One Day at a time......

I am a day late, not for the first time, for a Woolly Wednesday............  My excuse is that yesterday was such a lovely sunny day Mr S and I went for a walk rather than say indoors!

August was a month of spinning and dyeing, the only knitting project I had on the go, fell lost and forgotten under a chair until discovered covered in Molly's hairs and only partially on the needles.........  So I frogged and started over again as part of the holiday KAL on 12shawls4ever!

So spinning and dyeing - some of the dyeing was of the natural kind for samples on the SpinDyeWeavers display.

Marigold and Eucalyptus produced paler than expected shades, but the Marigold was the best - a really beautiful pale yellow here on some Falkland Merino.

I am still collecting petals for another dye bath as I think that this is one of nicest colours I have got from nature.

Dyeing silk, is very satisfying, the colours really sing out, but I have got the best results using Procion dyes which seem to penetrate the silk better than acid dyes!  But which ever, the results are stunning, well I think so!

Golden Rain

This is one of my favourites, acid dyed with lots of white, this 50grams is enough for a shawl.

Dark Summer Morning

Continuing with the luxury theme I ordered 500 grams of Superfine Merino and Mulberry Silk 50/50 from World of Wool - wow what a fabulous fibre, so silky soft it almost drafts itself

This is the first bobbin, the second is done and I shall 2ply tonight.  I have fractal spun this, so with luck it won't be too barber pole.

Actually I haven't spent the entire month spinning, there has been the ongoing/never ending fleece washing!  But by washing using littlemarchhare's method it hasn't been that onerous.

Every morning I wash two envelopes and hang out to dry, in the afternoon I 'try' to comb the day before's washed fleece!  I have slipped a bit, but for the most part this method is working and I have lots of lovely fibre nests waiting to be spun

Also washed is some Dorset Down, Poll Dorset and Exmoor Horn samples kindly donated for the display table by David and Ruth Wilkins of Rampisham Hill Farm. I have been lucky enough to source some Clun Forest, Border Leicester from this year's clip and have been promised some Blue de Maine from next years!  But as according to the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) there are 86 distinct British breeds so we still have a long way to go!

Busy, Busy but not a lot to show

Woolly Wednesday again and although May has been a busy month but I feel that there isn't a lot to show for all my hard work!

First the solar dyeing now one month on and really not a lot of change except that the dye stuff has lost colour so hopefully some colour has leached into the yarn.

 

Red cabbage has produced less colour than I had hoped for.  This is the yarn modified with iron is probably the best of the three so far....

 

 

The garden has taken up more of my time than spinning but hopefully the results will be well worth the effort...

 

This what I grandly call the 'veg plot' originally everything was sowed in nice straight rows, but Molly decided that she prefer the more random look - so the rocket and lettuce have spread over a much larger area than first envisaged!  Currently she is completely confused by the netting cage we have erected over the veg - she keeps pushing her head against the net and walks round and round looking for a way in!

Here is the fruit bed and where our first strawberries are plumping up nicely and finally the new Dyers Garden

In the left front corner I have sown Anthemis Tinctoria  (Dyers Camomile) and the other four corners will have Rubia tinctorum (Madder), Reseda luteola (Dyers Weld) and Coreopsis.  All are good for bees which is another plus as we have a steady stream of bees visiting our garden.  I am probably being over ambitious but my philosophy is to cram in the plants so as to not leave room for the weeds to grow!  The sticks are an attempt to stop Molly re-organising the seeds!  So far so good....... 

My new wheel Miss Bliss has been put to good use spinning up the natural dye samples and so far I am loving the wheel, it is very light to treadle and seems to cope well with what ever I have tried so far.... and a big bonus is that I can spin from my wheelchair comfortably.....

This was yesterday's production of samples, nettles, onion skins and cochineal.  Most of the red cabbage is still on the bobbin and will get plied later this afternoon.  When I have finished mordanting the next lot of fibre I shall be trying my luck with the colour I extracted from the leaves of Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' (Smoke Bush)!

            


I did finish my St Kilda Shawl in May, it is one of the biggest shawls I have knitted so far this year

and another view this time with the first shawl pin Mr S has made - American Cherry for the ring and Indian Rosewood for the pin

I also got a big surprise on Monday evening when I was presented with a very large Texel fleece - I vaguely remember saying how nice it was in comparison to some Texel I had spun and that I wouldn't mind trying some!  Note to self - do not to make encouraging noises when presented with lovely fluff! 

I am going to try dyeing fleece in the grease with this one - which will have to be done with Mr S out of the way as the method uses vinegar - not tried this method before, but the idea of getting a clean fleece ready dyed does appeal..................



Kolourwork Krazy

Its Woolly Wednesday and I have to admit that there is a black hole in my knitting knowledge and that is colour work or as I knew years ago fairisle. 

The last time that I knitted anything that could be classed as colour work was probably back in the late 1960s when I made a sweater with a fairisle yoke.  I can remember at the time forcing myself to knit a pattern repeat a day (that was 10 rows on 300+ stitches) boy was I glad when it was finished.  The last time that I can remember wearing said sweater was on a pot holing trip down Swildon's Hole - no proper waterproof clothing required, just turn up in something old was the brief..........................

Having discovered that shawls are not and never were really the lacy creations that I had thought I found through further research that shawls were garments made for warmth and generally worn by working women.  You have to wait to the late 19th century for coats to make an appearance in the wardrobe of women, until most women wore cloaks or shawls - make sense when you consider the long skirts and petticoats.  The lacy creations popular in the early 19th century were the reserve of the upper and gentil classes - think Cranford Mitts!!!

After much searching I have decided that I love Kate Davies Designs particularly as I feel an empathy with her, having suffered a migraneous stroke in 1997. (one week to the day after the General Election) Like her I have turned by life around, but unlike her I am not an expert at fairisle knitting. But this, like the stroke, can be overcome! 

So colour work shawls............... First I thought I would dive straight in and make a colour work shawl with steek - well the works really!  Then sense prevailed and I thought practise first, shawl later!  Besides the chosen shawl - Eliza is a big project and I have two shawls on the needles already

Winter Green which is a KAL

 

 

The other is a test knit of my Strawberry Thief Shawl which I can't hibernate as I am charting the pattern for a friend who is also testing the pattern

 

 



A smaller project seemed more appropriate - so a scarf knitted in the round (which I have been told is the best way to knit fairisle as you only ever do knit stitches!)  So I purchased a ball of Kauni EFFEKT and a contrast in grey.  Its a bit of a cheat really because you only used two yarns, but get the effect of more.

Couldn't find a pattern, so turned to my Alice Starmore's Book of Fairisle Knitting and sorted out a suitable design! 

All the books on knitting with two yarns suggest using the technique of Continental knitting with one yarn and English throwing the other!  It ain't easy - and I have gone back to holding both yarns in my right hand and using both my index and middle finger - it works for me!

But I have just discovered that I twisted the first row.................................. &*&()(*^%$*)()^%$£&(*&^%$!