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Not a lot to report this week, but making steady progress on Freya. Joined front and back under the arms and am now working int he round.

It’s coming along nicely, and has a nice rhythm to it. Did a quick try-on a few rows ago, and seems to be on track. So will be going round and round for a good while now.

I’ve got some travel coming up, and so have been giving some thought to project packing. And while Freya is a good candidate in some ways (circular needle, memorized pattern), it’s getting a little larger than is ideal for working while in transit. So I’ve been playing around with the idea of starting a small-scale colorwork project.

I have a lot of colorwork motif references, and was browsing through them the other day, but I really don’t want to be tied to a chart. It’s got to be almost autopilot, but fun.

And then I found It Is A Sarah’s Advent Vest . I love the scrappy look, and the repeating pattern is a really simple base for playing with colors. So I’m trying it out first on a hat

Cast on 120 stitches, 2.5 inches of corrugated ribbing, purl 1 round increasing to 130 stitches, start colorwork. Will figure out the crown shaping when I get there 🙂

Oh- I almost forgot to share the Newtons- The Man made Fig Newtons !

Our green figs took a long time to cook down, and probably could have even reduced further to be more paste-like, but they are quite tasty. Highly recommend.

That’s about it for now. Have a good week, folks-

Our Desert King fig tree is having a big year!

The Man has already made two batches of jam-

So I’m cleared to eat some fresh now. nom nom 🙂

And in woolly news, I found out at the last minute on Saturday that Flora Carlile Kovacs, a local felt artist, was giving a talk in LaConner about her process, in conjunction with her works being exhibited at the Quilt Museum, so I registered online and headed over there just after lunch.

I’d seen listings for her multi-day felt rug making workshops , and some beautiful examples of her works of that type, but wasn’t familiar with some of her other works, in which dyed silk features prominently. The silk really adds in interesting luminosity to the works that is hard to capture in photos (at least for me!)

These recent works focus a lot on creating dimensionality in the felt, both through creating scale-like folds in the embedded silk, and aligning the wool in different directions that causes the ruffling effects. Amazingly, the works are created all in one piece. the layers are formed using a plastic resist.

I was hoping to see/hear more about her process with the rugs, but her other works are a real inspiration as well. Might have to sign up for one of her workshops next time it’s offered nearby!

I’m back at it again this weekend, having mordanted some more materials for the dyebath-

These items turned out perhaps a bit less red, more rosy, but I am again really pleased with the results.

Despire the warm weather I’m making good progress on Dottie’s Freya sweater. I feel like I’m kind of finding my groove with this project, having gotten the rhythm of the cable patterns.

The lighting outside today really accentuates the texture. To my eye, in person it looks a but softer. And the feel is Dottie’s signature combination of silky and fuzzy 🙂

I’ve also been getting in some quality time with Daphne wool-

Working on a fairly high-twist two ply (spun on my spindle wheel at the higher ratio) that I’m hoping to use as warp in an upcoming weaving project. I’m imagining single-sheep fabric yardage. Maybe a twill, lightly fulled?

Out in the garden this week I harvested most of my Violeceo di Verona cabbage- I had quite a few start to bolt, or plagued by aphids, but had planted a lot of them and so still got a number of nice heads. I think maybe I planted them a bit too close, or perhaps too early in the season. Next year I might start them later so I’ll be harvesting as the weather cools. Here is the most photogenic of the crop-

We’re really enjoying this cabbage variety. It’s got a light texture that makes it really versatile. We’ve been eating it in salads, roasted, and The Man is making some kraut as well. Highly recommend!

Armed with all my recently assembled madder info, I set out Friday to give it a go.

I had assumed that the madder I had in my EarthHues natural dyeing kit from many years back was probably ground roots, and so was planning to have to go through an extraction process.

But upon closer inspection, it became clear that what I had was madder extract. So that really simplified things. I used the whole 30g that I had in the little container, but upon reflection, I probably didn’t need to. The bath was quite strong. Not quite sure of the total volume, but I filled my big pot up about 2/3, so maybe 6 gallons?

I tested the pH, and found that it was a bit acid (6.5). I wanted to increase the alkalinity and add a bunch of calcium, which supposed to boost the red pigments, so I added powdered dolomite lime.

Then I added my fibers and heated the bath to 160F. I think I left the goods in there maybe an hour- and look at these results! Glowing pink/red in the sunshine, almost burgundy on the grey felt in the front.

After washing and drying, here are the finished goods (total of 10.1 oz)

I was so surprised- it almost looks like cochineal. And the pot still has a lot of life in it.

I wanted to try something out that I’d read in the Jenny Dean book, about using the exhaust batch to produce a tangerine color on unmordanted fiber, and so added just a couple of cups of the dyebath to my rinse water to simulate a near-exhaust color density and added a little vinegar. Popped in some more fleece. Heated it up to 160 then just let it sit and cool with the fiber in it for quite a while.

It didn’t give me tangerine, but a pretty peachy pink

It might fade out, since it wasn’t mordanted. Only time will tell. But it’s lovely right now.

Also making some progress on the Dottie cable sweater- both shoulder pieces complete, and front right in progress

Feels so cushy and luxurious! I was telling Dottie about it this morning as I was checking and trimming her hooves, but she didn’t seem too interested. Maybe I’ll take it out there for her to inspect later. But I’m guessing she’d be more excited about a handful of oats 😉

Have a good week folks-