Tag: winter

Larch needles

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Having managed to pick only a few handfuls of dead needles (not easy to get off tree, then frost happens and they’re all on the ground), I decided to just toss them in a pot rather than save. Put in some testknit of my usual plant dye yarn and see what happens for future reference.

larch1

There’s all sorts of things I could have tested, iron, mordants etc, but I don’t think I have enough dye. One might be able to scavenge from the ground in the forest where they grow large and many.

I used rain water, pH 6. After boiling the needles, pH 6.5? I wish I had some way of preserving that water barrel over winter, but the last one is proof that I can’t:

larch2

In the back you see part of the original old farm house on this property, from the 1860’s, now wood shed.

Some colour seems to be available, one could test quantity, pH values, mordants, modifiers. Could be a nice dulce span of colours, doesn’t always have to be pow! Different from any of my previous results of plant dyeing at least.

larch3

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Lærk 1

Et lille hurtigt farveeksperiment med visne lærketræsnåle, havde kun et par håndfulde som jeg kogte i pH neutralt regnvand.

Der er da noget farve at hente, måske mere hvis man har flere nåle, bruger bejse, jern og andet til en samling afdæmpede naturtoner? Anderledes end noget jeg har fået før 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.

Coldfinger

PiaKnitting

I just realized that we’re moving into autumn and after that comes winter.

We heat the house only with the woodstove in the living room, and while the house is warm enough, I do tend to get cold hands sitting in my “office”, typing or just mousing away with one hand.

So, for the last 2 years I’ve wanted to make some fingerless mittens, but never got around to it. I even have some really thin baby alpaca yarn to use, just to get an extra layer of skin but not have the bulk get in the way.

What I can’t decide it whether to just make the tube variety with a thumb hole or real gloves with just the fingertips off. Plain rib for a snug fit or some elaborate lace or cable pattern…

Which do y’all prefer? And why? (apart from the fact that I’m not looking forward to knitting fingers, I have an idea it may be warmer)

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Fingerløse vanter

Jeg bliver lidt kold om fingrene om vinteren nÃ¥r jeg sidder her ved PC’en, sÃ¥ jeg har længe tænkt pÃ¥ at lave fingerløse vanter i tyndt alpaca garn for at de ikke er i vejen men lige giver et ekstra lag hud. Det er bare ikke blevet til noget, men nu er vinteren jo pÃ¥ vej igen!

Så jeg vil lige høre, bortset fra, hvad der er nemmest at strikke, hvilken slags foretrækker I, med eller uden fingre, altså bare et rør med tommelfingerhul eller rigtige vantefingre uden spidser? Og hvorfor?

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