Behind every frustration is a dream – and the dream was there first.
Tag: nature
Cedar bark
The paradox of progress: it’s long, slow and steady…
and happens all at once.
September garden
Elderberry juice
8 liters should be enough to see me through the winter storms, served hot with a twist of lemon, honey and fresh ginger! Thanks to this wonderful contraption that my mother gifted me a few years ago. Instead of boiling and straining, you steam the berries. Just add water in the bottom container, 3 kg of berries + 1 kg of sugar in the top, and the juice collects in the middle.
Next week I’ll be back on my usual subject matters, I promise. Spinning wheel is going to get dusted for instance.
Lidt hyldebærkoncentrat takket være den dejlige “saft-Maja” jeg har fÃ¥et af min mor. SÃ¥ kan jeg klare vinteren med varme drikke tilsat citron, honning og frisk ingefær, nams!
Næste uge lover jeg at holde mig mere til de sædvanlige emner. 😉 Lidt spinderi bliver det nok til!
Common reed – tagrør
It’s time right now here in DK at least to harvest the “feathers” from Phragmites australis.
I haven’t used it before and only have time for this one experiment. Some say it can be frozen, others that the dye can be frozen, but nobody seems to be very sure.
The old recipes say to divide your fiber in 2 batches, dyeing one after the other and then dunking half of each portion in iron for 15 minutes (needs to be a warm bath it seems). Several have said that the 2nd bath doesn’t really give much though. One could perhaps dye the first portion for a shorter time? Dye ratio at least 3:1 I’d say for just the one bath.
Anyways, a lovely green. I dyed some birch skeins real quick and did one overdye, which is almost electric to look at.
Some people get a neon green, or like a granny smith apple. Could be the water, could be that I use CoT and they only use alum? If I run into another batch I may try. I also put a small bunch in the freezer for testing if they keep.
Tid til at høste tagrør
Hvis man er glad for grøn, sÃ¥ er det nu man kan plukke “fjerene” af tagrør og koge dem et par timer. Mindst 3:1 forhold til et enkelt farvebad, de gamle opskrifter siger man kan smide en portion mere i, men det bliver lidt kedeligt. Muligvis skal man tage hold 1 op tidligere end 1 time? Man kan efterdyppe 15 minutter i et varmt bad med jernvitriol for at gøre farven mørk, eller man kan komme gult garn i, som det birkefarvede ovenfor.
Silken blev lidt fesen. Det hele er bejdset med alun. Nogen får mere neon/æblegrøn, om det er vandet eller om det er fordi jeg også bejdser med vinsten vides pt. ikke. Hvis jeg render ind i flere, prøver jeg måske, ellers har jeg som test puttet et par duske i fryseren, for at se om de virker bagefter.
