Do What You Love : *Shared stories* (71): Carrie Schmitt.
shared-stories-1 Clare Mulvany
This is a subject that’s been on my mind (and heart) for some time. I haven’t yet read any of the other stories, but maybe you’d like to take a look, let me know how you think and feel about the subject.
In fact I hope this will take my comment section to new and unimagined heights! (ok, length)
As I’m a bit muddled at the moment, my own thought will be revealed in due time.
I’ve been deadheading Dyer’s Chamomile all summer and drying the flowers – 430 g I have, which is about 1/4 of the original weight. Yes, I did dry 100 g separately, so I could weigh them after!
Today I while checking my apples I saw there were flowers again. So I picked another batch, probably the last. As well as a new batch of weld. I should have enough to play with this winter! I’ve dried all the weld from this summer, as I haven’t had time to play with it.
I also found, deep in the grass of my failed vegetable garden, some of the madder I planted last year. I think I’ll try to dig them up and relocate, but I don’t think I have the patience to wait 3-4 years for dyestuff. I can buy it not that expensively by the kilo, all dried and ready.
Other dry stuff to play with hiding in my drawer is black hollyhock, bark from Rhamnus frangula (Alder Buckthorn?), sumac bark, Cochineal and 100 g of Rathania root (Krameria triandra) and lots of onion peels.
Now all that waits is to see if I get any elderberries to experiment with. Since the privet lost its berries before they even grew (lots of flowers on it in spring). But right now they’re only just going from green to black, so I’ll have to watch out. I hope to be able to make some juice for hot winter drinks as well.
Otherwise I didn’t do much today apart from boiling a skein of sock yarn, that I needed to know how soft it is after dye and wash. Sigh. I just can’t hear the friggin pot simmer even when I’m in the same room. It’s all y’all’s fault ya know. If I didn’t sit here writing at you, I wouldn’t ruin a fortune in wool…. 😉
I just realized that we’re moving into autumn and after that comes winter.
We heat the house only with the woodstove in the living room, and while the house is warm enough, I do tend to get cold hands sitting in my “office”, typing or just mousing away with one hand.
So, for the last 2 years I’ve wanted to make some fingerless mittens, but never got around to it. I even have some really thin baby alpaca yarn to use, just to get an extra layer of skin but not have the bulk get in the way.
What I can’t decide it whether to just make the tube variety with a thumb hole or real gloves with just the fingertips off. Plain rib for a snug fit or some elaborate lace or cable pattern…
Which do y’all prefer? And why? (apart from the fact that I’m not looking forward to knitting fingers, I have an idea it may be warmer)
[polldaddy poll=6515674]
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Jeg bliver lidt kold om fingrene om vinteren nÃ¥r jeg sidder her ved PC’en, sÃ¥ jeg har længe tænkt pÃ¥ at lave fingerløse vanter i tyndt alpaca garn for at de ikke er i vejen men lige giver et ekstra lag hud. Det er bare ikke blevet til noget, men nu er vinteren jo pÃ¥ vej igen!
Så jeg vil lige høre, bortset fra, hvad der er nemmest at strikke, hvilken slags foretrækker I, med eller uden fingre, altså bare et rør med tommelfingerhul eller rigtige vantefingre uden spidser? Og hvorfor?
Vidste du, at man kan kommentere min blog uden at være wordpress medlem? Bare udfyld navn er nok. Det er så hyggeligt med dialog fremfor monolog!
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:
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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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?
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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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!
