Colour in the garden and dye pot!

 The weather prognosticators said today was the first day of autumn.  It's like Mother Nature flipped a switch.  Yesterday was warm and humid, 27C feeling like 32C with the humidex.   Today the high is 15C, feeling like 14C because of the stiff north wind.  Welcome to fall!   

Carrot Bouquet

My son pointed out that I'd canned about the same amount of tomatoes that came from our garden this year, as I've done in years when I had to purchase them.  I only ever processed one batch at a time, so it felt really easy, compared to two full days of canning.   Now that I've figured out where the tomatoes do best in the garden, I'm hoping I can repeat this.   I still have some herbs and celeriac in the garden, and kale I guess, but other than that, the garden is ready to put to rest for the winter. 

 I planted some carrots in a planter on a whim.  I've rarely ever had success with carrots, so I was thrilled a couple of days ago, when I pulled them up.  Not huge carrots, but they were planted late and the pot didn't quite get enough sun.  It was enough for a meal for the 3 of us though, which was pretty fabulous.  The purple ones are interesting, but just orange carrots inside, with a purple skin.   The yellow and white ones though are tasty.   I'd certainly purchase a packet of just those seeds, rather than the mix, if I could.

 

We had a dye day at our weavers guild.   It was a small group of us as 50% of our attendees had to cancel due to Covid or injuries.  However we had fun and it turned out to be an informative day.  I learned that 80% of white alpacas are born deaf, which I definitely didn't know.   We also found out that some people mis-represent their fibres for sale.  Another participant had a warp wound from what she was told was baby alpaca, and it was this crazy bright yellow with luster.    She painted a gorgeous warp - I wish I'd taken a photo of it, in amazing autumnal colours of various greens, oranges and burgundy.   However after she steamed it, virtually all the colour washed out.    So upsetting!   A later burn test of the fibres suggest that it is a man made fibre and wouldn't be able to be dyed with our dyes.

Painted wool with Procion MX dyes

Because there were so few of us, and we had lots of dye, we were using bright colours.    I had 2 50g skeins of sock yarn - 75 %wool/25% nylon which I wound into large skeins using the backs of chairs.   I wound them separately, but dyed them laying them side by side, to get mainly matching skeins.   

It won't be self striping as I didn't make a large enough skein and had too many colour changes.    But it's pretty.  The colours turned out beautifully.   I was a little worried about the purples because in the garage light where we were working, it looked more brown to me.   It's perfect though.  This will be fun to knit and fun to wear!

 

Here is a quick picture of cooking "muffins"  from an 18th c recipe at Westfield.  They weren't full of holes, more bread-like.  However they were tasty and light.   They were delicious with jam.  It's been a while since I've cooked at the historical village, as the summer was so hot and muggy.  It was fun to get a chance to do it again.    I'm currently researching recipes for the next time I'm there.

Painted Rug Warp

This is the 11 1/2 yard white rug warp which I ended up with when last month when we were clearing out the guild room.   It was stark white and while it would have made perfectly fine rugs.  With the denim and solids I have on hand for the weft, they would have been plain, serviceable rugs.  My imagination started working, so I dug out the Procion MX dyes and mixed up a set of primary colours at 2%.  I used 2% strength, only because that was what I'd previously mixed up and the storage jars were already labelled that way.   It ended up being a better idea as I needed less dye volume, and was easier to work with.

I started taking a series of photos, but conditions weren't conducive to good pictures.  It was a grey, really cool day, threatening rain.   It was also very windy.   Every time I grabbed the camera, something tried to blow away.   Since I was working on the deck due to the size of this project, in the ended up just playing.  

I used Procion MX Fibre Reactive dyes, which give lovely colours and are relatively safe to use.   The one downside is there is a bit of rinsing since the dyes bond both with the water and the fibre.  The upside is you don't need any heat to set the dyes.  

I draped plastic wrap on the patio table to both protect the table and to use to wrap the warp chain in afterwards to keep it damp and protected.   It would have been smarter to use a sheet of plastic like a cheap table cloth, vapour barrier or an old shower curtain to protect the table.  The syringes were a gift from Carol who has Alpaca ( and a brand new cria which was born yesterday)  Yay!   They are perfect for measuring out dye for painting the warp.   I like that I can dilute the dyes as well, but filling half the syringe with water and then just adding the dye.  This makes it easier to adjust shades.  The plastic wrap wasn't enough to actually seal the dyes in the chain, so there was a bit of seepage and some of my oranges and bright yellows are more burgandy and brown.   I let the warp sit and cure for 48 hours because it never really got warm.  Cooler temperatures equal longer curing times for good colours.  The warp is still damp, so it won't be quite as bright as this when it's dry.

I wasn't really going for any particular colour range. I didn't measure rug lengths and change colours for each rug, or even plan anything ahead of time.   In my mind I saw rugs with bright splashes of colour to add interest.   I'm pretty sure I've accomplished that with this warp. Now I just hope  the finished product looks as exciting as the pictures in my imagination.

The sad thing is that I will most likely not be selling these rugs or any of my handcrafted items at the guild shows this fall.   My guild is spectacularly unsupportive of hand spinners, which is mainly due to the attitude of a small number of members.  I've been told that no items will be allowed which are made with hand spun yarn as all hand spun items are only suitable for church bazaar items (meant in a derogatory manner).   Most other guilds who have spinners, don't seem to have an issue with this but apparently ours does and I'm only allowed to put in skeins of hand spun yarn.   So rather than change what I do, I'll just change the venue where I sell items.   It makes me unhappy in a way, as I do a lot to support the guild, and the commission would help the guild bring in speakers and pay for a new site when we find one.  The upside is that I'll likely have less commission to pay and may be able to put a wider variety of items for sale, especially if I go the Etsy or FB page sales route.   I just need to figure out how to set those things up.

Master Spinner 5 Dye Day

Fibre reactive dyes are for cellulose fibres.  Cottons, Ramie, Linen, Rayon, Tencel, Bamboo are the types of fibres which fit in this category.   Fibre reactive dyes require soda ash, salt and urea as additives.  Interestingly, it seems to be the percentage of salt which affects the Depth Of Shade (DOS).    Dye days are always hectic and this year was no different.   Small groups and knowing what we are doing should help, but as always, the human element rules.   Despite that, it has it's fun moments and as always, the results are at the very least satisfactory, and usually intriguing.  The nice thing about fibre reactive dyes is that they require low temperatures and the actual cooking time is fairly short.   They are set afterwards with either a simmering hot water bath or several days sitting in the dye.

Here are my results on cotton and ramie.

Dyeing multiple colours in one pot, with plastic bag containers.

12 step colour wheel

8 skeins from yellow to blue. 

fun techniques in rainbow and varigation dyeing