What?

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Today I’ll try something new. I’m going to write this blog without knowing what it’ll be about! That could either mean a really short post or half a novel….

I’ve wanted to say something different rather than just dye reports, especially since I haven’t in fact been dyeing anything. Playing at mordanting cotton in as many possible ways that I can think of, to then be dyed together, but that will be a while.

I did crack the nettle -> green mystery though, so I may do a batch of that for you.

But, as it were, right now, today, I have nothing to show and tell. Drove all the way to a new forest with the dog just for some variety and didn’t bring the camera because it was grey and dull out. Of course it ended up quite lovely with sun and lots of potential shots!

Yesterday it rained and rained, I had to fire up the woodstove. In fact, this morning the house is only about 16° C, so I’m tempted. My newly replanted weld plants got drowned, I’d just put them outside to get ready for putting in the ground, but I fear the roots have all gone to rot now standing in soup instead of soil. All of the weld, obviously, not a variety of plants or just a few of the trays…

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My hands are sore again, and yes, I’ve been trimming hind hooves on the old guy. Then the farrier threw his (own) back and didn’t come to fix the fronts, but I think they’ll be ok for a little while yet. So today I really should take a break from my spinning marathon (3 colours to go + some plying) and tidy up the house – free some space for fresh crafting rather than just piles of supplies all over. Doesn’t look like the rest of this month is going to be about lounging in the garden, smelling the lilacs. I suppose I could rip them off the bushes and throw them in a pot instead. Or a vase, possibly.

Ok, lots of words and nothing interesting happening yet. Perhaps my brain is frozen too. I’ve dared myself to try to get used to getting up at 6, just because. And it’s actually quite rewarding, because it means I’m done with my internetty stuff around 8 and ready to work on my procrastination project. It doesn’t matter what I do, as long as I do something. And it’s so much easier to justify an afternoon nap. 😉

01Being as I’ve mentioned a relatively tired person, I’ve also decided to dedicate some attention to the “exercise” form called NEAT. Or “non exercise activity thermogenesis” if you want to google your own selection of articles. I’ve never seemed to be able to build muscle or stamina from training, it just keeps feeling like a chore, I don’t get more energy either. Runner’s high? Whut? Dunno what that means. I just get knackered and see stars. The only thing that ever motivated me is doing real stuff. Dig a hole in the garden, paint a wall, and you can SEE your accomplishment, it’s useful and makes you feel good. Running just to run? Boooring….. So maybe I’ve been on the right track for my kind of sport all along, and now they’ve just come up with a neat name for it.10 And I like the mental challenge as well in coming up with more ways to deliberately move a bit extra during the day. I don’t need to pretend I’ve forgotten something upstairs, because I do that quite naturally, but perhaps movement could be exaggerated?

Now I’ll go find some pretty pictures to throw in here and perhaps that will spark something interesting to write about. Or, more likely they’ll be completely random and irrelevant.

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Right, after a shower, a fire and more coffee, I’m back. Perhaps I need to get out more, if I persist on (in? with?) being so chatty without actually saying anything. So tell me, do you like or dislike smalltalk (IRL or otherwise), why or why not? If you never ever smalltalk, do you find enough people to have conversations with? Because I find that out there, outside the windows, most people engage in nothing but. And most of the time it really drains me, whereas the rare interesting encounters I have really fire me up. So I tend to, well, not go. I don’t need to, I’m very good at entertaining myself, but do I in fact build up a back log of chatter this way?

<<Wandering off for a second to feed Arthur his second breakfast.>>

Got my keyboard back from under the cat. And still nothing coming forth of true value or profundity. That’s it, I’m going to declutter my desk! I love a clutterfree desk – I just seem to, you know, get a lot of stuff going and then I put it down to sort out … and oh gosh where’s that bill I need to pay and before I know it the cats have thrown a party in the middle of everything. And then I just get tired and go do something in the living room.

Over and out!

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Goldilocks

I’m working away carding and spinning the fleece I dyed in honey jars last summer, making good progress I think. For most of the yarns I’ve taken several similar chunks and blended to get even more depth in the finished yarn, but this one intrigues me so much I want to leave it alone even if it’s just a small amount.

I have no idea how I got this colour, it’s made with the “pour several leftovers into the same jar” method. I just hope I like it as yarn as well!

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And then there’s a batch that looks almost like a fox pelt, which I also rather like after it’s been fluffed:

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Rhubarb leaves as mordant part 1

Harvested the first rhubarbs, finally, and as a bonus to the lovely crumble pie I boiled the leaves to try using as mordant. The fumes being apparently toxic, I used a hotplate in the barn (clever thing that turns itself off), and forgot about them for a few days before I strained the liquid and added yarn.

Which I subsequently forgot about for another 3-4 days…..So, not only a mordant, but already dyed! I believe the colour, as I learned on some other blog, could be described as “mucky fawn”. (incidentally I have 6 hanks of this)

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Well, we’ll see how it does with light and other dyes on top. I have a feeling it’s just going to be mucky with a hint of yellow….

