Swatchless

After our visit to Island Alpaca, Evan and I returned to our campsite, got groceries (which included vinegar and food colouring) and cooked dinner while we dyed most of the white wool roving that we bought.  We kept some of it white for a spinning lesson, and dyed two different batches (using up all of our cooking pots).

We got all our materials ready, and then wet the wool with water, then added some vinegar.  The vinegar is acidic, and wool needs to be in an acidic condition to accept the colour of the dye.  You could use kool-aid instead, since it is already acidic, but Evan decided that he wanted to make tough colours, so pink, purple, orange and baby blue wouldn’t cut it.

We transferred the wool to our cooking pot (it’s ok to do this since we are just using vinegar and food dye). We added lots of food colouring to be sure we would get a deep colour.

yellow + blue = green

Our other dye pot was more of a mix of all the colours.

We had to be sure that the water didn’t boil.  We didn’t want any turbulence in the pot which might encourage felting.  This is harder to control when you are dyeing on the campfire–pretty easy to control on the stove, or in the microwave.

As the mixture cooks, all the colour gets soaked into the wool and the water will eventually appear clear.  I wasn’t sure how this pot would end up.  Right now it looked kinda like a brown mess.

multitasking is a great thing.  We cooked our meal while we cooked our wool.  Tinfoil package dinners or hotdogs on a stick are good menu ideas when all your cooking pots are occupied.

The mixture of colours ended up looking quite interesting.  We put it on the fence post to dry overnight.

After our scrumptious dinner, I got out my drop spindle to spin up some of the fiber that we had left dry and white.

Evan learned to spin by candle light.   He did a really good job!  We took turns, and got quite a lot done that evening.

Stay tuned to see what all that lovely roving has turned into….

Would you like to add a little bit of colour to something that is already knit?  Duplicate stitch may be what you are looking for.  It can be used in the O Canada mittens (Olympic mittens) as an alternative to the stranded colourwork.  Follow the charts in duplicate stitch after the red mittens are completed.

You need:

• a darning needle, or a needle with an eye big enough for the yarn that you are using.
• yarn for duplicate stitch (contrasting colour to the original knit fabric)
• original knit fabric

What to do:

Step 1:  Thread your needle, and come up through a hole (at the bottom of a V) from the wrong side of the fabric.  The right side should be facing you.

insert needle through from the wrong side of the fabric to the right side.

Step 2: From the hole, follow the yarn upwards.  It will loop behind 2 strands of yarn and back down again.  That’s what you do with your yarn.  Trace the path with the needle!

insert the needle through both sides of a stitch one row up.

Step 3:  Pull the yarn through, you have now traced half a stitch.

Pull yarn through, you now have half a duplicate stitch!

Step 4:  Follow the other half of the stitch back down.  The needle will be inserted under 2 more strands of yarn.

Keep tracing the path of the yarn

Step 5: Pull the yarn tight and you can see one stitch, a little heart shape, in your contrasting colour.

One stitch has been duplicated!

With practice it gets pretty fast.  Just always remember to follow the path of the yarn and you’ll be fine.

several stitches complete (3 in the top row, 4 in the bottom row)

What other techniques would you like help with?

When two fiber enthusiasts get together you’d better stand back–the fleece will be flying!

Tonight I had the pleasure of meeting Teira in person.  I’ve met her on Ravelry and through reading her blog, but to be in the same room with someone who is keen to discuss the ins and outs of washing fleece, or experiments with dyeing, or recent spinning wheel issues, was something very new for me.

What's on Teira's wheel?

Apart from meeting a new fiber friend, I learned a new skill tonight–combing wool.  Now, if you’ve never prepared a fleece before, you may not be familiar with this term.

Combing wool is different than carding wool.

Carding wool uses anything from a dog brush, to hand cards to a drum carder, but all of these tools are similar in that they are a surface that has small teeth placed in rows across the entire area.

image source: wikimedia.org dog brush

image source: pacificwoolandfiber.com hand cards

image source: clemes.com drum carder

Carding will leave you with a batt (a flat mass of fiber that has been brushed). There will still be short and long pieces, and there might still be bits of grass left in the batt–of course this depends on how fine the carding cloth is (the more teeth per inch, the better job it does of brushing out all the unwanted bits).

Combing, I realized tonight, is TOTALLY different.  The resulting fiber is smooth and uniform without any dirt or short pieces–those end up on the floor!  Also, and very important to know…combs could be weapons!  They have two rows of stainless steel tines that are very sharp.  Be very careful when using combs!

image source: bountifulspinweave.com

Here’s how to comb fleece:

Step 1:  Fix one comb to the table so it will not move.  Mini combs can be used one in each hand, but I don’t think I’m coordinated enough for that yet.

