Goldenrod dyeings

It finally stopped rain long enough for the brush to dry and I was finally able to harvest some of the wild goldenrod that is in full bloom after all that rain. I harvested enough for myself and for my Fiber Frenzy pal. Her package is ready to go and as soon as I get a confirmation of the address I got from her I will send it out. The package weighs a good 3.5 pounds!! OYE!!! Flat-rate here I come!!

You know it rained for a good 6 days here in Wisconsin? OMG the skeeters populations exploded!! We are not used to so much water falling from the sky in such a short amount of time. People have flood damage where there should be no flooding and most home insurances do not cover it because we are not a state that floods all too often. We've got FEMA here trying to help those people left out in the cold by their insurance. Considering FEMA's recent failures not too sure what all they can do to help people here.

Anyhoo...back to dyeing.

HA!

Had the yarn sittin in a pot with 3/4 gallon of water (the pot was a bit smaller than I anticipated) with 2 tablespoons of Alum and 1 TEASPOON of Cream of Tarter. From the notes in my Dye Plants book (below) it looks like it has a ratio of 3 to 1 (alum to cream of tarter). It said to boil the flowers for an hour but another book I have (The Weaving, Spinning, Dyeing Book) says that flowers should not be boiled for that long because the color tends to get muddied. Wonderful. Well it boiled for a good 30-40 minutes before I read that so I took the pot off the burner and strained the plant material from the water.
From the looks of it (it is not done cooking yet) it looks like the yarn is gonna come out an antiqued yellow/tan.

While I was looking at the other book, I think I will try one of the beginner weavers projects...a tuffed rug made from fleece tuffs. Looks easy enough. Looks quick too. I can use that crap fleece I got from the sheep festival last year.

Speaking of the festival, it is coming up in two weeks and on payday weekend to boot!! I am so going out there again and takin my spinnin wheel with me to help the Pleasant Spinners guild spin up wool in a Sheep to Shawl demonstration. While I am there I will peruse the grounds and get lots of new pictures. I won't be bidding on any fleece this year since I was burned by it last year with the crap fleece. I got what I paid for, I'll admit that much.

Until next time...

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Boredom kills!!

OMG I am dyeing (HA!) of boredom!!! Now usually when I get bored I will go out and ride the bike or something, but it is STILL RAINING! It started raining Friday night and it literally has not stopped in THREE DAYS!! OYE VEY! We needed the rain but now we are getting too much (can you have too much rain? seriously!). We've got flooding of townships in Wisconsin....Wisconsin of all places! None here thankfully but I feel for those people who are dealing with it. I have been indoors all weekend doing a lot of cleaning of the alpaca fleece and blending it with merino on the drum carder. I think I will get some spinning in and I really should knit some more on the store demo. EEP. I am almost done with it, I just need to do one more lace repeat and then the edging.

Since learning how to knit with wire, I have an inkling to go down to Hobby Lobby to get more wire. I have a sample pack of crafting wire and I used all the navy blue yesterday. I think that plastic coated craft wire would work really well with this application. HUmmmm it just struck me...what about SPEAKER wire? It comes in mostly black and red but hey, I can work with that! It's flexable enough and it comes in large amounts. I know the BF has plenty of it somewhere. Speaking of BF, he was extrodinarily interactive with me this weekend. I enjoyed his company so much more than usual! He was playful and pleasant! I dunno what has gotten in to him but I am lovin it! Maybe my experinment is working? (see post about The Secret)

I got a blog started got the LYS and she was thrilled about it. I just have to coach her on how add us all as authors and how to post on it. She said she would be able to order a louet high speed flyer so I am excited about that! Plus I can get it cheaper since I work there!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee!!!!

Well I got my coffee all chilled and hopefully I will become inspired to do something other than sit around. There is no work today as summer school is over with until the regular year starts up in September. So two weeks (about-inbetween "training" dates at base) of lots of time...I am usually not this bored. It's gotta be the weather. I haven't had any sun in three days.

I did try zapping the yarn that was sitting in the Festering Dye Pot outside in the microwave for 2 30 second interivals and the bronze color stuck and did not wash out. Sweet!! Now why the outside festering pot of walnuts and a boiled pot of walnuts produce such a difference in dye colors is beyond me but I surely like the festering pot a lot more than the boiled!

Until next time...

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Another one for the Wish List

The LYS had a demo knitted up in Hemp yarn of the Lightening Lace Jacket from Just One More Row. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to knit one for myself in some Egyptian cotton or bamboo. MMMMmmmmm.....the LYS has a lot of nice cotton....so tempting....NNNNNNNNAaaaaaah!!

So that one is going on the wish list...maybe after I get the Kimono Wrap done (IF AND WHEN!!). I love how the Just One More Row has realistic sizing for us more abundantly plump knitters. How considerate! And more considerate is that my LYS carries the patterns!! I know of no other place that carries them in town and I don't need to know.

Tonight I am working on cleaning up some more Alpaca so I can continue to card more fiber for the yarn I am spinning up for the Kimono Wrap. The walnut dye did wash out of the yarn so I plopped it back into the bucket outside and I plan to ZAP it in the microwave to see if I can get the color to set in that bronze. I boiled some walnuts last night, the ones I had in my solar dyeing jar that had been soaking for the same amount of time, because they had not released their dye stuff. Weird. It was mostly green and smelled fermented. SO I boiled them for an hour before I went to bed, then this morning I boiled them for another hour before heading to work at the LYS. When I dyed some fiber in it it came out a nasty poop brown color. Nothing close to the bronze of the outside bucket. Doubly weird. Why is it that the walnuts sitting in an open bucket outside produce a bronze while boiled, they produce closer to black?! Anyone have an theories?

Until next time...

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Natural Dying Results with Walnuts!

First the Festering Dye Pot which is essentially just a pot of soaking walnuts from nearby trees. This has been sitting and festering in the sun for about three weeks. I read that walnut dye needs no mordant because of the tannin in the walnuts acts as the mordant. I am not much for natural dyeing. I don't have the patience to wait for the results once I get into the mind set of wanting to dye. This is essentially the lazy ass method! LMAO!!







Here is a picture of a sample spun up of a batt I blended with Merino and Alpaca. The Festering Dye Pot smells like brewing mead and has a sweet and sour smell. Needless to say I hate getting it on my hands, but squeezing out the liquid is the best method I know of to gauge what the yarn will look like dried.

And here are the results after only 24 hours of sitting in the Festering Dye Pot WITH NO HEAT. I wonder how much yarn I can plop into this Festering pot before the dye exhausts? We'll find out. I am gonna test this sample to see if the dye washes out. I just love the bronze coloring! The odor of the Festering Dye Pot did not linger in the yarn after it was dried so that was a pleasant surprise.

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***