Dyeing with Milkweed
Topic: Natural Dyeing

Milkweed pictured in my last post is a persistent weed around here.  It is easy to see because it is taller than everything else in the field.  Almost any vacant lot in my town has some and along irrigation ditches it flourishes.  To use it, I pick the whole plant wearing gardening gloves.  I have heard it may cause a contact dermatitis in some people so have played it safe.  I have dyed with a lot of it and like the clear yellows it gives.  The sample on the left is alum and the right tin.  As well as using it as yellow, I over dye with light concentrations of indigo or cochineal and get lovely greens or oranges.  Keep in mind that in all dyeing (even chemical dyeing) yellow is a very wimpy color easily overrun by any other color.  When I took the class with Trudy Van Stralen (a once in a lifetime opportunity) she suggested dyeing with your yellows first for at least 1/2 hour and then dyeing with the  light concentration of dyestuff.  So that is my procedure. 

I put enough milkweed leaves and flowers to fill up my big kettle and simmer it for at least one hour usually more.  I remove the plant material and then add my yarn about 4 ounces at a time.  I keep dyeing one four ounce skein, then another until the yellow seems to be getting too pale.  Then if I want orange I add a tiny bit of cochineal and put some of the skeins back in getting very nice oranges and peach and keep dyeing until I'm low on fiber.  If I still have enough color in the water to warrant it, I put the leftover dye into a milkjug and later add other leftovers to beef it up.  In terms of weeds, milkweed is my favorite.  I get the best colors in June when the plant is about to bloom, but very good color until fall.  If the milkweed has gone to see I cut off the fluffy heads to keep it out of my yarn.  Linda--whose garden looks a lot  more respectable than it did yesterday.

Gardening/Natural Dyeing
Topic: Natural Dyeing
I finally went to the doctor 2 days ago because I knew I was really sick when I went to my favorite gardening store and could barely walk around picking out plants.  Usually I'm a gardening nutso this time of year.  Our weather which has been cool held me back for a while.  But it was knock down gorgeous.  So I have bronchitis which makes me very sleepy.  But I still bought lots of garden plants yesterday and am going to hit the beds in a few minutes.  My daughter is coming over.  Right now I just have a big mess on my front porch.  One of my favorite things about gardening is natural dyeing.  Usually I go through a massive natural dyeing phase in June when milk weed starts to bloom.  It is one of my favorite local dye plants.  I have to get gardening so I can get dyeing.  Linda

Is Carded or Combed fiber better? (Is steak or roast better?)
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Spinning

Buying a lot of fiber in the last few weeks has brought me back to a common question in my spinning classes and a topic of discussion right now at the board of my spinning group Prairie Handspinners as we discuss next year's programs.  So which is better carded fiber or combed fiber--of course you know the answer--It depends.  So here are some ideas I have.

Are you going to spin in on a wheel or a spindle?  If spindle, carded Are you going to blend two different fibers for example mohair and wool?  Carded.

If you are going to blend fibers of two different lengths, you have to card it.  Combing by its nature pulls all of the longest fibers first and the short get left behind the combs or at the end of the piece.

 

Which is easier?  Usually Combed for wheel spinning. For most people particularly beginners, it is easier to spin a smooth yarn with combed fibers because the fibers are all parallel and smooth and are slippier.  Sometimes people feel it is too slick, but they can spin from the fold.  However, a well carded fiber particularly for Corriedale and coarser wool is very easy to spin. 

 

Which has more waste?  Combing  Combing leaves all the short bits behind the combs. 

 

Which is better for getting debris (such as cheat grass or hay) Combing.

 

Is your fleece very fine?  Usually combing.  Unless it is very short stapled, fine fleeces usually respond better to combing because the relatively coarse cloth on hand or drum carders will nub up.  If you want to card a fine fiber, you must either use cotton cards or have a fine cloth on your drum carder.  Because there are not that many well carded fine wools (without neps), it is usually easier

 

I don’t have either cards or combs-- which is cheaper? The cheapest tool is a dog brush and you can get a pretty good combed product with a flicker or dog brush.  Next up in price are hand cards.  Next up are single pitch combs such as Viking combs.  Then comb the English combs and last up the price is the drum carder.  The drum carder is the fastest.  The guild has both English combs and a drum carder available to check out.

 Is it important to keep track of butt end and tip end of the fleece?  Usually not that much?

Although spinners often talk about the importance of this, Peter Teal explained that in all commercial combed top, the fleece is put in either way.  The fiber is then carded and then it is combed.  So you might get a slightly superior preparation by keeping butt and tip in order, it won’t be much.

 

What is the key to successful carding or combing?  Time.  Start with clean fiber, do not over fill cards or combs and take time to do a good job

 

I want to dye a prepared fiber.  I have had best luck with carded medium wools to avoid compacting.

 

You cannot have good spinning, if you have bad fiber preparation.   Linda who is going back to winding hundreds of skeins for my natural dyeing class at MAWS

 

Bamboo Clover Scarf
Topic: Knitting

Okay I admit it.  My learning curve on posting photos is long.  Sometimes I make them tiny like the purple clover scarf and sometimes giant.  Haven't really figured out how it works and just poke and hope.  Linda 

Clover--why clover?
Topic: Knitting
Why did I name this scarf/shawl pattern clover?  Well, it is based on a pattern from Barbara Walker's book called Grand Trefoil.  I looked up what that means and apparently it is an old name for a type of alfalfa/clover.  I live in alfalfa county and just couldn't name a purple scarf clover.  I also wasn't sure if the Grand Trefoil type of alfalfa they were talking about in Europe was the same kind we grow here in Montana.  So I named it Clover which seemed okay.  My names aren't all that great.  I just try to keep them short so I can remember them.  The only name  I felt a bit inventive on is my pattern called Slip and I--more on this later.  This bamboo version of this scarf is in a pretty yarn called Royal Bamboo.  It has a lovely sheen and my husband gave it to me at Xmas.  I had sticker shock with this yarn and knew it would be hard to match this yarn in my own dyeing so I put it on my wish list at my lys.  Because this yarn is dk/worsted I used a simpler cast picot cast on and cast off.  Linda

