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Arachneyarns and More, Wolverton, MN

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North Country Fiber Fair

posted September 25, 2013

September 24, 2013

North Country Fiber Fair

I have been hearing about the North Country Fiber Fair for several years. It is held each September in Watertown, South Dakota. I have thought about going many times, but it seemed that something always got in the way. This year, I finally made it. I had a wonderful time. There were many venders there from all over with items for sale and lots of new and interesting ideas. I met a lot of friendly people from a lot of different places. It is so inspiring to be surrounded by people who are as passionate about fiber as I am!

The fair lasts for three days. There is no admission fee. Countless demonstrations are taking place all three days. In the barn and area a there are sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, even a Bactrin camel! There are animal judging contests, sheering demonstrations, dog obedience and sheep dog demonstrations.

Tracy Miller from Billabong Border Collies gave several demonstrations of border collies working stock. It was very entertaining and informative. Tracy explained that so much of what the dogs do is instinct, and the trainers' job is to work with the dog, teaching the dogs commands for what they are already doing.The dogs are definitely enjoying themselves, as is Tracy.
There are spinning wheels everywhere you look. Many venders selling spinning tools, yarn, looms, even baskets from Giana.


 


 I tried to stop myself, but I did buy some really wonderful roving, a large bag of beautifully hand dyed mohair locks, some yarns that were hand dyed, and almost another wheel...







Classes are offered on spinning, knitting, basket weaving, dying, color theory, crochet, photography, Kumihimo,braiding, felting, wool combing, tatting, nalbinding, rug hooking, and even building and using a triangle loom.


I didn't sign up for any classes this year, but will next year. It was really a lot of fun. Well worth the drive. Good people, interesting demonstrations, lovely things to touch and buy... and a lot of inspiration. I have all sorts of new things I want to try! Next year. I am already looking forward to it!

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Addicted to Blending!

posted September 25, 2013

September 13, 2013

Addicted to Blending!

I have found that I really enjoy blending colors together. It is so fun to see what happens. I start with a picture in my mind, but it changes as the colors start to blend. I never know what I will end up with when it is all done and made into yarn. One thing that helps is that all the colors I am using are from nature so you can't really go too far off.

Just had to show you my latest blending project! This is a soft, beautiful three ply yarn that is thick/thin worsted weight.

From fuzzy worms!
Once again, blended on the drum carder. I used three large batts and ended up with 160 gr. of Navajo ply yarn. The skein is just over 200 yards. I don't know if I have the heart to make anything with it! The skein itself is so pretty, I hate to take it apart. 
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Color Blending on a Drum Carder

posted September 25, 2013

September 8, 2013

Color Blending on a Drum Carder

Since I started dyeing wool and yarn I have a stash of really nice, naturally dyed fiber as well as some colored fleeces from colored sheep. I decided to try blending some of them on a drum carder. I have made 'art batts' by sandwiching different fibers together and then carding them. This is great for creating funky yarn, but I wanted something more uniform in texture. I put all the different colors of roving I have together with some colored fleece and picked out several I thought would meld nicely together.

I looked through my stash of miscellaneous fiber bits I have purchased at various places and times to add to my wool. I picked out some 50% Marino superfine-50% Tencel in Teal and white. I brought out some grey and some brown colored fleece and chose some roving dyed with red cabbage, onion skins and madder. These looked pretty nice together. I thought that adding the Marino/Tencel blend would add a little shimmer to the yarn without getting too flashy.  The base color was the red cabbage (on the bottom of the photo-it is blue-green, I know).

I started by applying a thin even layer of the red cabbage roving. To that I added bits of color. When I wanted a layer of color, as with the red cabbage, I applied it using the small roller to feed it to the large drum. If I was applying a color for punch or that I wanted only in certain places, I applied it directly onto the drum. When I got to a spot where I could no longer see a color, I added some more. If I thought it looked a little drab I found another color to add. When I thought the colors were getting too bright, I calmed them back down with some more red cabbage or some of the silver grey fleece.


As the batt was forming on the drum I kept a picture in my mind of the finished batt and how the yarn would look. I had a loose idea of what I wanted by thinking about New Mexico and the colors of the Southwest. It is pretty difficult to get really specific on a drum carder, but you can create beautiful color combinations and it gives you some control over how blended together the colors become. I new it was time to stop adding fiber when the drum was no longer picking up the wool from the small feeder roller. Below is a picture of the first batt completed on the drum.

I removed the batt with two large knitting needles, drafting and rolling it into rollags. I got five rollags. from this batt. 
 
I made another batt as much like the first as I could I tried to load the colors in a similar manner and also tried to get the batt about the same size as the first.  I got another five rollags from the second batt. I ended up making one more small batt, as that was all the red cabbage roving I had. Thirteen rollags total. I put them all in a basket and would spin them randomly to diminish the effect of coming from different batts.

I spun the rollags into a fine singles. Spinning from the rollag is really nice. You just tease the wool from one end. I knew I wanted the yarn plied, but wasn't sure how. I didn't want to ply two singles together because I didn't want to barber pole the colors on top of each other. Because the batts were made on a drum carder, I couldn't really control how the specific colors came off. I wanted them to stay as clear as possible.
 
