Cloths part 2

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Time to open the rest of the packages from August 14th. The first package was opened on August 21st and now awaiting further experiments…

The sheet on the right was previously washed with soda, cooked with sumak leaves and was soaking in water with iron while rolled up with celandine. The pillow case similar although no tannin before but soaking in water with oak leaves while printing.

Discoveries so far:

  1. Oak leaves = nice clear prints
  2. yellow flowers = vague yellow blotches
  3. Sage leaves = absolutely nothing. Maybe a pale shade of yellow?
  4. Celandine leaves in a heap = again, turns brown when sitting too long
  5. Put cloth in bucket of whatever = only the outside layer takes any colour at all.
  6. My mystery cloth just lost whatever I put on it previously and didn’t take anything from the leaves it had been rolled up with.

None of these cotton rags were properly mordanted, which is the next process I’ll be trying to see what the difference is. Tannin and aluminium acetate, some with sea water and aluminium. Some with iron as well, before or after. But I probably won’t get to actually dyeing them until next summer. Rhubarb leaves will be on the menu as well.

Another set is brewing – hoping for prints from lupine leaves among other things.

Funny thing though, the celandine dyed sheet is brown – but when put into water again, the water turns yellow.

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Plantefarvning på stof

Tid til at åbne de sidste pakker jeg præparerede d. 14. august. Den første omtalte jeg d. 21. august, den er nu tør og afventer yderligere eksperimenter på et eller andet tidspunkt.

Der kom ikke sÃ¥ meget ud af det, svaleurt giver stadig brun ved langtidsfarvning og kun egebladene lavede print pÃ¥ stoffet. Det ene stykke stof mistede de print det havde inden og er nu næsten “rent”! Jeg ved ikke helt hvad det er lavet af, det er en slags kanvas og virker ikke syntetisk, mÃ¥ske hør?

Mini skeins

PiaAcid Dyeing

It’s become very popular to knit or crochet blankets, amigurumi and other small or assembled items with small skeins of handspun or handpainted sock yarn as well as leftovers of commercial yarns. Especially the hexipuffs have been all the rage for quite a while! (I realize blankets as such have probably never been out of fashion, but so many cool patterns are emerging)

I normally don’t follow fashion much, but thought I’d join this madness and use it to my advantage: I’ll simply make my colour experiment swatches in the amount of mini skeins when I spin and dye, so that I actually have something useful and not just a piece of coloured string. And they make good travel knitting. I’m not making puffs, but rather like the hexagon shape, so that’s what I’m doing right now.

I’ve made a couple of niddy noddies from bits and pieces lying around the place, so that I don’t have to drag out my (also homemade) swift every time I want to wind a small skein.  Dowels, spheres from a hobby shop (leftover from spindle making), a broom handle and a thingy from an old wine rack. Voila presto! I never got round to glueing on the spheres because I wanted to make sure I had the correct circumference. And the rubber band colours help me keep track of counting anyway…

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Mini garn

Jeg er begyndt at lave mine farve/spindeprøver i mængder der passer sÃ¥dan ca. med et par hexipuffer o.lign. sÃ¥dan at jeg rent faktisk kan bruge dem til noget bagefter. Det er sikkert ogsÃ¥ udmærket til rejsestrikning forestiller jeg mig? Jeg synes det er en fin mÃ¥de at fÃ¥ afprøvet alle mulige kombinationer, sÃ¥ det har jeg tænkt mig at gøre fremover i stedet for altid at spinde 50-100 g af hver slags garn og sÃ¥ ikke rigtig fÃ¥ det brugt. Jeg gider nok ikke rigtig lave puffer, men sekskanter synes jeg egentlig er flot, næsten cirkler. 😉

Mit haspetræ har jeg strikket sammen af dele fra en gammel vinreol og et par trækugler fra Panduro… De er ikke limet pÃ¥ endnu fordi jeg ville være sikker pÃ¥ omkredsen (garnet strækker sig jo nÃ¥r man vinder det pÃ¥), deraf elastikkerne. Og sÃ¥ fandt jeg ud af, at farverne hjalp mig med at tælle omgange og ja, sÃ¥ kom jeg ikke længere!

