficient, in my personal opinion, at least. Say you're someone who prefers giving the market a bit of variety and not the same boring grey or white every time. Considering dyes are basically there purely for aesthetic reasons, I think that it can get ridiculously expensive trying to buy all the right dyes and colour the right items, especially if you're not the adventuring-type, which not everyone is.
I think there's a compromise that can be achieved, so folks don't abuse rare dyes but also have enough of them to make enough pretty things without going bankrupt. We've got an entire dyer's cottage in Shadgard! With vats, and everything! Why not use it? How about...
I specifically mentioned rimeveil in this example, because people can sort of get away with dying a bit more wool than is needed to dye one finished wool product only. But the same is true of leatherworked items or figurines, or what have you. And I suspect there would be nothing wrong with making those items work in a similar way. For example:Put dye in vat
You put a vial of swampgrass-green dye in a boubling vat of dye.
The dye slowly spreads in the vat.
Put thread in vat
Warning: there is only enough dye in the vat to change the colour of 350 items in this bundle. You will be left with two differently-coloured bundles, after the dying process is complete.
If you're sure, repeat this command within the next 10 seconds.
Put thread in vat
You put a skein of white rimeveil thread (bundled 222222) in a boubling dye vat.
*After some time has ellapsed*
Look in vat
In the boubling vat of dye (instance container) you see a skein of white rimeveil thread (bundled 21,872 and a skein of swampgrass-green rimeveil thread (bundled 350)
That is all. I think that is reasonable. What do you think?Put dye in vat
You put a vial of swampgrass-green dye in a boubling vat of dye.
The dye slowly spreads in the vat.
transfer 3 pelt from backpack to vat
You successfully transfer the following from a heavy leather backpack (open) to a boubling vat of dye:
A fox pelt (x3)
(3 item(s) total)
*after some time*
Look in vat
In the boubling vat of dye (instance container) you see a swampgrass green fox pelt (X3