 I decided that Navajo Ply was the way to go. I can't really describe how to ply this way here without making a video. It is a way of plying a three ply yarn from a single strand by making a loop in the single and bringing the the thread through the loop and spinning it all together. It is really best to watch a video or two. It can seem really tricky at first. Like anything else with spinning, you just have to practice until you 'feel' it. A big thing to watch out for is over-plying and getting a yarn with too much energy. It will appear over-twisted until it is washed, so don't expect it to ply back on itself nicely on the bobbin. It is important to keep a consistant amount of twist in the singles and matching it with the same amount of opposite twist in the yarn. A couple videos that I have seen that are really helpful are Susan Anderson - Navajo Plying and Navajo Plying.mp4 - Charlotte Bech. Both of these are well done and easy to understand.

This is my finished 'Taos' Navajo plied yarn. I ended up with about 180 yards of worsted/DK weight yarn. It is a very soft yarn with a nice amount of loft.

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Demonstrating at the Threshing Bee

posted September 25, 2013

August 21, 2013

Demonstrating at the Threshing Bee

Made it to the Threshing Bee in Rosholt, South Dakota last weekend. Seventh time in eight years that we have gone down. It is a highlight of my summer. I take my wheel, yarn and wool and do a spinning demonstration. It is so fun to talk to all the people and explain the spinning process. I love talking to people who come by the demonstration who are as passionate about fiber and art as I am. I always meet new and interesting people with interesting stories to tell.

This year, the town of Rosholt was celebrating its Centennial and the Rosholt Area Threshermen's Association (RATA) was celebrating its twenty fifth Threshing Bee. The parade was bigger than in other years and there were a lot more activities in town. For more fun information and photos, check out the RATA Facebook page here Threshing Bee.

  I set up next to the blacksmith shop this year 
outside with the pioneer tent. It was great being outdoors. It was hot and sunny but the breeze  was
cool and it kept the dust and smoke away.  Being in the pioneer tent this year was new to me. Kirk and LaVonne Akerson have the pioneer tent. It is set up alongside the blacksmith demonstration.

LaVonne spends the day cooking over an open fire and talking about the old ways with people
passing by. Kirk works next door in the Blacksmith Shop and their daughter, Hannah, keeps busy making hand cranked ice cream and butter and helping out the threshermen and anyone else who needs it.


 
                                                                           
    
    Every year there is a new cedar shingle designed and cut with the saw mill. This year there was a really nice design (as always). We had one for each year we were at the bee but unfortunately, the camper they were in burned in the fire we had last year so we have to start our collection of a buttons and shingles over. 

Each year we have been invited to park our camper by Donny Dahlman's shop. I want to thank Donny and Stacy and their boys for all the hospitality and assistance as well as the wonderful fun we had all weekend. Donny has a LOT of steam machinery! He has a large shop that he keeps it in and works on it during the year. During the Bee, everything is brought outside and displayed. He has a great collection. There are a lot of other people with big steam engines, tractors, and threshers. To see pictures go to the link above. 
There is really something for everyone at the Bee. RATA does a great job of pulling everything together to create a wonderful weekend of family fun. Neither my husband or I are from Rosholt, but every year feels like a family reunion. I wish I had taken more pictures. I was planning to, but there were a lot of people there and I got too busy spinning, talking, and selling yarn!
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A Walk in the Woods

posted September 25, 2013

September 2, 2013

Walking in The Woods

Before I start this post, I would like to let people know how to join and how to leave comments. I have had several people tell me they have had difficulty. If you wish to join the site, there is a blue button down the right side column that says Join This Site. If you click on that it should take you through the process. If you wish to leave a comment or ask a question about a post, please look in the box at the end of each post. There you will find the words 'No Comments'. If you click on that, it should take you to a comment box. Your comment will not appear on the post until it has been approved. Thanks! I hope to hear from more of you.


My husband and I visited his sister and her family up near Bemidji, MN this weekend. While we were there, Carolyn and I went searching for color.  We drove to a nearby state forest (of which there are many). Once we were inside the woods I took lots of photos to remember it by. Being inside a forest is a very rejuvenating place for me. It feeds my soul. I have always loved this part of Minnesota. No matter where I roam, it always calls me back. We stopped and listened to the woods, smelled the earth and picked some wild berries (just enough for a taste).

 
On the way to the forest we found a lot of plants I have been looking for to dye my wool with along the roadsides in the fields and ditches. There were a lot of wild blue and white asters among the goldenrod and tansy. It was a beautiful display of color.

Some of the plants that we found that afternoon were Mullein and Goldenrod. We also found large stands of Tansy. These were not in the forest, but in the fields and ditches along the way there. 
These are three of the plants I want to try dyeing with yet this summer. I also am looking forward to walnuts, pine cones, and some lichens and mushrooms. We found this lovely piece of wood lying on the ground near Carolyn's home.

As we were leaving the forest and driving some backroads, we came upon these guys!


I don't have any idea whose cattle these are. They appear to be Scottish Highlands and they are enormous! They looked so beautiful and peaceful standing in the pasture. There was quite a herd of them, including some born this year. They are supposed to be an extremely hardy breed with minimal shelter needs even in the coldest climates due to their long wooly coats (they are, after all, originally from the Scottish Highlands). They will survive on little supplement besides pasture and will eat almost everything. They are excellent meat producers and are a gentle breed. They have very large, curved horns and shaggy bangs over their eyes. This helps to prevent fly bites and pink eye. It also makes them irresistable!

We had a wonderful weekend and I have to thank our hosts for all their hospitality, great food, good company, and wonderful bonfires! We will have to do this again very soon!

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The Focus is Focus...

posted September 25, 2013

June 19, 2013

The focus is focus...

