Yarn

[vaneramos]

The vacation has carried through this weekend as Danny and I decided to stay in Guelph and partake of the Elora Fergus Studio Tour yesterday. It was a pleasant way to spend a wet fall day, but I haven't had much time to catch up with friends or process photos.

The main event of our week was dyeing yarn with natural products. This was my first experiment ever with dyes, although I've had a lifelong love affair with colour, and particular interest in the uses of plants. So perhaps this will launch a kind of career.

I had intended to use the outdoor fire pit for heating our dye cauldrons, but practical considerations and inclement weather induced us to use the cottage kitchen instead. It's inadvisable to use a kitchen for a dye studio, but the only mordants we employed were nontoxic.

We went on two excursions and collected several plant materials, but the process was time-consuming so in three days we only had time to test goldenrod flowers—a traditional and reliable source of good yellows—and beech leaves. The goldenrod filled the cottage with a strong sweet fragrance like honey. Our first dye lot produced the two rich gold skeins on the left, and the second batch in the same dye (called an exhaust bath), produced the brighter, clearer yellow next to them.

I was particularly excited to see what the latter dye would produce, because beech is my favourite tree and we have an abundant source of leaves in the forest lining our cottage road. They produced a deep rust-coloured dye, but the wool only picked up a pale orangy-beige colour (four skeins on the right). Danny was frustrated with this, but I still like the colour of this yarn, suggesting the colour of winter beech leaves, which cling like ghosts to the branches until spring. It would be interesting to experiment with beech leaves and a wider range of mordants, which affect the colour of the dye.

Also this week I completed another scarf (second photo), which I had started in April and mostly completed last spring, but finally got around to knitting a few more rows and darning in the ends. The pattern is available online and I used the same Manos del Uruguay yarn (as in this icon). The colour is called wildflower. I call this my herringbone scarf; the herringbone stitch was awkward to learn, but reminds me of a blue and white quilt in a similar pattern, which my great grandmother made for my birth.

I didn't knit all summer, but this clears my bag for several incipient fall projects.

Danny and I visited Philosopher's Wool in Inverhuron on Friday morning, and had a tour of their facility. Yesterday, as part of the studio tour, we took in Wellington Fibres, saw their herd of goats and the machinery for processing the fleece into mohair. We brought home a few new skeins from both places.

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I like all those colours, especially together. It's kinda cool to think about being clothed in the colours of the local landscape.

[lichtgespinst.livejournal.com]

i love those shades of yellow that you got, but i do see that if you expected something different, you would be disappointed.
You didn't tell us that you are knitting too.:-)))
I think you wanted to leave all the knitting glory for Danny.....LOLOL
I hope you will experiment more with those natural dye substances.
It's a wonderful connection of nature, crafts and art.
And very meditative too
hugs to you and Danny

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That's my thought exactly, especially with the beech, which I relate to so personally. Unfortunately there isn't enough yarn here to make a sweater, but I'll probably make a hat and gloves, and consider making a bigger dye lot another year. Another consideration is to dye more yarn with different local materials, and accumulate enough to make a sweater.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, Danny taught me to knit. This will be my third winter knitting, and I've completed about 10 projects: all hats, scarves and one pair of slippers. Quite a few Christmas gifts last year! But Danny is far more skilled and experienced.

I am especially fond of the Manos del Uruguay yarn, which comes from a small business project for rural women in Uruguay.

But I definitely plan to continue my own dyeing initiative as time and opportunity present themselves.

Love to you and Corry.

[dennisatl.livejournal.com]

OH! it's a scarf huh? mistook what must be a denim vest for jeans and thought you'd knitted something of a more, uhhh, intimate nature. Well you are in Canada and need to keep things warm, especially Those, aye? I was fascinated to read the process of dyeing with natural substances. The colors seem always so rich and warm. Thanks also for sending me to look up the definition of "mordant". I've used the word about many of my mordant friends, but did not realize the word's source. Thanks for taking us along. I had a nice time!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, there was more than one double-entendre in that scarf photo. I like how the buttons on my jacket look like jeans buttons. I also like how my butch denim is complemented by the oh-so-gay colours of the new scarf (in manner I think I'm usually unaffected either way, but it's hard to be objective about oneself that way).

Gkad you enjoyed the ride!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

When I started knitting two years ago I was first attracted to some of the more interesting synthetic yarns. Danny has unintentionally influenced me toward natural fibres, but neither of us are snobs. ;-) You'll have to bring your work along one of these days and we can sit in a circle and share yarns.

[e-musings.livejournal.com]

I love your yarny posts. I might have to make that scarf.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Any Manos del Uruguay colour would work especially well in this scarf, but any variegated yarn would do. If you haven't done herringbone stitch before it's a bit tricky at first, but gets straightforward after a while. The M del U varies in thickness, so you have to ease up on the tension when the yarn is thin, and knit more tightly when its thick to achieve a consistent look. If you have any troubles, give me a shout. Have fun!

[e-musings.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I will, when I get there. There are so many projects floating around in my mind, plus so much yarn in my stash. I would probably use some yarn that I have to make that scarf-I actually have some plain manos yarn, in off white, I think that it would look good in a single color, as well.