I may or may not try this and not heat it AND pull it out a bit quicker, what do you say? Cotton?

Rhubarb leaf mordant part 2 >>

Daffodils / påskeliljer

I wanted to test my new plant dyeing yarn type, which I’m very excited about. It’s not only cheaper than my regular supply used to be (it has recently gone up 20% in price), it’s also much nicer. Smoother, more plies, and comes in readymade 25 g hanks.

not the ones I used
not the ones I used (1993)

So I’ve been deadheading daffodils for a few days, leaving them to soak in water until I had enough. In fact I was so busy collecting, that I forgot to take a nice flower photo for this post first!

I haven’t had time to do any natural mordanting yet, so I did the usual alum routine.

I didn’t actually expect much, but was pleasantly surprised, especially with the unmordanted hank, which is considerably more coloured than the dandelion hank I did on the same day.

I then collected the last heads and did an iron mordanted hank as well. I’m extremely pleased with this! Remains to be seen how fast these are of course. But I like this green so much compared to other iron induced greens or the nettle sample I did the other day, that I may just get more bulbs in the fall just for dyeing green!

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1. unmordanted, 2. alum+CoT, 3. alum+CoT+iron
Daffodil top, nettle bottom (no iron)
Daffodil top, nettle bottom (no iron)

PÃ¥skeliljer

Det siges jo at man skal prøve alt mindst een gang, så i år hoppede jeg på påskeliljerne. Vi har ikke så mange af de helt gule i haven, men det blev da til et alunbejset fed, et ubejset og et jernbejset.

Jeg samler når de begynder at visne, eller hvis nogen er knækket, og opbevarer i vand indtil der er nok, gerne flere dage.

Jeg blev da glædeligt overrasket over hvor meget farve jeg fik ud af dem, så den er absolut på listen over mulige planter i fremtiden. Faktisk er den grønne ret fantastisk i forhold til det ene fed brændenælde jeg har fået lavet (mere på vej).

Jeg har ikke nået at lave alternative bejsninger, som fx. rabarber, de er kun lige begyndt at kigge frem.

Dandelion 2013 mælkebøtte

dandelion / mælkebøtte
dandelion / mælkebøtte 2011

I’d already tried this 2 years ago and didn’t really think to repeat, but then again, one can always use yellow as a base for green or brown. I also wanted to break in the cast iron pot that I found in an “antique” shop.

So I did one hank in the iron pot, the others in a steel pot. And was quite disappointed. Even though I’d also cooked the flowers in the iron pot, it was no different from the others, I had to give it a bath with green vitriol to make it change.

So far I’ve only used flower heads because the leaves are hugging the ground mostly and are hard to pick, but I did want to do at least one skein before I abandon this plant. Not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because it’s not very remarkable compared to most wild plants that give yellow. If I need some, I can use it, but I’m not going to plan for it again.

It’s said that the leaves turn it more towards green than just the flowers. It didn’t BUT, the mordanted skein was ever so stronger yellow than the one with just flowers, so I definitely recommend going to the trouble of picking leaves as well. The two unmordanted hanks are almost identical, so I’ll probably be turning one into green with indigo or woad, unless I suddenly need a lot of pale yellow.

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left to right: leaves no mordant, flowers no mordant, flowers + alum, flowers + alum + iron, leaves + alum

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Now I just need to test it for lightfastness. Most of my yarns in fact. One of those tasks that I find less stimulating and leave off, like tax papers and such. 😉

Coming up next: Daffodils and Stinging nettle.

Mælkebøtter

Da jeg lige ville teste min nye støbejernsgryde, har jeg været en tur omkring mælkebøttefarvning igen – fordi det er de planter som er fremme nu. Jeg brugte et enkelt ubejset fed og ellers alun. Kun blomsterhoveder, da bladene mest ligger fladt pÃ¥ jorden her, nede i græsset.

Desværre fik jeg ikke rigtig noget anderledes resultat fra jerngryden, man får ellers tudet ørerne fulde af, at det dæmper farven på samme måde som decideret jernbejse. Så jeg måtte have det tredje fed en tur i en balje med jernvitriol for at få den olivengrønne farve jeg gik efter.

Og så ville jeg alligevel teste et enkelt fed med kun blade, for at se om det er rigtigt at de bliver lidt mere grønlige. Mælkebøtter er ikke bemærkelsesværdige i forhold til andre planter i naturen som giver gul, de kan bruges hvis de lige er der og man mangler gult, men jeg har ikke tænkt mig at bruge den år efter år bare for at gøre det.

Jeg blev temmelig overrasket over den kraftige gule farve jeg fik fra bladene, ikke grøn, men helt klart mere farve end fra blomsterne. Så det kan anbefales.

Lystestes skal det nok også, jeg skal bare lige tage mig sammen til at lave papskiver og lister og halløj for at holde styr på det.

Næste punkt på programmet er påskeliljer og brændenælde.