I am the kind of person who has dabbled in a million things. I look back over my years of working doing everything from long-haul truck driving, social work, retail sales, upholstery business, green housing, to name a few. My interests are constantly shifting. I have been fortunate enough to follow my whims to some extent.

I have toyed with a myriad of different artistic venues. Working with clay, painting in several different media, woodcarving, quilting, beading, raising livestock, gardening, and many others. Each time I found a new interest I bought every book and all the equipment I could find. I am very lucky (?)  to live in a large, old farmhouse with just my husband, three dogs and two cats for competition! I found fiber and spinning about fifteen years ago and have stayed with that in one form or another ever since. I am not saying there haven't been side trips, but I always seem to come back!

I have been working hard this last six months on the idea of focus, single-pointedness. I have been clearing out a three decade collection of must-haves. I am trying hard to quiet the voices that call out to me from all corners. The house is a much more peaceful place when it is is not trying to tempt me in a different direction, not to mention it is becoming much less cluttered. I have all my yarn, spinning and knitting stuff in one large room now. My weaving didn't fit, so the loom is still in one of the living rooms. Remnants of other endeavors are stored in a large closet, waiting to be brought back out.

My latest fascination (here we go again), is with natural dye stuffs and wool. I have tried several things so far; rhubarb leaves, asparagus, and Snow on the Mountain to name a few. I have been looking through my many books on natural dyes and have started a list (now three pages long) of dye stuff I want to harvest or grow. Everything I look at now makes me wonder, "what color could I get from that".  I think I will have to start carrying a bag and a clipper with me everywhere I go.

In an effort to remain focused, I have decided that I will experiment with many different dye stuffs, but  stick to Alum as the mordant as it is the least toxic, and will vary the assists and other things that can affect the color. I also have a supply of nicely softened water with the iron removed, or hard water full of iron. That will affect the outcomes as well. I am very grateful to sheep and other animals  that continue to produce raw fiber for me to play with!

 As I said in my very first post, this is a  journey and I hope you will join me! I am in no way an expert, but ready to jump in with both feet and see where it takes me!
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The Shawl

posted September 25, 2013

May 24, 2013

The shawl.....

I was blissfully wandering through one of my favorite yarn shops on a chilly afternoon last fall, mesmerized by all the different fibers. I was drinking in the colors, fondling all the different yarns, when suddenly a skein of sock yarn screamed at me. It was a variegated wool with shades of ecru, turquoise, brown and a bit of grey. All the colors that a friend of mine loves were in that one skein of yarn! I decided I had to buy it and make something for her for Christmas. I got home with the yarn and started going through books, magazines and websites looking for the perfect pattern to make with the yarn. I decided that a lacy scarf would be something she would like and wear. I found a pattern that I thought would be lovely with that particular yarn, got my needles out and started knitting. I was making good progress when I saw a mistake a few rows back. Of course I had not thought to use life lines, the pattern wasn't that difficult and it didn't occur to me that I could make a mistake... I frogged back to the row with the mistake and tried to pick up all the stitches correctly. Lace patterns are made by knitting two stitches together, wrapping the yarn over, slipping stitches and all sorts of things that make picking up stitches really confusing. I ended up frogging all the way back to the beginning. End of the first attempt. I decided to try a different lace pattern the second time around. I got about six inches knit up and decided I didn't like the way the yarn was working up in that pattern so I tore that out as well. End of the second attempt. Back to the books, magazines and websites. I found yet another pattern that I thought would be nice so I started again. By this time there was no hope of finishing the scarf in time for Christmas. I still had several other gifts and some orders for things that I needed to knit up and get in the mail. I figured it would be okay if the scarf wasn't done in time for Christmas because my friend's birthday is at the end of January. After the holidays I pulled the scarf back out. When I looked at it I decided that I didn't like it so, again, I frogged. Attempt number four was crocheted. Adding texture wasn't the answer. I couldn't face casting on enough stitches to knit lengthwise, so back to looking at patterns. I finally found a beautiful shawl pattern that I really liked. (Lala's Simple Shawl by Laura Linnehan found on Ravelry.com). It was knit from the top down. I could see fairly quickly that the pattern was going to work with the yarn. It is now well into February. I told my friend about the project  and explained why she didn't get the 'scarf' for Christmas or her birthday. She thought it was hilarious. I was getting so tired of looking at that yarn that I just wanted to finish something and move on! Well, it got to be Mother's Day. (She qualified, even if she wasn't my mama). I finally got the shawl done. She thinks it is wonderful, and I got the yarn out of the house. I liked it so well I am now making one for myself ...with a different yarn!
LaLa's Simple Shawl pattern,
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Lily

