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. 🙂
Attended a Spindrifters meeting yesterday, where we sorted out the many details around next Saturday’s Dye Day event for the guild.
I am going to take my remaining indigo solution and everything necessary to get the bath tuned up for wool dipping. Also going to cook up a pot Dyer’s Chamomile to round out the natural dye options. It would like we’re going to have cochineal, a walnut and dahlia recipe that yields a lovely pumpkin color, and perhaps some madder or logwood (?) Should be a lot of fun!
Today I thought I should probably do a trial run to see how long it takes me to get a vessel of the indigo solution prepped and ready to use. Also, to give me an idea of how much thiox and washing soda it will take per gallon or so.
It looks like need about 1.5 -2 hours of prep time, 2 tbsp of washing soda to adjust the pH, and about a teaspoon of thiox to get it reduced. And all told, I think I dyed about a pound of wool before the bath started feeling kind of tapped out. So I’m feeling like we should be in pretty good shape for folks to get some good results next Saturday.
Also did about 6 oz of taupe/brown shetland fleece, which was soaking in a mild vinegar bath and missed out on the photo.
The wool felt sheets that I dyed today are one of the goodies I picked up at the meeting this weekend. A longtime Spindrifter (thank you Linda!!) is doing some serious de-stashing/dowsizing, and I came away with some tremendous goodies.
I was amazed to see in the give-away pile a whole collection of unspun yarn (aka pencil roving)! All natural colors, and of a few different makes, I believe (White Buffalo, Plotulopi, perhaps others?)
It is going to be so fun to play with!
I also finally got around to washing Dottie fleece from this spring. Here are the goods air drying in the hoophouse (where I was alternately playing with indigo and tending/harvesting veg today) I do love her wool.
This is an old photo (2017) of Dottie that i think is especially cute
