Category: Yarn and Fiber

Quezovercoatl

PiaAcid Dyeing

Project winter cape from beginning to end with pics. I made it last year, but never finished it in time to actually wear it. My coat is great, but when it’s really, really cold, I need something extra, and wearing a ton of sweaters underneath isn’t always practical.

Yes, yes, I really suck at titles, so re-reading Eric by Terry Pratchett recently set this one off. Anyway, “a wooly something to wear over my not terribly thick overcoat in winter” just doesn’t make the cut either. So there.

It’s hand dyed and handspun Gotland fiber and improvised garter stitch pattern with a crochet edge.

Chestnut hulls

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Not having access to walnuts – because I don’t know of any source – and no acorns or elder catkins because there just aren’t any this year – I thought what the hey, I’ll try throwing some green chestnuts in a jar. There aren’t many of those this year either, the paths are usually carpeted this time of year where we walk the dog, but I grabbed a pocketfull.

First I just put them in water, which went yellow and mouldy. So inspired by Dre (again), I added some ammonia. Boom, instant dark brown. Left it a week or three, I’m not counting.

Next up – will it do anything to yarn?! Should it be mordanted or not? I chose unmordanted for starters. Thinking I could go get another pocketfull in case there was a remote chance it’s working…

I added the liquid and the chestnuts to a larger pot of water and simmered with two 35 g skeins at very low temps – because the first one looked so promising at first dip. I would have just left them in there to dye cold, but the pH was 11, so that’s not a good method for wool.

 

SO – as we can give full marks for colour on this, what would happen once the colour IS extracted with ammonia (or rather, since the smell is really too much, would pot ash work?), if I then added something to lower the pH again before adding yarn? We need to find out, yeah?

This is what the skeins all look like if they are not rinsed after leaving the dye pot. I’m letting this one sit for a while, then I’ll wet it again. I got the pH down to 7 and added the yarn, left at about 50 C for an hour, steeped overnight.

And here they are together, left to right: first bath rinsed, first bath rinsed and dipped in horseshoe bucket, 2nd bath no rinse and still wet. As you can see, the brown bleeds right out as soon as you put the yarn in clear water, giving a dusty pink. One might try dipping that in vinegar to see if it changes…

I think I need to take the dog for a walk real soon and save the rest of those shells, the few that I can find. What to try: Hot extraction – longterm cold dyeing? How to prevent the dark brown from bleeding. pH testing. Anything else?

ETA Sept. 30th: I rinsed the brown skein, dyed in a neutral pH in cold rain water today. No change. Then I dipped one end in the clean dishwater that was sitting there anyway – no change. So it looks like the brown doesn’t run off if the dyebath is neutral. It’s going to be very interesting to test different pH values with this!!!

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Kastanjeskaller

Da jeg ingen agern eller ellekogler kan finde i år og ikke kender nogen med valnøddetræer, tænkte jeg, at den grønne skal omkring kastanjer måske kunne gøre det samme som valnødderne? Der er heller ikke mange af dem i år, normalt skvatter vi rundt i dem på skovstierne hvor vi lufter hund, men nogen er der dog, så jeg tog en lommefuld med hjem og puttede i et glas.

Først kom jeg bare vand i, det blev det gult og muggent af efter et par uger. Så tilsatte jeg salmiakspiritus og bingo blev det mørkebrunt. Men kan det også sætte sig på garnet?! Og eftersom base ikke er godt for uld, kan man efter at have hentet farven ud af skallerne, tilsætte syre, så pH værdien bliver neutral inden man putter garn i? Det må prøves, fortsættelse følger!

Jeg hældte indholdet i en gryde vand med to små fed ubejset garn og simrede noget tid. Tanken var at ikke spilde noget af mit bejsede garn, men evt. prøve en portion mere hvis der skete noget interessant. Det ene fed fik et jerndyp bagefter i hesteskospanden. Et tredje fed blev derefter farvet og lå i blød, efter at have skiftet pH værdien tilbage til 7, det er ikke blevet skyllet bagefter, da farven så render af, så jeg tester lige om det gør en forskel at det får lov at sidde lidt.

Edit 30. september. Det brune garn BEHOLDER sin farve både skyllet i regnvand og i hårdt vandhanevand!

Berries take 2

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

No privet berries this year, and not a lot of elderberries either, so I thought I’d boil the ones I had for drinking and add some to a couple of jars, sugar, yes, no idea what that’ll do. It’s said that alkaline gives green, vinegar gives red and salt gives blue, now, did I really want to “waste” 3 whole skeins? Nah – we makes smaller ones I think.

As it turned out, my juicer-steamer thing got too full, so I cooked 500 g. of clusters in a pot and strained for the dye, no sugar.

They say silk dyes well with berries (they as in a book I read), but I did not have any mordanted silk ready. Also to try is tin mordant mentioned in a book. That is, if these are any good.