posted September 25, 2013

May 28, 2013

Lilly

When I opened my eyes this morning I saw yet another grey sky, heavy with rain. The wind was bending the branches on the trees and the air looked damp and cold. We have had a particularly long winter this year, even for us. The spring has been cold, wet and windy. It looked like gardening was out yet again. I made a pot of coffee and took it up to my spinning room. I have been spinning up a roving from one of my sheep. The wooI I am working with is very white with about a five inch staple and a nice crimp. It spins beautifully with an attenuated long draw. I have been spinning singles (28 wpi) that I will ply into a finished yarn. I haven't decided how I want to finish the yarn at this point. I don't know whether or not to dye any of it, or whether I will keep it or sell it. For now, I am just enjoying the act of spinning. This particular type of spinning is very relaxing. I don't have to focus too hard on what I am doing and it leaves my mind free to wander. I found myself thinking about the sheep that bore this coat. Lilly was born on the farm. She was a twin. She was a daughter of Holly and Buddy, my first breeding pair. This makes the wool a mix including Lincoln, Romney, Jacob, Finn and Border Leicester.  I found myself thinking about the day I brought Holly, Chris and Buddy home. These were the first sheep I bought for wool. I found an ad in the Farmers section of the local paper, made a call, picked up my friend Susie, who actually knew something about sheep and wool and off we went. When we got to the seller's farm we found that her sheep were direct descendants of a flock that was bred specifically for hand spinning by a friend of Susie's. All three of the sheep we were shown were yearlings. Both ewes had been bred to a Lincoln ram. Holly was a beautiful ewe the color of nickel. She had a soft black face and legs. Chris was a white ewe and Buddy, the ram, was a rich dark brown. There was no way I could leave the farm without them. We visited with the seller a bit, got the breeding records, loaded the sheep into the back of a small pickup with a topper and headed back home. We managed to unload the sheep and get them into the barn. We introduced them to Dolly and Sally, my other sheep and the only milk goat we had left. Then came cleaning the back of the truck. I never dreamed three sheep could make that big a mess in that short a time! The next step was telling my husband about the sheep. I decided to put that off for a while. We had sold our flock of milk goats and he had become accustomed to the quiet. After three days I had to tell him because I had to go out of town for a few days for work. He would have take care of them while I was away. We walked together to the barn the night before I left. I made a point of how mentioning how quiet it was out. That was all it took. He stopped walking and asked, "what is in the barn". Does he know me or what! Luckily, when we got to the barn the sheep all came over to introduced themselves, nuzzled our hands and ate some corn we offered. I still miss having sheep around. They are such wonderful, gentle souls. We sold all our animals a couple years ago when I was gone a lot for work. Since then, our barn burned and it is doubtful we will rebuild. I thought I would include a picture of the finished yarn. (DK weight three ply).
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Rhubarb: Eat, Drink and Dye!

posted September 25, 2013

June 5, 2013

Rhubarb-Eat, Drink and Dye!



One  thing we have a lot of this time of the is rhubarb. I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to use it. Each year I try new recipies for cake, cookies, crisps and crumbles as well as tea. This year I am going to try dying some of my newly spun wool with the rhubarb  leaves as well.  I spent some time looking through my books on natural dying. I found several discussions on using rhubarb root as a dyestuff. Using the dried root will produce some nice shades of yellow, depending on other variables in the process such as the water used, what the dye pot is made of, amount of dyestuff used, to name a few. It is very important to keep good records if you want to be able to repeat the process with similar results. This is true for any kind of dying and especially true for using natural dyes. I have decided I am not ready to dig up my rhubarb plants at this time so I will have to wait to try that. I do, however, have an abundance of rhubarb leaves. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is poisonous to humans so care is needed. Oxalic acid can be used as a mordant for dying fiber, especially animal fiber.  When rhubarb leaves are the color agent there is no need to mordant the yarn first.  The method I am going to use is chopping the leaves and simmering them is water and letting them stand over night. Then I will strain the liquid and use that for dying my wool. I will be posting more specific directions and pictures of the results soon.

In the meantime, here are a couple of this year's recipies for using the stems:

Rhubarb Tea.                                                                                         
8 stalks of rhubarb                                8 cups of water
orange or lemon peel                            Sugar to taste
A few sprigs of mint (I especially like Mojito Mint for this)



Cut the rhubarb into three inch pieces. Add the water and citrus peel. Simmer for one hour. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain the liquid. Add sugar to taste. Serve over ice with a sprig of mint. Very refreshing!

Rhubarb Cake
1 1/4 C white sugar                              1tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt.                                            2 C white flour
2 eggs, beaten.                                     1 C sour cream
3C diced rhubarb
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 baking dish.
In a large bowl combine 11/4 C of sugar, baking soda, salt, and two cups flour.
Stir in eggs and sour cream until smooth. Fold the rhubarb into this mixture.

In a small bowl, combine 1cup sugar, 1/3 cup butter (softened) and stir til smooth.
Add 1/4 cup flour, 1/3 cup nuts (optional), and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.
Sprinkle over cake.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool, serve with ice cream.
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Dying with Snow on the Mountain

posted September 25, 2013

Snow on the Mountain

This is a picture of a garden in a shady corner of my yard. Originally, it was a rock garden with a rock fence and a path that wandered through it. I made a big mistake many years ago and introduced Snow on the Mountain into the garden (the plant with the variegated green and white leaves). It pretty much ran almost everything else out of the garden with the exception of the Wood Anemones and the purple Dames Rocket. I tried several times to dig it out with no  success (I am sure it should be illegal to charge money for it in plant stores).

I have recently found a use for this invader that makes me feel much better about giving my garden over to it. I decided to try to dye wool with it. It was a round-about journey but I ended up with beautiful results. The best part is that I get to decapitate the Snow on the Mountain plants. This picture was taken after I had cut what I needed!

I started the process with Asparagus. I cooked some for supper one night and noticed a beautiful green color in the water. We ate that asparagus, but I went out and picked a bunch more, about two pounds. I brought that in, cleaned it and chopped it into 2" pieces. I simmered it in two gallons of water for one hour and let it sit in the liquid over night. The next day I drained and strained it and added .33g. Alum for a mordant. I also added .18g. cream of tartar for an assist. I placed three ounces of white roving into the pot and simmered it for about one hour. I shut the heat off and left the wool in the dye bath for about 36 hours. After the first twelve or so hours I added .18g of citric acid as well.  The pot still had a nice green color, but the yarn remained white.  Enter the Snow on the Mountain.

