quiet sunday

sophie napping in the window

freshly baked chocolate donuts

a tree so...

unbelievably pink

madelinetosh dk merino in 'ms. taylor'

equal parts leftover daffodil and onionskin dyes

Thank you to those who left kind comments and sent 

 emails regarding the passing of my friend.

They made me realize how lucky I am

to have such dear and supportive people in my life.

xoxoxo

hammer in hand

top to bottom: forsythia, daffodils, tulips

violets folded and hammered into fabric 

un-dyed yarn, daffodil yarn, holly nostepinne, bookbinding hammer

It's a bright and windy spring day here.

I put some more yarn in the mordant bath this morning

and then made for the local park, hammer in hand.

The book I've been referencing for some of my dyeing experiments,

Harvesting Color, by Rebecca Burgess, has a section on direct dyeing.

I presoaked my muslin in soda ash and then placed fresh violets on

one half of the cloth, folded the other side over, sprayed with a 

solution of soda ash/water then gently hammered the flowers

to release their dye.

A woman and her dog wandered my way to ask what I was doing

while others stayed close by and tried not to stare!

Tonight I will cook up a dye bath of red onion skins.

The top photo shows the blooms I am collecting and drying 

to use in a mixed dye bath.

the finished product

Well, the dye lost its brilliant orange color and 

ended up a nice golden hay color.

I left one skein in the dye bath overnight to see if it would darken

but the color was the same this morning.

I'll use the remaining dye as a base for a bag of red onion skins

collected from the grocery store.

The grey sweater was finished last night and blocked this morning.

It's as soft as a cloud and the fit is loose and very comfortable.

I didn't get to plant the seedlings as planned, soon...

The morning is grey but vibrating with the acidic green of new leaves

and the smell of rain and chlorophyll.

Spring

the dyeing process

Last night I put 5lb. of daffodils and a handful

of red onion skins in the dye pot and simmered it for an hour.

Left to steep overnight and through the day, 

I then strained out the organic material and poured 

the dye back into the pot.

A quick pre-soak of the mordanted wool and into the pot to simmer for an hour.

Just before the timer rang I put a teaspoon of Soda Ash into the mix.

A yellow froth hissed up and bubbled for a bit then I put the pot aside to cool.

For now its a nice burnt orange color, we'll see how it rinses out and dries.

While the pot simmered I folded some seed starter pot from newspaper.

I found an easy to follow tutorial here.

I used a half page from the NY Times Book Review to get small containers.

Tomorrow morning I'll plant some tomato seeds before work.

sunday at home

the sweetest little pink flowered strawberry plant 

complete with 3 berries and more to come.

I did all my running around on Saturday 

so I could stay home and work on Sunday

First, I bound 25 signatures in another coptic book.

Orange endpapers and thread with a finished thickness of 1 3/4".

My ever watchful assistant was fascinated by the thread as I sewed.

Then wound three skeins of un-dyed merino wool, each weighing 2 lb.

An hour simmer in the mordant bath and then a rinse and dry in the shower.

Tomorrow I will boil the daffodil flowers and then steep the dye overnight.

Hopefully the yarn will be dyed on Tuesday night!

Whew!

And I also finished one sleeve of my sweater, only one more to go.

I hope everyone had a great weekend too.