Step 2:  Load the locks (clumps of fleece) onto the stationary comb so that the butt end of the lock (the end that was cut off the sheep) is stuck in the teeth of the comb.  Don’t load it too full!

Step 3: Put the moving comb (teeth downward) into the locks starting at the tips and working toward the base.  Continue this until the fleece is almost entirely transferred to the moving comb.  All the short pieces will be left in the teeth of the stationary comb–discard these.

Teira demonstrates how to comb

Step 4:  Change combs–secure the full comb to the table, and use the empty comb as your moving comb.  Transfer the fleece back to the other comb by brushing in a similar fashion.

Step 5:  Using a diz (anything with a fine hole in it–Teira has a seashell), thread the combed fleece through the hole, grip tightly and pull the fleece through the hole to make a roving.  If the fleece is not combed open enough, the roving may not pull out nicely.  This part took the most practice for me!

Teira demonstrates the diz

There you have it, 5 steps to combing fleece!  Thanks so much Teira for the great lesson.

I’ve met a kindred spirit this spring….someone who gets excited giddy at the idea of creating yarn and knitting with it.  Last week I showed her how to spin with a drop spindle, and the next thing I know she has talked with a sheep farmer and negotiated the acquisition of several large bags of fleece.

She asked what to do with the fleece, how to make it into yarn.  I let her know that there are 4 main steps

1. Wash the fleece
2. Card the fleece into a batt
3. Spin the batt
4. Dye it (this can be done any time after it is washed)

She went home and washed some of the fleece and dyed it with onions and tea and beans.  Later next week we’ll have a carding lesson.

Washing Fleece

Basically, fill up a bathtub/basin with warm soapy water, and put the fleece in.  Let it sit.  The water will change colour as the feces and grease leaves the fibers.  You may need to refill the tub a few times until the water stays clear (like in the picture).

• Never agitate fleece when it is in the soapy water or it will felt
• Never change the temperature rapidly
• Put a bathtub strainer on the drain so the fleece wont end up down the drain.

relatively clean fleece

After the fleece is washed, it will need to dry.  Hopefully it is a sunny day, and you have a clothesline!  Do not try to do anything with the fleece until it is completely dry.

After it is dry, it is time to card it, and spin it….and the fun begins!

locks, roving/batt, yarn

I made a smart purchase of a drum carder (from E-Bay) in 2008, and my wrists have been thanking me since.  Before that time I had used a dog brush, and using that gave me some kind of carpal tunnel issue.  Be warned!!

Carding Fleece

I’m always learning how to do this better, and the most recent improvement that I’ve made to my process is to add fleece directly to the drum to start with.

The big drum is where the carding happens, it is driven by the handle.  The little drum is rotated slowly when the big drum rotates.

Add the fleece, lock by lock to the drum until you have the entire drum covered.  It is important that all the fibers are lined up in the same direction.

Rotate the big drum around a few more times.

Use a knitting needle (or chopstick) to lift the fibers from the big drum.  Start this process where there’s a break on the drum.  Lift about an inch at a time.

Wind the big drum backwards, and use the chopstick/knitting needle to take the fleece off.

Split the fiber batt in half lenthwise, and feed it into the drum carder from the tray.

Card the fleece 2 or 3 times until it is as smooth as you want it.

3rd time carded

Here’s the batt, ready to spin.

There are still little noils or nubbly bits in the fleece.  I’m not sure how to eliminate those.  Let me know if you do!

I’ve been riding my bike into the sunset….and making some awesome macrame bracelets

Do you remember back when you were a teenager?  Getting a friendship bracelet made just for you was something pretty special.  I know that many sunny afternoons at summer camp were spent with strings pinned to my jeans, and my fingers hard at work making all sorts of bracelets for my cabin mates and new friends.  Matching bracelets were cool….and still are!

The past few days have brought back such good teenage memories.  I’ve been often spotted with strings pinned to my jeans these days, and a pocket full of beads.  I’ve been making matching bracelets for a group of teenagers that I’ve been working with for the past little while.

I’m using cotton string (left overs from somebody’s old weaving project), and adding some rather mysteriously magical beads.

beads indoors

The magic of these beads occurs as soon as you step outside.

beads outdoors

They react to the ultraviolet light from the sun, and they turn all sorts of colours.  It’s pretty cool–cool enough that even teenagers think that they are awesome.  These kids are still wearing the bracelets and showing their friends how neat the beads are.

Here we all are with our matching bracelets!

what a great group!

If you’d like to make bracelets of your own, here are the instructions (images from Macrame Friendship Bracelets)

Preparation Step 1.  Cut a piece of string that is as long as your fingers to your shoulder.  Cut another piece that is about 2 meters long.

