Category: Yarn and Fiber

Carding not weaving

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

suffolk18

Been so busy picking, carding and spinning the first of three fleeces I was given last year, that I haven’t had time to paint the tapestry sketches that are floating around in my head (they just keep marching in), nor weave the small samplers for learning the process.

I’m finally done, although only with the dyed part. Still 900 g of white (from the one fleece) to deal with…. I must say, the spinning goes super fast from rolags, but picking out plant bits and hand carding was murder. Only 550 g of yarn to show for a whole month’s work, and there’s in total 2500 g left of those fleeces to process. In the meantime, I’m not doing any fun spinning, hardly any knitting, no weaving, no painting… in other words

NOT WORTH IT.

suffolk17

Now I’ve been there, done it and not even a t-shirt to prove it. Yes, buying a collection of many colours of yarns to weave with (gotta have a proper palette) requires a budget, but really, in hours each of my skeins here are worth a fortune compared. If I compare a paid job for the same number of hours I could have gotten several looms as well as a ton of yarn. If I did of course I wouldn’t have the time or energy to play with my hobbies, which is why I opted for free fleece in the first place. I still have an ambition to spin yarn for tapestry, BUT I’m also working on simplifying and destressing my daily life and this is not how you do it.

Using the plant dyed yarns however are an entirely different matter, at the moment the colour schemes I seem to come up with for designs are not very consistent with this intention, but I can work with that. If nothing else, my not plant-yellowish sketches can become paintings I suppose! So, carding is put on the back burner and more instantly gratifying projects are back in business. (and OMG is carding also boring!)

suffolk19

Kartehelvede

Så er månedens udfordring erklæret slut, jeg fik ikke spundet de hvide totter som håbet, kun de farvede. Og det er HELT ok.

Ideen gik ud på at endelig få onduleret den ene af de gratishamme jeg fik sidste år og gik og sjatfarvede hele sommeren. Spindingen tager ingen tid overhovedet, men pille, pille, pille små stumper strå ud og derefter karte, gab!

Og hvad har jeg efter en hel mÃ¥ned uden anden (sjovere) spinding, uden læsning, maling osv? Blot 550 g garn. Omregner jeg det til et almindeligt job, kunne jeg have købt det pÃ¥ blot et par timer… Det er vist ikke sÃ¥dan man afstresser og simplificerer sit liv, men nu er det da gjort og jeg er tilfreds med at have ordnet dette delmÃ¥l. Resten fÃ¥r pænt lov at ligge til en kedelig vinterdag hvor der ikke skal luges, sÃ¥s spinat, fotograferes forÃ¥rsskov (nÃ¥nej, mit kamera er jo ved at opgive ævred), males skabeloner til at væve efter sÃ¥, ideerne vælter ind og hober sig op mens jeg karter og karter! Der var vist ogsÃ¥ lige noget sommerstrik der skulle være færdigt.

Lilacs 2013

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

syringa

Two years ago I tried dyeing with lilacs and failed miserably: murky. I eventually suspected that this was due to boiling the flowers, it was at the beginning of my dye career, I didn’t know any better. This is what my 2011 skeins look like today:

syringa3

Well, this year I had the chance again, this time aiming for 60 degrees which is the lowest my automatic, programmable and very neat hotplate goes. Gift from the SO who just happened to see it in the supermarket and think of me, pretty great, huh? Just what every girl wants for xmas, kitchen utensils! 😉

The copper mordanted yarn is nothing much to behold, in fact it’s like the old results, but the others! Score! The unmordanted skein is actually very faintly green, I’m playing with “toned whites” at the moment…. The yellow is tin mordant.

syringa2

In the sun:

syringa4

Syrenfarvning

For to år siden, da jeg lige var begyndt at plantefarve, kogte jeg alle planter og resultatet med syren blev variende nuancer af beige. Jeg har senere tænkt på om det ville lykkes bedre ved en lavere temperatur, og sørme ja, 60 grader blev det til og en ny plante der giver grøn. Med kobberbejse bliver det stadig brunt, med tin citrongult.

Goldilocks

PiaAcid Dyeing

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!

gold1

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

foxy

Rhubarb leaves as mordant part 1

PiaPlant Dyeing

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)

rabarber

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

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

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!

daffo02
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.