Solar Dyeing

Dear Mom,
My experiments with solar dyeing have been most successful and satisfying! Armed with hope and NO expectations, I decided that the fiber in the box and the dye materials sitting on the shelf were more of a waste and failure than any failed dye experiment would be. Mine were not exacting scientific experiements- they were more of the WhatTheHeckLet'sSeeWhatHappens variety.
I pre-mordanted my fiber with alum, and except for the last experiment, with Logwood, I did not weigh and measure the alum/fiber ratio.

I dyed in approximate 2 ounce batches because that is what I could easily fit into my 1 gallon sun tea and pickle jars. I placed the fiber into mesh laundry bags before I started and they stayed in the bags until the fiber was dry at the end.

First, I used a sachet of osage orange saw dust. I let the saw dust steep to color the water and then added the wet fiber. I left the sachet in the jar and put the jar in a sunny spot on the back patio. When the fiber was nice and bright, I gave it a good rinse, spun out the excess water and hung the bag of fiber up to dry. I repeated this 4 more times until the resulting fiber was pretty pale. I ended up with about 10 ounces dyed a nice gradient of yellows from sunshiny bright to buttery.

Okay! So that worked! Next up- Madder Root. I dumped the package of chopped up madder root into my rinsed out jar, filled the jar with water and let it sit in the sunshine. The water very quickly turned a beet juice color. In went the wet fiber. And out came this:

This color is ME. 

I was able to get 2 more batches out of that same jar. Again, each successive batch was slightly lighter than the last, but each is beautiful. I couldn't wait to start spinning.

You can see the variation in the dye batches in this next photo. 

When I've used heat and crockpots to dye fiber in the past, I found the fiber to be slightly felt-ish. Not so with this solar powered method! This spun up without any hassles. The only thing I would do differently if I were to do this again, would be to put the madder roots into a small mesh bag rather than let them float around in the jar with the fiber. 

On to Logwood. I used up the last of my merino/mohair roving on this. Again, I wasn't sure what to expect. Research showed me I could expect lavender to gray. Research also told me that I would want to use a higher alum to fiber ratio, so this time I weighed my fiber and measured 20% alum as pre-mordant. 

The Logwood chips I had were the size of cinnamon sticks. Having learned from the loose Madder root, I placed the logwood chips into a small mesh bag in the jar. The other minor departure from the first 2 experiments was to pour boiling water into the jars. I let the logwood steep for a day before adding the fiber, and divided the juice into 2 jars, topped them off with hose water and added the fiber. The water was a fuchsia pink/purple.

The last batch was the palest of pink. Lovely. I can hardly wait to spin it!

I have some weld on the shelf, and it is the last of my natural dyestuff. I have a healthy stash of white merino/angora roving that I could use, but that roving might be too precious to experiment with.  And just this afternoon I learned that blackberries give a very nice purple dye. IF I tire of eating blackberries from my garden.

I would say my experiments were successful. I think I'll get rid of the various dye pots and crockpots on my dye shelf and continue solar dyeing my fiber in the future. Until then, I have lots of exciting spinning projects!

Love,

Kim

These have not been lazy days

Dear Mom,

This Song is mocking me. These have been anything but lazy. A few days of hot and hazy and a little bit crazy.  I keep hoping to settle into a soothing routine, but it hasn't happened yet. The last few days have been perfect - like northern Michigan weather- and I am spending as much of it as I can on the porch.

I've been making up for last summer's convalescence by weeding, planting, mowing and tending the yard, herb garden, tomato plants and perennial garden. I've squeezed as many annuals and perennials into my flower garden as it will hold. I've got zinnias growing with my tomatoes, and a variety of seeds sown amongst the sage, basil, oregano and chives in my herb garden. The bunnies have probably eaten 90% of the seedlings as they emerge, but I remain hopeful of full vases of freshly cut flowers on my table.

We've finally had a persistent and mysterious leak located and repaired, and things were definitely disrupted while that was going on. Just getting stuff temporarily moved out of one room made me think I never want to have to really move. Needless to say, Goodwill got a hefty load and the room is put back together.  While that was going on, I wiped my week clean of appointments to be here. I needed to see with my own eyes that things stayed dry as our contractor doused the area with the hose and I didn't want to miss it.

Things were is such disarray that I didn't feel like I could add to it with a sewing project, but I did weave some dish towels.

