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This past week I acquired a neat new tool for use in my dyeing experiments/projects- an electric food warming unit. Found it on craigslist, and turned out to be right in my neighborhood.

Seemed like it might be great for holding fiber at sub-boiling temps for a variety of dyeing methods, and would not require firing up my propane burner.

I decided to give it a trial run with bringing my indigo vat (sitting dormant for the last month) back to life. I’d not done this before, so decided to work with just a small amount of the remaining dyebath.

I filled the well in the food warmer about halfway with water, and set it at high to start, to get the water temp up to 120F

It took about a teaspoon of thiox, and a half an hour or reaction time at that temp , but the blue solution finally started de-oxygenating and turning green!

Woot! I decided to use a bit of felt, yarn and fleece to test its viability (and found that the well of the warmer was a great place to let the fibers soak before dyeing, too!)

I was really pleased with the depth of shade of the results-

So I have gained some confidence in my ability to manage the indigo. I’m sure that the universe is getting ready to knock me down a peg, but for now I’m pretty chuffed 🙂

Also related to dyeing- I recently learned about a mordant that can be used without heat, on both protein and cellulose fibers: Aluminum Triformate. Am hoping to have a chance this summer to have a go at both madder and dyers chamomile, so am exited to give this a try. Just got some in the mail from Earthhues. So, more on that later.

Other blues on the radar this week- berries!

It’s a good blueberry year. Plenty for both us and the birds. Am trying to pick at least every other day, and put a bunch away in the freezer for future use. But it is hard to not just gorge on them. I think maybe I was a bear in a former life.

No ripe tomatoes quite yet, but look at these Cuor de Bue Albenga guys!!

The bunches of fruits are so big and heavy I’m probably going to have to put them in slings to keep them from detaching. Can’t wait to try them.

The Jaune Flamme will probably be the first to ripen- they are starting to show a little bit of orange

I also have an Alcott update, but will leave that for next time . Perhaps it will be all wrapped up by then!

Have a good week everyone-

She was such a sweet and cool girl. Had lots of friends & adventures, a few close calls over the years, and often attended Zoom meetings with me, as we shared a home office.

She was also very photogenic. Here are some of my favorite pics of her through the years.

We will remember her in all her favorite spots about the homestead. She had all the best spots. 🙂

Sorry to have missed y’all last week. I was away on Whidbey Island, enjoying some downtime with knitting friends. It was lovely, and I made significant progress on my Half an Alcott vest. Just yesterday, it popped off the needles.

I am so excited about how the colors work together. Kind of amazed, actually. Peach, violet, blue, teal, yellow, dark green. I think it harmonizes because there is so much white and taupe grounding it.

I couldn’t wait to open it up, so this morning I reinforced the steeks with crochet, and got out the snippers.

So now I need to figure out a plan for the back. Lots of options running through my head. Somehow solid taupe or solid white doesn’t feel quite right. Will let me unconscious work on it for a bit.

Some other colorful summery happy things-

Cherries!

Scarlet Runner beans

Long-awaited sweet peas

and Dyer’s Chamomile harvested for later use-

Also finished spinning up the Priscilla (previously of Marietta Shetlands, now at Schoonover Farm) wool that I picked up at the Wonderful Woollies sale in May

I think it’s about 400 yards. Perfect weight for the Fair Isle yarn stash. Whether they will remain white, or be candidates for dyeing is TBD. The Alcott vest has really got me all hopped up on colorwork!

Started a new project this week. Had been kind of driving myself crazy trying to figure out color combinations, but in the end, I decided to just use naturals for the lightest and darkest shades and mix and match medium tones in the charts. Hopefully the overall effect will be playful and eclectic. 🙂

Anyway, I’m working this one the same way I did the Fair Isle Experiment last year- only stranding and steeking the front. Will work the back separately in probably a solid color then assemble and do the edgings. But this time, since I know I’ll be cutting it open, I’ve added six steek stitches, so I have a little selvage to work with.

Feels good to have gotten a start on this. I find stranded colorwork so satisfying.

And while it’s been rainy and cool outside, in the hoophouse my sunflowers are going nuts-

About 8 feet tall now, they are finally developing flower buds Hopefully they bloom before they try to bust through the roof!

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now. Have a good week, folks.