Office chair v. 1

24. January 2014 PiaFelting

And by now the clever reader has already suspected there will be a v. 2! Indeed!

This project has been underway for some time, years in fact. My office chair is very old (1995), it’s also very comfortable, very versatile and very expensive. I can’t get a pretty one that is anywhere near as good as this, even when it squeaks a bit. So I’m holding onto it tooth and nail, even when it started looking like this:

I tried to repair it, meaning to make a full cover to go over the top and THEN make something decorative out of yarn, which could be taken off and washed.

But then I procrastinated and could not decide on a design. Then I broke my sewing machine and then I went on a very long sick leave and didn’t care.

In the meantime it just got more beat up, so when I finally did finish the first cover (which had been sitting around for ages, all needled up) I thought we needed some extra padding, and voila, my cover is too small and slides off. I’m test sitting it right now without the foam padding, and that seems to have improved the issue. I don’t even know why I wanted padding, as I usually sit on my left foot. Which I guess is why the chair looks like it does in the first place!

Incidentally the fabric I used attracts cat hair really well! Duh. That’s just me and my “use what’s at hand approach“.

I started off knitting a quick to-be-felted cover from plant dyed yarn, Hollyhock to be precise + a couple of Coreopsis.

You may remember how I fiddled the pH to get all those different colours. Then you throw it in the machine, at 60° no less, with a soap that you’re not quite sure is neutral. Well, it wasn’t. Which is fine, I like green.

And it’s too small as well. I’d reckoned on that but wanted it as tightly felted as possible, so I’d threaded some cotton string around the edges, figuring I could pull it out and use the holes to pick up more stitches. I may or may not do that, since all the cats really love it. But it’s a good surface to use, sturdy and easy to clean. I see cat bed production in my future.

I have other plans brewing, but with my sewing skills it may take me a few versions to get something that actually works. In the meantime, my chair at least does not look like something from a scrap yard. Not as much so.

Dyeing in 2014

9. January 2014 PiaAcid Dyeing

A lot of readers come here while searching for posts on plant dyeing and some of you probably subscribed for that only. I realize that it’s been quiet on that front during the winter months, so I just wanted to make a service announcement that there will indeed be more posts about dyeing eventually. In fact I have several half done drafts I could begin with…

Soon I’ll be ordering seeds, this year I’m going to replace the coreopsis with orange cosmos to try out. There won’t be as many different plants as last year, rather new experiments with old ones. And I hope to be making things with my older dyed yarns to show. The first yarn I used felts really well but is very scratchy, so I’m looking for ideas for non-clothing. Baskets, bags, cushion covers, knit, crochet, woven, felted, pictures or pattern suggestions are welcome!

Some acid dyeing adventures are also likely to happen. I hope you’ll forgive me for skipping around between various topics, but that’s what real life is like here at the cottage.

I’ll try to make it easily accessible via the menu up top.

Farvning i 2014

Plantefarvningsindlæg har jo været lidt sparsomme her i vinter, men jeg kan se at de gamle stadig bliver læst ganske ofte, så jeg syntes lige jeg ville udsende en servicemeddelelse i den anledning. Der kommer helt sikkert mere farveri på programmet i år, ikke kun planter, men også pulverfarve.

Jeg bestiller snart frø og regner med at erstatte skønhedsøje med orange cosmos. Der bliver ikke så mange nye eller forskellige eksperimenter, jeg gentager heller ikke dem fra sidste år, men snarere nye eksperimenter med gamle kendinge.

Der skulle også være en chance for at få lavet lidt færdige ting med det plantefarvede garn, som jeg kan vise frem. Det garn jeg har brugt filter rigtig godt, men er ret krads, så hvis I har gode ideer til ting, frem for tøj, som man kan strikke, hækle, væve, filte, fx. tasker, puder, kurve osv, så del meget gerne billeder eller opskrifter! 🙂

Selvom jeg har opgivet at oversætte alle mine indlæg her på bloggen, vil jeg dog fortsætte med det når det gælder plantefarvningen, som minimum, evt. også andre garnrelaterede emner. Jeg håber I vil bære over med mig at jeg sådan springer i diverse emner hen over året, men det er sådan der ser ud her i farvehytten, både virtuelt og i virkeligheden.