I happened to have the book, A Garden to Dye For, from the library, and something I read inspired me to try a "sun tea" dye experiment. I have a variety of purchased plant dye stuff from fiber festivals- osage orange, madder, logwood and weld. The garage was occupied by the contractor's equipment, so using my crockpots was not an option. I also had a 'What Are You Waiting For?' feeling about the full shelf of dye stuff and decided it was more wasteful to have it all sitting there doing nothing than it would be to use it in a failed experiment. I filled a gallon jar with water, plopped the cloth bag of osage orange sawdust into it, and let it steep. In the meantime, I put about 2 oz of roving (70%merino/30%mohair) into a mesh laundry bag and let it soak in a second gallon jar with alum to pre-mordant the fiber. (Mordants help the fiber accept and keep the dye. Also, different mordants can alter the final color of the dye.) Once my osage orange tea was a nice bright color, I added the fiber and let it sit in the sunshine. 

I let the fiber steep for a day or two, took it out and carefully rinsed it with water as close to the temperature of the dye bath as I could manage. The fiber stayed in the mesh bag through the entire process to protect it from too much handling. I did not remove the osage orange tea bag, nor did I dump the dye out of the jar. Part of my experiment was to see how much fiber I could dye with this one batch. 

This is the first batch, rinsed and dried. Beautiful! I ended up dyeing 5 (2 oz) batches in total, and they very gently fade in a gradient of bright to buttery yellow. This process might be slow, but it was easy, used no electricity, and was fun to watch. Best thing: the fiber is not sticking to itself. When I've dyed roving in the crockpot, it seems like it wants to felt. I think the shock of the heat and simmering does that to the loose fiber. I've not had that happen to yarn dyed in the crockpot.  Plus, spinning dyed roving makes a prettier yarn than dyeing already spun yarn, in my opinion. 

I am currently using the same process using Madder.  I'll share the results soon!

Enjoy the sunshine!

Love,

Kim

Making

Dear Mom,
I've been very busy making things. Lists, menu plans and healthy dinners, and best of all, things knitted and woven and spun.
By accident, what I finished spinning last week coordinates with what I finished weaving this morning.

I try to reserve Sundays for spinning. That plan got sidetracked during the holidays, but I am getting back to it. I also try to reserve Tuesdays for sewing (once all my household chores are done). It may take weeks to finish something, but if I wait for a big block of time I'll never get started. This dress took 2 1/2 years to sew. Maybe longer. But only if you start the clock when I purchased the fabric. Good thing these things don't expire! I know I purchased the fabric intending to make a dress for spring/summer. (I am just not sure what year that purchase was made.) When that summer passed by without sewing the dress, I then hoped to have it for the next Easter. And after that didn't happen, I thought I could wear it to the Young Lady's graduation. Surgery re-arranged that plan and here I am, January 2017 and Factory Dress #2 is finished! Hemmed and pressed, ready and waiting!

I added a little lace that I purchased at an antique store to the pocket. I do love this Merchant & Mills pattern. This week I will start laying out and cutting their Top#64 pattern.

My most recently finished knitting project is this cardigan:

It is based on the vintage Sweater Wheel pattern I inherited from Aunt Betty. I've seen Sweater Wheels for sale on eBay. I made several modifications to the pattern- I knit the body of the sweater in one piece, lengthened the armhole depth and picked up and worked the sleeves from the top down, and I knitted faced button bands using Anna Zilboorg's "Almost Perfect Button holes". I really like this classic cardigan. I'll definitely make more for myself.

I 've begun a new, more thorough schedule for myself. I had one when the kids were little. Life was just easier to schedule back then, I guess. But I got away from it in the past few years. Makes sense when I think back on all the comings and goings and schedule juggling that middle and high school years brings. Now that this nest is mostly empty, I find I need that schedule again to make the best use of my days, to make time for creating and making and getting done all that needs to be done to keep this household running smoothly.
Last week I cobbled together all my lists and had fun with watercolor paints and ink to make a master   schedule for myself.

The Schedule includes exercise ( 5 days/week for heart health!) , vacuuming, specific laundry loads, bathrooms, floor mopping, plant watering, sewing, spinning, ironing- basically everything I thought of in logical, bite-sized, daily doses that I can easily manage. No more wasting time trying to decide what task to tackle. I look to my list. I get it done. And then Hallelujah! I have time to play! I have a separate notebook with the week's meal plan. When I make that plan and write out my grocery list, I include the recipe location. I wasted too much time trying to decide what to fix for dinner at the last minute. And even more time putting off housework because I couldn't decide where to start. I did all my thinking and put it down on paper. Tweaked it and made my master plan. I can still tweak things- and will need to make seasonal adjustments- but the essentials are there. Even better- I don't feel guilty for spending time at creating when I know my days work is done and done well.