I’ve been told that cold dyeing with berries works better, as usual it’s not proper cold since the liquid has been heated to extract the juice, but the really cold method will have to be when I actually have an abundance in berries.

pH of the jars today are: Juice: 3, vinegar: 1, pot ash: 10, salt: 7 (just to try a different pH, and yes, I know I haven’t tried 3). I’ll leave them for about a week, that’s what I did with the beetroot.

I didn’t think straight to use rain water, like I normally do, our tap water is hard but neutral in pH.

Since I don’t have any yarnpix yet, here’s one of my little helper making mini skeins. Well, he’s involved in the process, anyway. With my “lovely” tablecloth for dyeing on the dinner table 😉

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Hyldebær

Jeg kunne ikke lige nære mig for at prøve bær igen, bare på nogen små fed, da jeg havde læst at det går bedre med kold-farvning. Dvs. jeg har ikke fået så mange bær i år, så det blev bare fra en enkelt portion i saftkogeren. En anden gang vil jeg prøve at bare smide det hele i en spand nogen uger.

Små fed med hhv eddike, potaske og salt i skal stå en uges tid og glo. Det fungerede fint med rødbede, bare garnet ikke skal stå midt i solen bagefter.

Glemte at bruge regnvand, sådan kan det gå når man har for mange jern i ilden og en killing at trampe på.

Eftersom jeg ikke har garnbilleder endnu, har jeg et af min lille hjælper som laver minifed. Og min fine røde garnfarvevoksdug til spisebordet. 😀

It’s ridiculous…

PiaAcid Dyeing

I’m not dead yet! Just slightly woozy from the antibiotics I need to take for the next month… I’ve been doing stuff, but I just don’t have anything to show for it. Nor anything super exciting to tell – maybe in a couple of days, though. You see, I’m waiting for ELVIS!

I did the shoulder strap for my sweater bag, but I didn’t sew it up yet. It’s in the tumbler as of right now. And a slight colour difference, so I think I may throw a bit of dye after the bag itself. Contemplating getting some felting needles….

I have some cloths sitting around wrapped up with leaves.

I dyed some yarn, testing to see if I could get a faded denim look to it, I could, but the skeins are all jumbled up and in the very long process of being wound into balls by hand. But that’s something to play with in the future. And a nice scarf perhaps to match jeans?

I also dyed some silk hankies to use for my cold fingers. Going to knit them as is, not spin them, just pull them out. They’re a bit unclear in the colours due to my experiments into setting the dye. I can’t ever just do something by the book it seems, always have to add a bit of “what if”.

I did have some alpaca I wanted to use for mittens, but it happened to be perfect with another yarn for another project, so we’ll see if there’s enough for mitts when I’m done. Right now I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the instructions for the yoke… Or rather, how to keep track of it all without losing my place. I need something warm and cosy for winter days knitting, spinning and writing, so the summer cardigans are on hold.

I got my lace yarn  for the Sunberry dress all nicely dyed up quite a while ago, decided to do the entire 200 g although I won’t be using that much. It would be such a shame to be 10-20 g short! I’m thinking a matching shawl or shrug could work out, I always get cold very easily. Or if not, my mum has claimed it’s her favourite colour.

I actually wrote down the formula! Although I may dye the actual dress a bit darker when it’s done. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <- wave

And after writing this earlier, I’m now thinking of overdyeing the yarn anyway with the denim effect to get a slight, ever so tiny blueblack effect to the purple. Any opinions on that?

I HALF finished the collar on my ugly sweater, hoping that SW merino is softer than whatever the rest is. My first magic loop project btw.

As for painting, I didn’t even get started yet. But I persuaded the tall guy to perhaps rearrange the living room to leave me a bit of wall space for hanging canvas on! Just need to move some cords and stuff too. And negotiate the light I want overhead which is not overly pretty for a living room (first time he’s ever cared about that, WTF?) And I’ve looked into storage solutions, so I don’t have to cart my paints back and forth each time. I’m much more likely to do something if it’s all up and ready to go. Looks like a trip to IKEA…

And finally there’s my sweater project, I’ve spun the redbrown fiber, moving on to the grey and black asap. And I got more from World of Wool, so off we go, dyeing and spinning. It’s very squishy, more so than I thought it would be, compared to the Gotland I spun last year. I hope I can make all the yarn match this one in style and feel.

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Projektstatus september

Jeg laver en hel masse – men har bare ikke noget at vise frem. Skal i gang med næste farve shetland til Spindeforeningens sweater SAL, næsten færdig med at filte min sweatertaske som lige skal sys sammen og mÃ¥ske farves lidt og dekoreres? Har farvet silke som skal strikkes til fingerløse vanter uden spinding, bare trukket ud til en snor. Har leget lidt med farvning af garn og overvejer at give det lilla en lille tur mere.

Satser pÃ¥ nogen lidt mere inpirerende updates nÃ¥r jeg ikke længere er bimmelim af den antibiotikakur jeg skal tage den næste mÃ¥neds tid….

Det blev også et temmelig kort resume, den engelske udgave startede jeg egentlig for længe siden, men lige nu må I andre have detaljerne til gode.

Harvest

PiaFarm Life

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…. 😉