Author: denisemor

I finished up the Alcott cardigan just in time for sweater weather-

Not sure yet if I’m going to put some sort of clasps on it, leave it open,,,, or maybe a zipper? (!) Zipper would be kind of cool. But for now I’m calling it done. And I’m really happy with the overall look. Some strong colors, but the taupe and warm black kind of ground it, so it’s not too wild. Just fun and a bit eclectic.

And speaking of colors, I signed on to do a Kool Aid dyeing class at the next WSU Country Living Expo. It’s going to be a hands-on experience, where everyone comes away with some dyed yarn and wool roving. So, lots to plan and organize for that. Spincycle yarns donated a large quantity of white superwash roving (mill ends) to our local spinning guild, so I’m excited to have that for folks to play with, and I sourced a good-sized batch of taupe colored yarn from another spinner who is re-homing about 50 years worth of crafting materials. So think I’m all set as far as the fiber goes.

I did a little preliminary playing around today with different techniques-

Black cherry is a really heavy hitter! Easily overwhelms Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade. And my first attempt at speckling with dry powder I’m calling a partial success, but can’t make a final judgement until the yarn is dry.

The garden is just about tapped out for the year- I harvested my last cukes today. But in doing some garden cleanup, I was excited to find that some of the lowest branches on our fig tree had rooted at points where they were touching the ground. So I’ve carefully removed them and will be getting them potted up sometime soon. Might have as many as 5 new little Desert King fig trees! Woot!

Have a good week, folks-

Fall is here for real, with crisp nights and golden afternoons.

Apples are turning into sauce and pie

and today I picked our quince!

Late season veg are coming in as well- squash, dry scarlet runner beans and my first escarole

In the last couple days, I’ve made a lot of progress on the Alcott-again Cardigan

Only about 2.5 inches to go, I think- I always get so excited as it gets close to steeking time. The moment of truth 🙂 Then I’ll have to make some decisions about finishing.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. Keeping busy, and focusing on the good in our little corner of the world. Take care, everyone- and I’ll catch you next week.

Yesterday I used up a gallon or so of leftover chamomile dyebath from last weekend’s Dye Day on some felt sheets (natural white and baby blue, aluminum triformate mordant, 6 days)-

I’m so pleased with how they turned out. No firm plans on how I’m going to use them yet, but together with the ones that I dyed with indigo a couple weeks ago, I’ve got a pretty nice selection of colors for making ornaments, toys, etc.

The yellow/greens are almost a perfect match for the giant quince that I just picked-

It’s not fully ripe yet, but I figured I should pull it since it had developed a big crack along it’s length-

Weird, eh? Just couldn’t contain itself, I guess. Anyway, we’ve got about 15 other, much smaller quinces on the tree this year, so I feel confident we’ll get some of them across the finish line- and maybe into some membrillo (?) 🙂

Been pulled away from the Alcott Cardigan a bit lately to work on some special-order socks, but I am now shaping for the arm scythes and v-neck, so things are progressing. I might need to spin a bit more taupe yarn of the right weight to finish it up…..

It’s been a pretty nice early fall here so far, but soon sweater weather will be upon us!

Yesterday was the spinning guild dye day. We were lucky to have beautiful weather- sunny but not too warm. About as good as it gets around here in late September!

We had a lot of different things going- acid dyes in primary colors for a planned color blending study, and on the natural dye side-madder, osage orange, tansy, logwood, walnut leaf/dahlia, and cochineal, plus my indigo and Dyer’s Chamomile/onion skin/calendula pot.

I would have taken pictures of the scene, with all the various pots simmering away, but I was occupied pretty much all day managing the indigo set-up.

I went over to Valerie’s house Friday to deliver all the tools and materials, and also to cook up the chamomile/onionskin/calendula stock ahead of time so it would be all ready to go on Saturday morning. That turned out to be a great strategy. I let it simmer for a couple hours, then put a lid on it and let it stew and cool gradually overnight. In the morning just had to strain out the solids (chiffon fabric is a great strainer) and bring it back up to temperature, so it was ready to go pretty quickly.

It was a really fun day, with folks getting great results from all the different pots.

I should have kept track of how much fiber went through the indigo vessels, but it all went by too fast. It must have been at least a couple of pounds of wool. I used up about 2 gallons of the indigo solution. Amazing how much mileage I’m getting out of that vat from June!

When everyone had dipped as much as they cared to, I shifted to dyeing some of the white superwash Spincycle mill end roving that was donated to the guild. I think that we got about 10-12 ounces of that “blued” as well.

When I got home, I washed everything up, gave it a quick spin in the washing machine, and put it out in the hoophouse to dry. Voila!

Yarns in the photo, from left to right: walnut leaf/dahlia on Fiona, camomile/onion/calendula on Fiona, camomile/onion/calendula on misc oatmeal colored cool, madder on misc oatmeal colored cool, and one more camomile/onionskin/calendula on misc oatmeal colored cool. (everything cold mordanted with Aluminum Triformate for a week)

All the roving is the superwash Spincycle white wool: madder, indigo and cochineal, plus the acid dye blue and yellow in the back.

There was really good turnout, and I think that folks had a lot of fun and came away with beautifully colored goods.

So glad it all came together and we were able to pull it off before the weather turned.

Today is rainy, but it feels refreshing and restful. 🙂