I am continuing to work through the cotton fabric stash I accepted from one of my knitting students. This past weekend was very productive. Donna Reed and I wove 8 placemats and 2 table runners. That photo up there is the length of those placemats and runners before I separated them! I got smart and found 2 sets of fabrics that would be happy with the same warp and then wound enough warp for both sets, saving time dressing the loom.

Earlier in the month I wove this pretty set-

I am going through that stash of fabric quicker that I thought I would. Weaving these is almost instant gratification and I enjoy it, but I am eager to weave some nice dish towels again, soon.
All is well here at the end of the cup-de-sac. I even noticed some daffodils poking through the ground when I went out to fill the bird feeder yesterday!

Love,
Kim

We should have worn gloves

Dear Mom,
After reading about ice dyeing as an alternative to traditional tie-dyeing tee shirts, I decided it was something that needed to be experimented with, only on wool. I immediately emailed MelissaWhoSpins and we marked our calendars for July 25. Along the way I invited my friend and watercolor teacher, Cindy, to join us.

The theory behind ice dyeing is to cover the to-be-dyed item with ice, sprinkle the dye powder on top, and as the ice melts it carries the dye into the item in a random tie-dye affect. I experimented on both commercially spun yarn and roving. Melissa brought a wool blanket and scarf, too.  We used Kool-Aid and Greener Shades dye powder, and some of the Greener Shades dye stock I had already mixed up and frozen in shot-glass sized plastic cups.

As our fiber soaked in a vinegar water solution, we spread out old sheets all over the side yard. We then plopped our wet fibers into piles and covered them with ice. I think at this point I asked Melissa if she wanted gloves. I believe she said something like "gloves are over-rated" and we plunged right in.

Once the fiber was covered, we then sprinkled the kool-aid and dye powder onto the ice. I used the frozen dye cups on the commercially spun yarn.

commercially spun yarn with dye-cubes

First thing we learned: Aldi's brand of Kool-Aid does not work as well as real Kool-Aid for dyeing.

Next thing we learned, which was very surprising: 66 lbs of ice is not enough ice. We made a quick run to Target for more ice. Total ice consumption= 100+ pounds!

We took a lunch break while the ice melted. When we went to check the progress of things, we started making adjustments. I think I poured some of the vinegar water pre-soak on to the non-dissolving Aldi's drink mix. Cindy had the brilliant idea of rubbing ice cubes across some of the dyed fibers to blend the dyes. BRILLIANT! At this point our hands and nails were pretty much black and blue. Bruised looking. As I write this, my nails look like those of an auto mechanic. 

Once the ice had melted we set the dye by steaming the fiber in crock pots. I did have to do quite a bit of rinsing, too, to remove the excess dye. A quick spin in the washing machine and then out to dry. 

As you can see, the sheets are evidence of some of the wonderful tie-dye results we would have had if we were dyeing shirts. And if you look closely at Cindy's hands, you can see how black her fingers are!

Here are the results of the day:

This is a 70% merino 30% mohair blend. I used Greener Shades powder on ice.  

100% alpaca with combination drink mix and dye cubes, I think.

Merino/mohair blend with dye powder on ice

Commercially spun yarn dyed and "painted" with frozen dye cubes.

Close up of the dye-cubed yarn

These next two photos are of the dyed roving and then after it was spun and ply-ed with some of the same, but un-dyed.

merino/mohair blend, dyed with drink mix

We had fun. And mixed results. I don't know that I will do this again- if I do, it will be with yarn, not roving. Through this process, the roving had to be handled a little more than I would have liked. I am very happy with the results of the frozen dye cube dyed yarn, but I think similar results could be achieved by painting the yarn with dye stock and skipping the melting ice part. Still, it was an adventure and worth trying. 

Love,

Kim

Meanwhile….

Dear Mom,
When I've not been weeding, or mowing, I've managed to finish a few projects. This first sweater has been on my needles for months and got interrupted several times while I knit things for classes. I finally finished and I am not sure I'll ever wear it.

This is Manu. I love the pleated yoke and the deep, gathered pockets. I am just not sure that the wide scooped neckline is flattering. And the depth to the underarm is a bit shallow on me. Of course, I am saying all this based on a pre-blocked fitting. Post blocking could be an entirely different story. I am just afraid to try it on again and have my hopes dashed.  (The yarn I used is Classic Elite's Wool Bam Boo- one of my favorites. The only modification I made was to shorten the sleeves.)
For the last few months I'd feared I lost my desire to knit. I was a little bit scared for myself. But in the last couple of weeks I've cast on not one, not two, but THREE new projects. One of them was an impulse purchase that is very different from anything I typically knit (or wear)  and the pattern is so mind numbingly boring that I want to hurry up and finish it before the impulse that got me started wears off!

