A little bit of Weld

Oh well, at least some grew. I have been so late harvesting what I had in the garden I almost forgot it was there. I just caught it in time for the first frost. I havent harvested the woad though, I have been just too busy. Anyway, I dont know whether the late harvest affected the colour but it was not ‘the yellow by which all other yellows are measured’ as so often quoted for weld. As I am so sick of yellow and brown I added some copper modifier with more pleasing results. If I see any more yellow or brown I shall scream. I have been really depressed recently, but this lime green really cheered me up. Its amazing the effect it had.Which just goes to show what matters in life! This was some wool for a long haired sheep, spun on a spindle as being inexperienced I was struggling with the wheel.

100% weld with copper assistant, alum mordant

Water Lily root

water lily root, no mordant, periodic warm water

This unpromising colour is a result of water lily root, no mordant. I was somewhat disappointed that I couldnt get a deeper colour, however when I looked it up water lily root with no mordant produces a pale beige! It can be significantly darker with copper and iron, apparently.  I used hot water and soaked it four twenty four hours, periodically raising the temperature, before getting fed up! It does have shades of pink in it, being something of a minky colour. No comments about the spinning please!

Trying to find the time

Since I have moved in I have been so busy I have hardly had time for any of my interests. However things are slowly improving. I am getting some ex bats at the end of the month, four in all. The slaughter date is the 29th of May. What a horrible term, it will be the luck of the draw whether each chicken lives or dies! I hope to get a couple more chickens next year, perhaps some blue egg layers to ring the changes.

On the bee front, I am bereft! My only colony moved out last summer at the same time as I was moving house! I felt so depressed! I simply cannot afford the £140 being asked for a nuke, I have set up a couple of baits in the garden and live in hope! I read that bees are attracted to lemon grass oil so am regularly putting some drops by the entrance. Trouble is there seem hardly any bees around here. My neighbour has some bumble bees in his garden but honey bees are in very short supply. I can always go out swarm catching but have the most terrible fear of heights, I get vertigo changing the lightbulb!

Most of my time recently has been trying to get the garden sorted. I have planted several strandard roses and some clematis. Its taken my since January just to knit one sock!

On the self sufficiency/natural dyeing front I havent spun any yarn for ages. However someone mentioned to me that the apple tree I have been given for firewood may yield some interesting colours. On top of that, I notice the elderflowers are out! Its a question of what I can fit in!

Natural dyeing with eucalyptus bark.

My spinning carries on in the background. I have bought a wheel and keep practising. I have finally reached the stage where I can start to dye my wool. Here is some I dyed with  dried eucalyptus bark from a tree my neighbour was felling a couple of years ago. I mordanted it with alum and am still extracting dye by cold soaking from the same bark. I am quite pleased with the colour, I may try experimenting with other mordants but my main problem at the moment is that I only have an aluminium  pan. I have found a site which tells you how to cold dye so I suppose I could have a go with that in a plastic bucket.

Dried eucalyptus bark, alum mordant

A quick request.

If you are visiting this site (particularly from the US) please help support our campaign against the Chinese fur trade. I run a seperate family friendly blog on the subject…see Boris’s campaigning blog on right. Please visit it and pass the details on to friends. The Chinese skin animals WHILE STILL CONSCIOUS for the fur trade and a large proportion is sent to the US market mislabelled as rabbit etc. and sold as trinkets toys etc. This is a disgraceful way to treat animals and completely unnecessary. Please boycott Chinese fur and pass the message on.

Thank you

Would you like to drink the stuff that dyed this?

Well I know I wouldn’t. I kept reading about Kool Aid on US sites. I couldn’t believe its a drink that people also use to dye wool! Whats worse, according to Wiki you can dye your hair with it as well! I am not sure it wouldn’t attract wasps! It has quite a following, and I got mine off Ebay. I thought it might work out cheaper than the conventional dye, although it doesn’t as you need a few packets. The dye came out slightly random, which I fear is more due to my lack of experience in dyeing than a visual effect produced by Kool Aid. I mean, would you give this to your kids? It looks lethal ( perhaps then…………)  

How gentle on ones stomache!

Mad about craftwork of all kinds

I spend as much time as I can spare doing just about everykind of craft that you can think of, knitting, crochet, rug making, embroidery, and so on and so on. So if you like any of those things why not join me? My other passion is BORIS ( the wondercat) He has his own blog, but just to make sure you know who he is here is his profile.

8 years old, tragically struck down with Pancreatitus (aged 3!) which gave him diabetes, plus a cardiac murmur and funny kidneys. But he triumphed over it all.  Heres his pic, isnt he wonderful?

Hes waving hallo, lethargically