Category: Yarn and Fiber

Fall forage

PiaPlant Dyeing

Just a bit of gathering while walking the dog, to keep me occupied during winter in case I get urges.

In addition to the chestnut hulls I brought home, I also gathered spruce cones from the forest.

AND I found one young alder tree on our property that had produced cones, so I got myself a bag of those too.

I then tried to strip the larch trees, but they were not quite ready to let go of their needles, and those which did mostly ended up on my sweater. Tricky! I’ll get back to them in a week or so.

Then I went foraging websites and ended up ordering this canning device with a thermostat, I’m guessing it’s real good for keeping madder root at it’s proper temp as well! Since the jars will be shut I’m wondering if I could use it for apple sauce too. Not sure if I’ve had actual mordants or acid dye in there, what do y’all think?

Cloths part 3

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Time for the last set of plant print experiments! I wasn’t really inspired to attempt any nice photography, so I just popped them in the flatbed scanner for you.

Sheet from last batch as well as the “mystery fabric that doesn’t take any colour” (I think we’ll just call it Homer from now on) had a bath in aluminium acetate then some powdered madder root and a handful of dried hollyhock heads, and the sheet, previously dyed brown from longterm exposure to celandine, had a short bath in – well, celandine. Not a lot of improvement, so I wrapped it up with some fern leaves. Nothing much happened for weeks, so I steamed it. And if you squint you might just be able to see a weak fern pattern…. Mostly, what I got was a bunch of brown, mouldy fabrics smelling like a cow’s a*se.

The raspberry leaves did print nicely – from the top side of the leaves only, the fabric covering the back of the leaves have 0 change. And, well, the lupine leaves? yawn…..

I actually think I’m giving up on this. Rose leaves gave me nothing. Alchemilla mollis, nothing.

I may however, decide to try with paper, after reading this blog. Tell me it isn’t cool!

http://wendyfe.wordpress.com/tag/eco-prints-on-paper/

Of course, I’m rapidly running out of leaves, so this will be for another year. Tomorrow I’ll go check if any more of these are still up (and no, I can’t imagine they’ll actually print red)

Liquidambar styraciflua

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Plantefarvning på stof

Tid til flere eksperimenter inden sæsonen er slut! Lupinblade og bregner rullet ind i bomuld. Forsøgte mig ogsÃ¥ med rosenblade – ingenting skete. Faktisk skete der absolut ingenting med nogen af mine forsøg ved at blot lade stoffet ligge med planter i og holde det fugtigt, sÃ¥ jeg prøvede at dampe/koge et par stykker. Hindbærblade virkede ligesÃ¥ godt som egeblade, men kun fra forsiden. Tørrede stokrosehoveder var derimod forbavsende gode, glæder mig til at farve garn med dem.

Og der sker lige nøjagtig ikke ret meget, ud over at det begynder at stinke efter en måneds tid, så nu tror jeg ærlig talt ikke jeg gider prøve igen lige foreløbig, slet ikke på bomuld i hvert fald.

Mitt

PiaAcid Dyeing

After trying to knit with my predrafted hankies on 2.5 mm needles I decided to give them a bit of twist.  Having done that, I decided to ply them as well…. Too fiddly otherwise, snagging on the join of my circulars, just plain ARGH. I think if I’d drafted them thicker it might have been easier, maybe I just suffer from old lady eyes….

One mitt done, weighing in at 9.6 g. I have a total of 44 g of silk judged from various pattern, so apparently silk weighs nothing compared to wool. I’d originally wanted them really thin, which obviously isn’t happening on 3.5 mm, so I ended up not making individual fingers, not wanting too much material between each. Dunno what I’ll do with the other half of the yarn. Matching earmuffs? LOL. Or just a nicer pair of mittens…

I made up the pattern as I went along, and being my first glove ever, I see lots of room for improvement, but they’ll do their job. When I tried them on before casting off, the 3-finger part seemed longer unfortunately, I would have liked them to extend to the last(first) joint. But I’ve already woven in ends, tough luck.

I’m as yet undecided whether I like to work with hankies or not. I like silk and I don’t mind the rustic look that you get, but I think it’s really hard on the fingers to pull them open, as well as quite boring compared to spinning. I’ve got about 300 g left of them, they don’t cost extra rent I suppose, so they can either sit there or I could dye them and hope someone else will care for them more than I do. I have plenty of silk top to work with instead!

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Fingerløs

Første forsøg med vantestrikning, det gik ikke helt som planlagt, men jeg er ok tilfreds alligevel. Jeg brugte meget mindre garn end jeg havde regnet med, den første vante vejer kun 9,6 g og jeg har 44 g i alt. Den sidder endda ret løst, selvom jeg troede jeg havde strikket den for lille, da silke jo strækker sig. Jeg kan så konstatere, at det strækker sig MEGET!

Jeg ved ikke helt hvad jeg synes om hankies, jeg synes det er hårdt at trække dem ud til tråd. Men jeg har købt 300 g, så jeg må vel hellere få dem farvet og finde på et eller andet.

Elderberry results 2

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Washed and dried and staying pretty much the same colour! So far so good… All that remains is a light test.

salt – alkaline – acid – before wash
In the sun after wash in tap water with shampoo

The jar of fleece turned blue, then green after some days, but the fleece then virtually lost all colour when drained. Slight greenish grey left. Whether it’s due to temp, no mordant or just the Dorset that doesn’t take well remains a mystery as usual. But I’m thinking I could have gotten green if I’d used yarn.

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Hyldebærfarvning 2

Det ser ud som om garnet holder farven, ogsÃ¥ efter vask! SÃ¥ mangler blot en lystest….

Elderberry results 1

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

I nearly forgot about these – time to take a look after 10 days. Looks pretty good! Now to dry and cure for about a week, then rinse in rain water.

I then mixed the leftover juice and added some of the unmordanted Dorset fleece, tweaking to a pH of 8. Leaving for a week or more and take it out when I rinse the others for a new report. The suspense is killing me, how about you? Right now it looks blue….

salt – alkaline – acid

Tempted to try a tin mordant if these turn out colourfast. And I’ve read about green. I wonder which pH is needed for that? Like, 13? My strips only go to 11.

It’s been cool weather, not above 20 C, more like 15, so not exactly what I’d call solar dyeing.

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Hyldebærfarvning

Jeg havde næsten glemt mine garnglas på bryggershylden, men nu var det tid til at åbne efter 10 dage. Jeg lader dem tørre noget tid inden jeg skyller, for at lade farven sidde i så længe som muligt. Jeg har læst et sted at bærfarver holder bedre hvis de er koldfarvet i forhold til simret, så det måtte jeg alligevel prøve, selvom jeg egentlig har opgivet frugt og grønt.

Den resterende saft har jeg blandet og puttet i et nyt glas med ubejset dorset uld. Fortsættelse følger!