On a more successful front, I wove two rag rugs. I'd been saving my own and begging fabric scraps from you and any quilters I know. I cut the legs of some jeans that were destined for the Goodwill or garbage into strips. I joined the fabric strips together without sewing them as shown in this video. I spent an evening joining my strips together, and coughing and sneezing fiber. As it turns out, my fear of not having enough fabric to complete a rug were unfounded. I had enough fabric to weave 2 rugs, and probably a third. What I am getting low on is rug warp!

These were quick, satisfying projects. I like the thick/thin variations in the fabrics and the knotted joins in these rugs and the truly random-ness of the fabric strips. It is the pattern of the warp that unites the combination in the rug. I painted a non-skid rug backing to one side of them so we can use them without sliding across the floor.

It is Tour de France Fleece time. I've not joined any "teams" or set any lofty goals. I'll just make a point of spinning everyday, even if it is only for a few minutes. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
Love,
Kim

How Does My Garden Grow?

Dear Mom,
Can you believe a month has gone by since we planted the cottage flower garden? So far, everything seems to be thriving. I've just lost one english daisy and the delphinium I transplanted has disappeared. I'll make a trip tour favorite local nursery to replace them. I've added some Dame's Rocket transplants from a friend's garden and some sort of sedum ground cover between stepping stones from the same friend's garden.  I need to thin out the marigold seedlings, which will require some hard hearted-ness on my part. I am not sure I can actually do it. I think every single marigold seed germinated! I should probably sprinkle more zinnia seeds throughout some of the bare spots as fillers until the perennials can.

The temporary Olive barrier fence is still in place. I've tripped over it enough times that I am ready to take it down and keep my fingers crossed that she will not trample everything. However, the fence  is now working hard at keeping the peonies from falling into and smothering the cranesbill so it will remain until I invest in a plant support for the peony.

I planted both perennial and biennial varieties of foxglove. It is the biennial foxglove that is blooming now.

This is ice plant- something I'd never heard of before. I fell in love with the charming little daisy-like flowers. The foliage looks like it is a succulent of some sort. The flowers open and close with the sunshine.

English daisy

Daisy and columbine in bloom along the fence border, under the pussy willow. I've planted stock, asters and pinks along the edge.

The fruit on the serviceberry trees is ripening. We planted one just outside the screened porch to filter the sun as it sets. I have a somewhat hidden spot to watch the birds eat the fruit. They are quite determined and acrobatic, and extremely entertaining. 

I've tried three times to get this next photo to load vertically, not horizontally. I give up. Just tilt your head onto your right shoulder and pretend. 

I am slowly but surely lining the borders in the back yard with rocks. A new cul-de-sac is being developed as part of our neighborhood, in what has been part of a horse farm for as long as I can remember. I wish some things could stay the same. Anyway, that abused and savaged piece of farm field is ripe for rock hunting, and My Hero and I armed ourselves with a shovel and the wagon and went hunting. I was able to fill in one section and have 3 more areas I'd like to cover. Don't worry, I won't line the entire back yard! 

As I am writing this and uploading photos, I realize that our backyard is a reflection on the new chapter in our lives. We've taken the swing set down.  17 and 21 year olds don't climb into tree forts, slide down curvy slides and see how high they can swing. Our goal was to raise adults, not children and letting the swing set go is expected. However,  I can't help but wonder if Maybe the world would be happier if we never stopped swinging.  

As I contemplated the demise of the swing set, I began to plot a use for some of the lumber. Up 'til now, my clothesline has been a retractable line that extended from the house to the swing set. Might we build a real clothesline with some of the salvaged swing set? 

Yes!

 I now have 4 lines for pegging up my wash. I think I will actually be able to dry all the sheets and pillowcases and maybe even a blanket at the same time. 

And lastly, because we are talking flowers and marigolds- here is the shawl I knitted using the handspun, marigold dyed yarn. Elle decided to tiptoe through the tulips squat in the marigolds for this photo shoot. I used Orlane's Textured Shawl Recipe, and knit up every single centimeter of the yarn. (I had to go to the tiny bit that was left on a bobbin to finish binding off the last 20 stitches.)

 This came off the needles last night and blocked and dried while I slept. There is something very soothing about knitting and wearing shawls. This one is knit from the top down, so I cast on using the skein with the least amount of yardage and worked my way up in yardage as I worked my way down the shawl. It will be nice wearing this one with its ties to summer marigold flowers.

Enjoy the sunshine and blue sky. My sheets are going to smell heavenly!
Love,
Kim