I went with the red...

As you can see from the photo below, I went for the red on my handspun. This was for two reasons- first all the lovely encouragement I had, and second black can be dyed over red if it was a disaster, but not the other way round!

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I mixed some black into the red dye to get a nice dark colour, not an in your face red. It is maybe a little darker than intended, but I am still pleased with it (and have since realised that I obviously like this colour a lot, I have a carpet, sofa cover, curtains and jumper all in a very similar shade!).
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There was no felting during the dyeing, and the colour took nice and evenly (the slightly shiny bits in the photo are just on the ties around the skein). This was a massive relief as I was very nervous about it, and accidentally boiled it during the dye process through not paying enough attention and the difficulties of temperature control on electric hobs- thank Bob for the low felting tendencies of Suffolk fibre!
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I saved the tiny skein in natural colour, a good wash cleared up a bit more of the grey, there may even be an attempt at a colour work Christmas decoration.
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The red has been balled and is already in the process of being knitted up, it will just be a plain ribbed beanie type hat. I had intended to spin a thick yarn to make the spinning and knitting faster, but it seems I struggle with that, it is about DK weight, not the aran/chunky I had pictured!