I removed the yarn from the pot, left the liquid and filled the pot with chopped up Snow on the Mountain. I put about one and a half plastic grocery bags in and pushed it all under the water. The mordant (alum) and cream of tartar was still in the water. I did not add more. I simmered this for about an hour, let it cool some, and added the yarn back to the pot. I simmered the yarn for an hour and removed it from the heat.

The dye bath turned a very soft, lemony yellow. It also smelled very bad so I put it outside. I let this stand another 36 hours. The color didn't really go into the wool until the last twelve hours.

In this particular case the mordant was added directly to the dye bath. This is easier than mordanting the yarn and then placing it in the dye bath. The drawback is that if you want to experiment with other mordants you can't because the dye bath and not the wool has the mordant. There are several other things that can be used as mordants such as tannin, vinegar, and heavy metals such as silver, chrome, iron, tin or copper. The metals are quite toxic so disposing of them is a problem. Each will produce a different color with the same dye stuff. I have decided that I will use alum as a mordant in the interest of keeping this adventure safe and focused. I can't imagine I will run out of colors by using just alum!

The yarn, when removed from the dye bath was washed with hot water and Eucalan soap. It was then hung outside to dry. The result is a beautiful soft yellow, the color of lemonaide. I now have three ounces of wool ready for spinning.

 (I tried several times to get a good photo of the wool, but could not capture the color. I bought a package of colored index cards with yellow, pink, blue and green cards. The yellow matches the yellow wool, if that helps).
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Rhubarb: It's a Good Day to Dye!

posted September 25, 2013

June 20, 2013

Rhubarb : It's a Good Day to Dye!

I decided to brave the mosquitoes the other day and went out to the garden to pick another arm load of rhubarb. I made more tea with  the stems and decided to try the leaves for dying. I tore
up enough leaves to fill my dye pot (that is 12 inches in diameter) about three inches full. I added enough water to cover and brought it to a boil. I reduced the heat and simmered the mix for an hour. I let that mixture cool and steep for about 24 hours.

The next day was dying day. I decides to dye three skeins of white wool I had spun with some of my roving. I had already washed the yarn. the skeins were about 110 yards each and weighed just over 3 oz. together. I placed the skeins in hot tap water to get them completely wet. I didn't mordant this yarn because rhubarb leaves have a lot of Oxalic Acid in them. This acts as a mordant for dying, and can be used as such with different dyestuffs. It also means that the rhubarb leaves are poisonous for humans so care must be taken. Any pots, utensils, and other equipment used for dying must not be used for cooking. If you don't have any old pots and things around, try looking at a second hand store. If you are using enamel coated pots, like an old water bath canner, be sure it has no chips or the metal could leach into your dye bath. This will affect the colors you end up with.  Also, it is necessary to wear rubber gloves to avoid contact with the dye bath.

I heated the dye bath to a temperature equal to the water the yarn was soaking in. I added the yarn to the dye bath.  In this photo you can see a tiny bit of blue yarn. I use that to identify the yardage. It is necessary to tie the yarn with a small piece of yarn in at least three places (I use four) to avoid tangles during the dying process. I mark my skeins with different color yarn pieces to keep track of the yardage when the skeins are wet.


I simmered the yarn in the dye bath for about an hour and a half. I removed the whole pot from the stove and let the yarn steep for about 24-30 hours. I removed the yarn. Squeezed out the remaining liquid and washed it in hot water with Eucalan wool wash. I dried it in the sun on the clothes line
I decided to make myself a scarf with my yarn. I found this pattern by Elizabeth Morrison. It is not difficult and works up fast. I think it is a good choice for this yarn.  The link below will take you to the pattern PDF.
Mead Scarf Pattern
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Red Cabbage Blues

posted September 25, 2013

June 22, 2013

Red Cabbage Blues

I am starting to think about dying wool all the time.  I couldn't get to sleep last night thinking about all the possibilities! I had to drive about 35 miles this morning to take one of our dogs to the vet. All the way home I found myself  watching the ditches more than the road...  I spied all sorts of wildflowers/weeds blooming that I recognized from my dye books! I decided that I can't leave home any more without boxes, bags, gloves and a clipper.

Today I am dying with red cabbage. While I was in town I picked up a few groceries, and there, in the produce section, calling my name, was one lone head of red cabbage. I couldn't leave it there with all the green ones. So, into my cart it went.

This is really amazing. I put two gallons of water in my dye pot. I added 14 oz. (400 g.) of chopped red cabbage. I brought this to a boil and then simmered it for an hour. I let it cool on the pot and sit for another two hours.  The color I was hoping to get in the wool was a greenish blue. When I first boiled the cabbage the water turned a beautiful sapphire blue. Oh if my yarn turned that color! 
I put the mordant, 20g. of alum, into a quart of very hot tap water with 14g of cream of tartar. I stirred this until it was dissolved and added it to the dye bath.  When I added this mixture to the dye bath the whole thing turned a deep reddish purple. 


I soaked my clean wool (7 oz, 200g), in hot tap water and brought the dye bath temperature up. I added the wool to the pot and brought it to just under a boil for one hour. As I heated the wool, the dye bath turned more and more violet colored. So far, I would accept any of those colors, but I new it was going to change again.  I turned off the heat and let the wool sit in the dye bath over night. So far, I loved all the does I had seen, but I knew it was to turn more blue/green so I waited. The next morning the color had moved a bit more to the blue, sort of lavender, but not what I was expecting. Also, the yarn had not taken up much of the color and remained very pale. I reheated the dye bath and simmered it for another hour. Then I placed it outside to steep like sun tea. Several hours later the yarn still had little color so I added a cup of vinegar which brought back more red. I left the dye pot for another 24 hours.