Der er et særligt menupunkt i toppen til emnet, så jeg håber det er rimelig nemt at finde rundt.

Yarn testing

22. November 2013 PiaPå dansk

You may have seen this before and wonder what kind of skimpy scarf that’s supposed to be? Plant dyed yarn samples 1-110 crocheted into a long strip and washed in the machine with laundry detergent testing for colour changes.

Well, it’s all cut up now and properly catalogued with my other yarn samples. Finally. And I’m going to need another binder…

In the future I’ll probably do some of my samples on cloth to save time and make the pages flatter, but this is it for now. There are places waiting for the samples that are being tested in indirect daylight for a period of time, probably until spring. I hope it’ll all help me remember how much I’ve done of which, when etc. The ones in the window got about 1 month in mid summer facing south.

The idea is to not use the fugitive dyes at all or at least not for permanent fixtures like a tapestry or clothing that gets more than occasional wear. It’s fun to try everything once, but in the long run it’s just stressful if you feel you “have to”. In fact I still feel I’m pretty much over my infatuation with the whole thing!

If you haven’t voted in my poll from yesterday, please take the time to do so now!?

Garntest

Jeg har endelig fået lavet mit lille garnkatalog over plantefarvet garn. Der er allerede 2 fulde ringbind, så jeg får brug for et tredje til fremtidige eksperimenter.

Der er strimler af det originale garn, strimler som har siddet en sommermåned i et sydvindue og så har jeg pt. strimler som skal sidde mindst et halvt år inde i rummet og derefter tilføjes mappen.

Desuden blev der hæklet en strimmel med de første 100 nr. og vasket med alm. vaskepulver for at checke farveforandringer – der var et par overraskelser, nogen skiftede farve, nogen falmer, nogen er ens. Det kan jo være rart at vide alt efter hvad man bruger garnet til.

Har du lyst til at deltage i min brugerundersøgelse fra i går?

Another harvest

20. November 2013 PiaChit Chat

Mid November, and yes, there are still a few things out there to forage.

I trimmed some wild rose bushes that were reaching over the riding ring fence, so while I was at it I picked the fruits off. I got this idea from Rima (you have to scroll down a bit) that I wanted to try – didn’t pick all that many as it was a bit awkward cutting with my left hand, but enough to give it a go I hope. Scratchy work too without gloves, but I can’t feel what I’m doing if I wear them, the downside being that you feel rather too much when you don’t 😉 I also put some of them in a stew that evening because I’d forgotten to buy mushrooms, but frankly I got impatient with scooping the seeds out, so I’m unsure if they actually added to the taste. Will try with bigger ones next year if this turns out like it’s supposed to – I’m wondering if it won’t all just mold. I’ve done it with fruit, sugar and rum, but never just sugar.

I also picked a tiny batch of woad to get more colour onto the fleece I dyed a couple of weeks ago, it still works fine, if not as strong as in summer. Some of the locks were so pale they were almost grey, but now at least they’re more like faded jeans.

Got the reddest of the apples off the lawn, made G peel them and yes, managed to get my winter supply of apple sauce done (I like it on oatmeal instead of sugar – and I have a great recipe for marzipan/apple sauce buns too). Only had two vanilla pods, but it turned out fine. I put the jars in the oven afterwards, the canning procedure means it can last for years just in a cool cupboard. I don’t use pretty photogenic jars, I just recycle whatever we buy. My kitchen is far from pretty either, more like shabby 70’s homemade. But you can cook in it and I have a new drumcarder!

The kale is of course fine in the cold, I use it both in salads and warm, sometimes I make pesto. Hopefully the caterpillars are done nibbling their portion? New recipes are welcome if you have any favourites.

Dug up the last potatoes, well, G did, and while there are not a lot I think it was a fine harvest from 9 plants, and a good size too. 3-4 kg at least.

I’ve been pressing leaves to use in collages, they got squished a bit more than I planned, paper thin and brittle, but at least they are bone dry. I hope they regain some colour if I cover them in acrylic medium, much like varnishing rocks does.