On mould and rot

PiaPlant Dyeing

Last year I had a bucket full of beautiful, golden dye, I’m not sure which plant I’d used (thinking celandine), but it was strong and sunny and the cotton pillowcases I dunked in there soon looked very cheerful as well. Then, hungering to see just how much dye they could take, I left the bucket a few more days. When I came back, it had all turned brown and there was mould starting to grow on top, it was slimy and smelly and  not sunny at all.

Sometimes you don’t have to leave it out for weeks, just sayin.

So I’ve been thinking, would it be cheating to add a slosh of preservative like what I use for jam? And would it even work in a container that’s not sealed?

So I decided to use a leaf dyeing experiment to try out the concept at least. One with jam preservative, one with vinegar. And well, I’m going to throw in a pot of Celandine too, they need some purging anyway. I can just make it before it gets cold I think.

There are pros an cons of course – since the rot can probably give you both surprises as well as a variety of colour that you wouldn’t normally get. But if that’s not what you want…

With the birch leaves I got exactly the same colour on the yarn, but the bucket without preservative got smelly and mouldy, the other lasted fine for a week in my greenhouse. So, some yellow dyes are ruined, some keep their colour.

Celandine results will be updated later!

I also added preservative to the jars of silk soaking up Dyer’s chamomile dye. No mould or funny smell at all even after weeks. They were in tightly closed mason jars.

So far it looks like the vinegar does as well as the preservative. About a month before both buckets of cloths got a bit mouldy on top, that was after I’d looked several times and taken the cloths out, not putting the lid back on properly.

Smokin’!

PiaChit Chat

Well, in awarding me the “Blog on Fire” award, Grackle & Sun (my secret internet twin – such as point 5, 6 & 8 on her list just to mention a few little synchronicities), also used the title, so I had to come up with other hot stuff. I’m honoured and amused and a tiny bit embarassed to be selected, and of course thrilled that some people actually enjoy my ramblings through hobbyland.

Thanks also for pointing me to OTHER cool blogs besides her own, expanding my territory and awareness, as well as reminding me to drink more water….

The rules for the Blog on Fire Award are to write 8 unusual things about yourself or your pet and then to share the award with 8 other bloggers who you think are on fire.

  1. While I don’t disapprove of tv as such, I rarely watch and could easily live without one. (alas, the tall guy cannot) Apart from the odd movie I mostly end up watching just the news, sporadically, or weird stuff about Egyptian mummies on the cultural channel.
  2. I then think up art yarns inspired by egyptian grave stuff.
  3. I sortof believe in magic. I mean almost. As in, wouldn’t it be nice, and well, you never can be quite sure, can you? (er yes, I do watch “Merlin” btw)
  4. My nervous wreck of an Arabian horse is too polite to really spook or disobey, but you always know if he’s scared or worried because he flaps his lower lip loudly, flipflop, flipflop.
  5. I’m 46 and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
  6. As a kid I liked to eat bananas with salt licorice pastilles.
  7. I read bedtime stories to my husband almost every night. Currently “Witches Abroad”, a Discworld novel.
  8. I have a knack for learning languages, to the point of embarrassment when I unintentionally mimic the accent of the locals on holidays to Scotland.

And for 8 blogs that I enjoy for a variety of reasons on a variety of subjects (I can’t ever stick to just one interest in life, I want it all!). Being new to blogging I’m also new to reading them, so my list is a work in progress.

pangaweka – impressionist blog in poetic form with lovely photos and recipes

La Belle Helene – fiber and jewellery artist, lovely stuff!

Growing Colour – plant dyeing and felt painting (another craft on my todo list)

Hovercraftdoggy – serving daily quirky and cool photos

whatzitknitz – knitting, dyeing, a cute dog and funnny toys

Sosae – a textile artist with my kind of appetite for colour

Photos from the area around Cairo/Giza by resident American friend

Inside the head of a South African(?) bookseller

Hey, this was kinda fun! Maybe I should play girly games more often. 😉

Sad Sunday

PiaChit Chat

Healthwise my week has been soso, it’s still a bit of a mystery what my system is up to and why. So I haven’t had a lot of stuff to share. And I’ve been missing my Maxmeister terribly, I could use some of his cuddles right now!

Coming, Mum!

I’ll be back on track next week I hope….

Btw I think it’s hilarious that no matter what I write about, WP suggests I use the tag “gaming”. As in, that’s something I’ll never be writing about.