Solace

Finished a lovely little shawl this weekend.

I chose to use some of my naturally dyed

yarns ~ a lace weight dyed with Logwood

and a fingering weight dyed with Cochineal.

The blend of the two yarn weights makes for a light,

soft, and warm shawl!  Up until now I haven't really knit with lace weight yarn.

Such a nice way to try it out without having to commit to a "lace" project!

Pattern:

Solace by Janina Kallio Designs

~

Bleu..

Last spring I purchased a small packet of 

Japanese indigo seeds from a shop on Etsy.

Kind of a 

lets-plant-them-and-see-what-happens thing.

They grew.

Last weekend I got to thinking I should harvest some 

and gave dyeing a go..

As I mashed them into the pot my fingers turned blue.

Okay.. good sign.

The next day the water was blue and there was a film

on the surface characteristic to indigo.

Another good sign.

Whipped air into it,

added more ingredients,

let it sit,

heated it..

..so lost in the excitement I never checked the pH..

and chucked some yarn in the vat!

BLUE!!

Holy. Cow.

.

.

b l u e.

From the b.a.c.k.y.a.r.d.

~

Top to bottom:

100% small farm Alpaca 

Non-superwash Alpaca and wool

Superwash merino wool dyed in Queen Anne's Lace then overdyed with indigo

THIS just came in the mail:

Sequence Knitting; Simple Methods for Creating Complex Fabrics

by Cecelia Campochiaro

Total splurge, BUT it is a gorgeous book.

Be sure to listen to her interview on Woolful.com.

Can't wait to dive in..

~

Joining Ginny

Cooking..

This week has been full of tomatoes..

Chopping.

Stewing.

Cooking.

Canning.

Sauces.

Salsa.

Cooking tomatoes in the kitchen..

Cooking wool in the garage..

Brazilwood natural dye!

Experiments with color.

I couldn't find my note page on Brazilwood so I had to wing it.

Made the dye bath too strong and rinsing out has been taking a bit longer.

Loving the colors of nature..

~

Joining Ginny