And now I think I can safely say that we’re moving into winter soon… There’s blue on the temperature curve for next week!

Sen høst

Her lige inden efteråret slutter, er der stadig et par ting at hente i naturen. Hyben – som jeg vil prøve at råsylte til saft ved at lade dem stå i et glas nogen måneder. Jeg tænker mug, men læste om det et sted; og da jeg alligevel skulle befri min ridebane for vildtvoksende rosengrene så blev det sådan.

Jeg fandt også en lillebitte smule vaid til min råuld, ikke helt så god mere, men virkede dog godt nok til at give mere end gråt.

Æblemos af nedfaldæbler, manden fik lov at skrælle. Jeg kommer godt med ægte vanilje i, det smager super på havregrød. Eller i familiens marcipanboller, som jeg ikke kan spise fordi de ikke bliver gode med glutenfri mel.

Gravet kartofler op har han også, næsten en hel murerspand af bare 9 nedlagte kartofler, og pænt store også, det er da ok udbytte. Grønkålen trives jo i kulden – nogen opskrifter I har lyst til at dele? Bruger det både i salater, som pesto eller varmt.

Og så har jeg presset blade til collager, de blev lidt fladere end jeg ønskede, papirtynde og skrøbelige, men i det mindste knastørre så de ikke rådner. Jeg håber farverne liver lidt op igen når de får en gang malemedium på toppen.

Oak leaves

7. October 2013 PiaPå dansk

Green leaves picked September 11th. Dried some, frozen some, to dye on silk, cotton and a sample strip wool only. The rest dyed immediately. Test also early summer leaves 2014 as well as brown self-dried.

4:1 fresh, 2:1 dry – oak galls 2% if colour not strong.

Those are my notes in short form. 😉 What that means is, I’ve dyed some wool 4:1 ratio, with and without premordant, and same with an iron afterbath. Then I did it again with oak galls in there too. You don’t quite see it in the photo below, but the dark skeins are actually a deep, chocolate brown, and the ones with iron minus oak galls are greenish.

The oak galls don’t appear to do much to the oak colour itself, it works with the iron. Don’t leave your yarn in there too long unless you are aiming for black!!! Half an hour the old books say. First dye for an hour, add iron, simmer another half.

Technically people use oak to get grey, a wonderful smoky/silver shade. I got all sorts of brown and grey shades, but not that one!

So I’ve saved a few leaves in the freezer as well as dried some to test later. Perhaps the grey is more easily obtained on cotton?

Then I had a stroke of genious if I may say so. Especially since I had not bothered to actually check what other people do, I just followed the book. What if I did NOT dye the yarn first, but plunked it into the iron/oakgall/leaf bath when it was squeaky clean?!

But I’m kinda glad I did follow instructions first, or I would never have gotten all those other shades. Of course now I’m wondering what happens if you just use iron and oak galls…..

Oh – and if you rinse and rinse and the water still comes out black as night – make sure you don’t have a piece of oak gall trapped in your fiber. 😉

Egeblade

De gamle bøger siger: egeblade vægt 4:1 friske, 2:1 tørrede. 2% galæble for at få mørkere farve.

Så det prøvede jeg. Man skal passe på ikke at lade det ligge i gryden for længe efter tilsat jern, med mindre man går efter sort, en halv time er vist passende.

Galæblerne gjorde ikke rigtig noget ved selve farven, de virker først sammen med jern, her var der en tydelig forskel på de “grå” nuancer jeg fik. Måske de flotte sølvgrå jeg har set, har været på bomuld? Indtil det faldt mig ind at IKKE gøre som i bogen, nemlig farve i blade først, og så putte jern i til sidst. Og det virkede. Men jeg er da ret glad for, at jeg ikke checkede hvordan andre gør, for så havde jeg jo aldrig fået alle de fine brune!

Jeg farvede både ubejdset (det er det, de fleste bruger) samt alun- og kobberbejdset, her var også klar forskel, så man kan let skabe sig en gradueret skala til brug ved flerfarvearbejde.

COLOUR COTTAGE

c/o Pia Juul

Tag: dyeing

Office chair v. 1