 This morning is enough. I took the wool out of the pot, a very pale lavender. It is drying outside. I put the day bath into a big jug for a friend of mine who will use it for making paper. I plan to use the other half head of cabbage to dye more wool. This time I will mordant the wool, not the bath and compare the results. I have read that you can do it either way, but, I want to try it myself.
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Hunting for Wild Color

posted September 25, 2013

June 25, 2013

Hunting for Wild Color

Today I took a drive on some of the small roads near my home. I live in the middle of farm country, so much of the land near me is used for crop production. Farmers are pretty diligent about controlling weeds in their field. Especially those on the Minnesota Department of Ag Noxious Weed list. The ditches and railroad beds are still good hunting grounds. I have spotted several plants that are identified as dye plants, and several that, although not listed, seem like they may have something to offer. Can't hurt to try, right?
Leafy Spurge is one of those weeds that appears on the noxious weed list. This means that it is so invasive it risks taking over native species, or that it is harmful to livestock.  Leafy spurge is a lovely plant. Many gardeners have put it into their gardens. It does, however spred through seeds, in the air air and water and is extremely invasive. Gardeners can control their patches by digging unwanted plants, but it is harder to control in natural settings.
Leafy Spurge has yellow green flowers on green foliage. Not vibrant color, pale compared to a lot of wildflowers and weeds, (which is mostly a matter of where they are and if you want them there). I'd does make a wonderful dye plant. For dying, I cut the plant leaves and stems. I did not try using the root, which could give a very different color. I used my standard recipe: 1:1 wool to dye stuff; alum mordant at one tenth of that amount. I mordanted the wool by heating it with the alum in water to simmer for about one hour and then let it cool. I squeezed the liquid out of the wool and rinsed it. I simmered the Leafy Spurge in water for about an hour and let it steep for two days, strained it and put the wetted wool in. Simmered for an hour and let it steep until cold.

This is what the yarn turned out like! Beautiful color. I never would have thought there would be that much color.  This is definitely a plant I will use again.

A couple other plants I gathered were Showy Milkweed and Northern Bedstraw, a relative of Lady's Bedstraw. I have found stands of Winter Cress, Goat's Beard, Bindweed, Indian Hemp, and several thistles, wild roses and more that I will get another day. I am looking forward to trying a lot of new plants this summer.
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Quebracho Red Dye

posted September 25, 2013

July 2, 2013

Quebracho Red

We have been having quite a time here. First, our sewer backed up and left an inch and a half of water in the basement. I cleaned and bleached everything and washed all the bedding and clothes. Three days worth of laundry. My dryer quit on the first day so I went out and bought clothesline and clothes pins and created a solar clothes dehydrator...

This baby has two hundred feet of line and four hundred pins... add sun, a little breeze, and it is the best solar invention ever!
So. I finished cleaning everything in the basement. Then two weeks after the first flood, we get nine plus inches of rain in a couple of hours. Now there is two feet of water in the basement. (at least it wasn't sewage this time). Back to scrubbing the basement again, rewashing the clothes, removing all the appliances and furniture. The walls come out next. Bottom line... Why am I telling you this? To explain my lack of writing. Also, I haven't been scouting the wild color lately. 
Yesterday, I decided that it was time to try something new in the dye pot.  I went to my stash. A couple years ago I took a class on natural dying, after which I bought a lot of natural dye stuff. Until now, I haven't used any of it. I got all the stuff together and started looking through it. I decided to try the Quebracho red dye powder.
 

 Quebrachea lorentzii is a tree that grows in Paraguay.  The wood is extremely hard and the bark
contains a great deal of tannin. The red dye powder is made from the bark and heartwood. A large   
range of colors is possible depending on the mordant, assist, after mordant, and the type of material                 
being dyed.  I used wool roving and an alum mordant for the first run and added cream of tartar to the mordant for the second. 
I dyed three and a half ounces of wool in each run. I mordanted it in alum while making the dye bath. I put one ounce of quebracho powder in a jar and added hot tap water and stirred to make a paste. I added this to the dye pot with enough water to allow the roving to move freely. I brought the dye bath to a simmer and held it for one hour, then cooled it for a couple hours. Letting it sit for a while helps the color develop. I then added the mordanted wool and brought the pot slowly to a simmer for another hour. I left the wool to steep in the bath while it cooled over night. I then rinsed the wool until the water ran clear and washed it with Eucalan.   
I wanted to do a second run as there was still a lot of color in the pot.  I had another three and a half   
ounces of wool mordanted in alum. I decided to add some cream of tartar to that. I mixed it in water
in a small jar and added it to the mordant bath. I brought the pot to a simmer for about an hour and cooled it back to a temperature I could handle. I raised the dye pot temperature to match and added  the remaining roving. I simmered this for an hour and let it steep and cool for three. It came out very similar to the first batch, maybe a little more on the 'pink' side, but close enough so I plan to spin them together.

 The color I got was a beautiful salmon color. I plan to spin it into a lace weight yarn.