Clover scarf--new pattern
Mood:  happy
Topic: Knitting
I'm finally posting some pictures of recent finished objects.  This scarf is a knitted lace pattern of only 5 stitches and 3 rows.  This makes it reversible, so it should be dead simple.  Not exactly.  It is a pattern every row (no reassuring purl or knit across). I didn't make many mistakes knitting it which was good because I had a little trouble seeing how to go back.  I'd put in an occasional life line when I do it again.  Didn't really need it until I put one in before I put the edging on but somehow I knocked the needles out and lots of other silly stuff and that life line came in handy.  I knit this in Alpaca with a Twist Fino.  I really like this yarn and bought some more recently when it was on sale at my lys.  I have another version of this scarf too, I'll post.  I'm teaching a class on this scarf in August at Wild Purls.    Linda

Good day if you're a duck
Mood:  bright
Topic: Chat

What a great day if you're a duck... Julie and Greg must be in town, they always bring the rain!!  Don't you just love the sound of rain on the roof and we need the moisture so bad.   I sure hope my garden isn't getting drowned though.   You can almost see the potatoes growing. I just planted spinach, carrots and corn last week. I guess they'll either sprout really well or drown and I'll have to replant.  Been there before!  I put in just four broccoli plants to see if they'd survive the chickens. So far, so good.   The sheep are even hiding out in the sheds. I guess they don't want to shrink.

 Congratulations on your new grandbaby, Linda!   A new little treasure in the world.   Where's the pictures?!?!

 I've gotten a lot of dyeing done of wool I've had washed since last year.  I did periwinkle, sage green, boysenberry, rust that turned out more orange cause I forgot I put some black in it last time.  When I was mixing the dye stock using the black, I dropped the whole little jar of black into the water.  Now, I have a whole jar full of black dye stock to use up.  What a mess! 

 There hasn't been any progress made on my fiber cottage cause DH has been setting up an auction at Ryegate which is a good thing cause those paying jobs are nice to have.  

 All the lambs are growing like weeds.  We had to bring the Jacob cross triplets and the two bottle babies into the backyard cause they kept going through the fence when they were out in the pasture. They're so small they can slip right under the fence.  The police even brought a couple of them home one day!  

 One of the bottle babies had a close call one day.  She bloated up after eating, I think we were feeding them a little too much.  She looked like a barrel with legs, poor little thing. I had to give her a shot and got some PeptoBismol down her and she came out of it okay.   They're such little pigs... they act like they're starving all the time but it's not good to overfeed them which is easy to do. 

 Well, better get to work. Hope you're all staying dry. It's a good day to play with some fiber!    Deb 

Winding skeins for mordanting
Mood:  bright
Topic: Natural Dyeing

I'm getting back to normal.  Spent a little time yesterday thinking about how to structure my natural dye class at MAWS.  Was overwhelmed at the thought of how to mordant 10,000 yards. I know I have to get going winding skeins.  So today I'm going to start.   Each student is supposed to get 800 yards, so I decided to do 3 non-mordanted skeins (1 for cutch, 1 for black walnut overdyed with indigo, and 1 for indigo).  Then 5 mordanted skeins 3 with tin and 2 with alum.  So I need to wind 10,000  yards in 100 yard skeins.  That doesn't sound so bad.  My recent experience of being sick in Idaho Falls reminds me I don't want to wait too much until the last minute, so I'm going to setup a winding goal and try to get this done asap and into the mordants.    I also need to calculate how much cochineal to buy and get that on order.   I plan to mordant extra and if students have time they can buy some more if they want to keep dyeing.  AND I'll get to PLAY with the left overs.   Off to take sister to doctor because she gimped up her driving foot.  Starting another shawlette, so I plan to get the tricky Faroe Island setup established while I'm waiting at the doctor's office.  Linda

Snake River Fiber Fair
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Spinning

I've just hit Belgrade for a day's visit on my way home from this year's Snake River Fiber Fair in Idaho Falls.  Very nice event.  LOTS of vendors with yarns, woven and felted items, lots of yummy fleeces and roving, and the other cool things.  I bought some lovely roving for my upcoming classes in several different breeds, some Sari silk waste for blending, 8 ounces of Cross Patch Creations Roving, and some lovely camel merino blend.  That is all I remember off the top of my head, but there is probably more in the back of the pickup.  My classes in Kumihimo, Spin Your Own Stripes, and Faux Hard Knitting went pretty well considering.  I came down with a cold the night before I left.  My poor Kumihimo students got sneezed on etc.  My spinning class was small and we seemed to get by even though I didn't have much of a voice.  Today I felt quite a bit better, but my voice was a wreck. My knitting students seemed to enjoy the class and learned some things.  My students were all very nice and patient.

Wish I'd felt up to fully partake in their super fiber fair.  Linda 

Grandbaby's, Idaho Falls teaching get in the way of blogging
Mood:  rushed
Topic: Chat
My new grandbaby 9 lb 3 oz Ramsey arrived on Sunday--a good mother's day present. We made a quick trip to see him in Bozeman and spent most of the weekend with 2 of our other grandkids.  I'm now madly working on getting supplies and kits made for Snake River Fiber Festival.  Only 36 hours until everything has to be in the car.  I did take time last Friday to dye some handspun, but I'll have to report on that later.     Linda