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Too Hot to Dye!

posted September 25, 2013

July 18, 2013

Too Hot to Dye

We have had quite a stretch of very hot, very humid weather lately. I have bark soaking to cook up for dying, but I can't bring myself to mess with the pots of boiling water! I am researching 'solar' dying. I may have to give that a try. It has also been a busy time. Two flooded basements in two weeks and a wedding far enough away we took the camper... and the dogs. Camping with the Corgis is never a problem (although, Gus needs to be carried to the camper and put inside. He doesn't seem to mind once we are going, but that first step gets to him!

This is our boy, Gus. He is eight years old. He hasn't missed many meals. He doesn't care too much for hiking. When we are camping, he prefers to sleep in a shady place and check out what the neighbors are having for supper.
Janie is the little Diva. She pretty much runs the house, and every one in it. She is eleven years old, a master manipulator, and has the other two dogs completely under her paw.  Janie doesn't care where she is, so long as 'her daddy' (my husband) is nearby.
Lula is the 75 pound baby. She is a three year old Catahoula.  She loves her people. She loves to play and has endless energy. Lula is very friendly and loves to explore. She doesn't try to be bad, she's like the bull in the china closet...everywhere. I read in one breed description that Catahoulas are very  intelligent which makes them very inquisitive about their surroundings so they do a lot of exploring. I go with that. My husband has a different idea.
I love her dearly, but she is difficult to travel with. First day back she got a wonderful new kennel.

Since I haven't been dying yarn, I thought this would be a good time to spin up some I had finished. Here are some photos of that yarn. It is all DK weight 2ply wool.

From L to R: rhubarb leaves; Snow on the Mountain; Milkweed; Quebracho Red; Leafy Spurge; a combination of natural grey wool and Red Cabbage; Red Cabbage.

  



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Starting the Boxelder Bark Dye bath

posted September 25, 2013

Dying with Box Elder Bark

The weather has finally cooled a bit. I decided it was time to get back to dying wool. I started a pot of Boxelder bark before we left for our trip last weekend. The bark has been chopped up and soaking in a pot of water for about 8 days now, 8 very hot days. Oh the smell...  I simmered the pot for an hour and let it steep while I mordanted some wool in alum. I had to simmer it on the grill outside and close all the windows and doors on that side of the house. Probably a good thing I don't have neighbors nearby! If you decide to try this, beware, you can't do this one inside, good ventilation won't be good enough!
Box Elder trees (Acer Negundo) are native trees in this area and are a member of the maple family.  The sap has been used to make syrup and various parts of the tree have been used for many different things through the centuries. When the wood is injured, it reacts by turning a red wine color.  My husband used it for that reason to make boxes for red wine we made and gave as gifts. The colored streaks in the wood matched the color of the wine.
This is what the pot looked like after simmering. You can see the size of the bark pieces. When I strained the liquid it was slightly thicker than water. It was a very rich, dark brown. I added the mordanted wool and simmered it for an hour. Then I let the wool steep for several hours. After steeping for two hours what I had was a warm, brownish tan. I decided to just let it continue to steep to see if I would get more color. 
Meanwhile, I decided to pick the heads off some of the sow thistle growing around here. I picked a bunch of the flower heads and then removed just the petals, avoiding as much of the sepals and calyxes as possible. I put all the petals into a 2 quart jar and covered them with boiling water. I left that to sit in the sun for the rest of the afternoon and overnight.Tomorrow, a friend is coming and she is bringing onion skins. The real dying will happen tomorrow. I have done about all the prep work I can today.
While I was wandering around the yard I spied these and picked some for the deck!
 
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A Day of Dying

posted September 25, 2013

July 22, 2013

A Day of Dying

Well after all the prep work Saturday, Sunday was dying day.  I had a pound of roving and 320 yards of home spun yarn to play with. My friend, Susie, got here at about 11:00 in the morning. She brought two bags of onion skins which I immediately put in a pot of water and started to boil.

(L to R: Box Elder bark, onion skins, Sow Thistle with some additions-see below, grey wool dyed with Quebracho Red).

Susie is making paper these days so I have been saving the plant material and spent dye baths for her. I dry the vegetable matter on screens and then if it something she thinks is interesting she uses it in her paper.  I had dried the Box Elder bark for Susie, but she said she couldn't use it. After boiling the Sow Thistle, we dried that and it will become part of her paper. I did a second boil on the onion skins and those will be dried for paper as well. I also have boiled red cabbage for her.
We removed the yarn from the Box Elder dye pot where it had been steeping over night.  No more color appeared to develop by letting it stand. The result is a very nice beige color. It was a lot of work for the color, so even though I like it, I probably won't do it again.  Besides, the smell was really awful!

We looked at the jar of sow thistle petals (see 7/20/13). We decided to try to get a bit more color be heating them. I simmered them in a pot for a while and the strained and cooled the liquid. I added the wool and heated it. It looked a lot like the leafy spurge wool, so I added some Cream of Tartar. The pot quickly lost much of its color! I don't understand why that would happen. Any ideas would be
appreciated!

I decided that since I had other pots going, I would just play around. I added a cup of Quebracho Red dye bath and a cup of the onion skin dye bath. I let that simmer for a while longer and then cooled the pot. One thing I have learned from the dying I have done this summer is that unless you are attempting to get a specific color, you can't make a mistake! I have thought on occasion that I have done something to 'ruin the pot' but so far, I have not come up with a color using natural dye stuff that I don't like!

This is the yarn ready to spin. It turned into a lovely apricot color!
The last experiment for the day was to try dying some of my naturally grey wool. I have a fleece that is a beautiful silvery grey. I wanted to use something with a fairly strong color. I still have the dye bath from the first run of Quebracho Red. I decided to try that. At first I was disappointed with the results. It just looked as though it had darkened the yarn. After the yarn was completely dry, I realized that there is some of the salmon color of the Quebracho. It may be hard to see in the photo.
The wool on either side is the wool that was dyed. The wool in the middle is the natural color greywool. It turned out prettier than what it looks in the picture.






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Dying with Onion Skins

posted September 25, 2013

July 23, 2013

Dying with Onion Skins

I have heard it said that if you dye with onion skins you will never throw them away again! I think this may be true. There is such a variety of colors you can obtain with onion skins. I would like to try a lot of different things, different mordants, different modifiers, combinations of colors and all sorts of different things. I made a dye bath yesterday using 120g of dried onion skins. I boiled them for over an hour and let the steep until cool.

I had mordanted a pound of my wool roving and a skein of super wash bare yarn. I used 8% alum and 4% cream of tarter. I simmered this for an hour and then let it stand over night. I rinsed them all before dying them.

I dyed the yarn first. I simmered the yarn in the pot for an hour and then let it steep until it was cool. The result was a yarn I keep calling carrot instead of onion skin! It is a beautiful color in pot and after it was rinsed!

There seemed to be still a lot of color in the pot. I decided to run some more batches using some of the roving. I got four batches (one pound) of wool dyed with that one pot. The picture below shows all four batches in succession, left to right.

I was surprised by the result. Instead of just getting lighter and lighter, the amount of orange varied with each batch as well. The third batch seemed to have more orange than either the second or fourth!
That is all the dying with onion skins I got done today. I did do a second boil of the onion skins and will be curious to see the results from that compared to these.
I also followed a recipes I found for making an iron and a copper mordant. The iron is made with a ratio of 2:1 clear vinegar to water with some old iron nails steeping in it. The copper mordant is a 1:1 ratio of of clear vinegar with some copper wire steeping in it. They both have to steep for several days to weeks before they will be ready to use. That will allow even more colors from the same onion skins!
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Red Cabbage Revisited

posted September 25, 2013

July 24, 2013

Red Cabbage Revisited

I decided that I was unhappy with my first attempt at dying wool with red cabbage (see 6/22/13). I have seen so many examples where people have gotten much stronger colors than I did. I decided to try the whole thing over still using alum and cream of tarter as a mordant. I prepared the dye bath the same as before, only this time I mordanted the yarn, not the pot. I was hoping this would result in stronger colors in the yarn. I have read that you can mordant the pot if you are only going to use one mordant. Later, I read on another article that not all the mordant bonds with the fiber that way and that some may stay in the pot. Any comments either way on this would be appreciated.

I dyed one 100g skein of a yarn I had spun using 25% silk and 75% wool. I also dyed 100g of hand spun wool. I used the low heat method to mordant both skeins since I had silk in one. Over heating silk can cause it to lose its luster. With this method, I added the mordant to the water and brought it to a boil, making sure the mordant was completely dissolved. I then turned the heat off, let the pot stand for a couple minutes and then added the yarn. I let these stand over night and rinsed them both well in the morning.

The first pot I ran was the green. I used the yarn with the silk in it for this. I figured I could simmer the second batch for the red if I needed to. I used the low heat method to dye the yarn. Again, I brought the dye pot to a boil and then let it stand for a few minutes. I also added a half tablespoon of baking soda. This turned the pot to green. I added the yarn and took the pot off the stove. I let it steep until it was completely cooled. I m very happy with the results I got!


After removing the yarn from the dye bath I washed it in Eucalan and let it dry. Then I got the pot ready for the second run, the red run. I heated the dye bath back up to simmer. This Imelda I added citric acid to the pot until I got a nice shade of red. There was a lavender in there during the shift, but I couldn't keep it. (next time...).

I simmered this pot for about and hour, then removed the yarn, washed it and let it dry as well.
I a much happier with these results. I am glad I kept at it.
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Dying Wool with Motherwort

posted September 25, 2013

Dying Wool With Motherwort

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) is considered by some to be a weed. It grows into a large plant that looks like nettles, except it has purple flowers along the stems.  The plant grows from one and a half to four feet tall. It has single square stems coming from the bottom with no branching. I have been curious about this plant for some time but have not been able to find any information on using it to dye wool. We have some on our property so I thought that I would give it a try.

I cut one whole plant down. I cut it into small pieces and boiled it for several hours. I let it steep over night. I wanted to see what different assists would do to the color so I collected several samples if the dye while it was cooking. I added different things to each sample. Some of the things I tried adding were citric acid, vinegar, baking soda, and washing soda. None of these had any visible effect on the color.  I am curious about copper, but don't have any on hand so that will be for next time.

 They say the greens are surprisingly some of the hardest colors to get with natural dye. I have seen a beautiful green wool obtained from Mullein with a copper mordant. I have been looking for some of that, I know it grows around here. I then have to wait until my copper mordant (copper wire in vinegar and water) is ready to use.
The yarn in this picture was a yellow obtained from Leafy Spurge. As you can see in the roving, the color from the Motherwort does not have green in it anymore.

 Meanwhile, I am busy spinning up all the wool I have dyed from local plants. I do a spinning demonstration each year at the Rosholt Area Threshing Bee. It is the third weekend in August. It is a lot of fun for the whole family. I want to have some of the yarns I have dyed with the weeds the farmers are fighting in their fields. More information on the Threshing Bee is available at the RATA website Rosholt Threshing Bee.
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