Preparation Step 2.  Fold each string in half, and put the center loops together, and line up the ends facing you.  Tie an overhand knot at the loop end to secure all the strings together.  The long strings should be on the outside, we’ll call them strings 1 and 4.  The short strings should be on the inside, we’ll call them 2 and 3.

Bracelet Step 1.  Arrange string one as seen below.  It should pass over strings 2 and 3, and under string 4.

Bracelet Step 2.    String 4 should now go under strings 2 and 3, and come up through the space between string 1 and 2.  This will tie half of the square knot.Bracelet Step 3.  String 1, which is now on the far right, needs to return to the left side, passing over strings 2 and 3, and under string 4.Bracelet Step 4.  To return string 4 to the far right side, it needs to pass behind strings 2 and 3, and come up through the loop made between string 1 and 3.Continue the 4 steps to make more and more square knots.  Note:  strings 2 and 3 will always stay in the middle.  They should always have one string passing on top, and one passing underneath, to keep them as the core of the bracelet.  The outer strings need to be longer because they are the ones that tie all the knots.

If you want to make a twisty bracelet, repeat steps 1 and 2 over and over again.

If you want to add beads, thread them onto strings 2 and 3, and keep on with the knotted pattern after the bead.

For more information about how UV sensitive beads work, and where to buy them check out Steve Spangler’s Science page.

Why not teach a kid you know the fun of making macrame.  You’ll feel like a kid again too!

It felt like summer today!  It was a perfect day to take pictures of my grandmother’s beautiful flowers.  She has been an avid gardener for most of her life, and has a long yard edged with flower beds.

While we were out in the garden we saw birds and their nests, butterflies and other insects…

tulips

There’s a rabbit and a fox that are sometimes spotted in her yard

lupin

My grandmother sat watching her garden and her trees and wondered out loud how many places you could sit in the middle of the city and see nothing civilized.  We could still hear lots of noises though.

ranunculus--in the buttercup family

The sun was very warm, and after doing a few garden errands, moving some plants up from the basement, and positioning St. Francis by the tree, I introduced her to a refreshing beverage made from her estate mint.

St. Francis is in position

Drink Recipe:

Combine ice, water, lemon juice, honey and mint in a blender.

Blend it until the ice is ground up, and the mint is shredded.

Garnish with a sprig of mint

I first encountered this drink while in Cairo last summer.  It brings back good memories.  I’m planting mint on my balcony, so I’ll be able to make this drink all summer.

A cold and blustery day had me inside under the covers knitting to warm up from time to time.

I am enjoying these stripes so much!!!

I like that they are symmetrical.  This comes from dyeing the very large skein from the warping board in segments from end to end like the skein is a long rectangle.

The resulting stripes are as follows:

Blue, green, white, orange, brown, white, gold, white, brown, orange, white, green, blue

To make a non symmetrical, but repeated pattern you need to take the large skein, and take meter-long segments around the circle and dye them in order in the round.

The resulting stripes would be as follows:

Blue, green, white, orange, brown, white, gold, blue, green, white, orange, brown, white, gold.

It’s always a curious thing how these stripes will work out at the heel…can’t wait to see!

If you haven’t done a lot of dyeing, this post won’t make much sense, but read along if you like.

When we last saw the black bean dyeing process it looked like this

After 2 days, the light purple colour had barely made an impact on the wool.

Last time, it took a night to become a lovely shade of blue–that wool was superwash though, and sock weight.  I had also dyed some thick 100% non-superwash wool, which became grey/blue over night.  This wool has 20% nylon in it, but that shouldn’t make it undyeable.

I rethought my process.  The first time, I had soaked the yarn in an alum solution for 30 minutes before I dyed it.  This time I skipped that step.  How important can a little bit of white powder be?

Very important it turns out!  I sprinkled some alum into the dyepot, stirred it around, then had a nap.

Amazing!  When I woke up, the colour of the dyepot had changed, and so had the colour of the yarn.

How does it work?

Alum is a mordant, it serves to fix colours in dyeing.  Mordant comes from the Latin word mordere (to bite).  It chemically binds the pigment to the cells that are being dyed.  Some substances require no mordant at all, and will dye fibers bright and vibrant colours through immersion, or boiling.  It turns out that black beans are NOT some of these substances (for the record, onion and turmeric can be used without a mordant).

I bought my alum at the pharmacy, it is ammonium alum.  You can also buy alum at the grocery store.  I don’t know if it is the same chemical though, or even if the results would be the same.

Wikipedia says: Alum (pronounced /ˈæləm/) is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrate potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl(SO₄)₂^.12H₂O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related stoichiometry, AB(SO₄)₂^.12H₂O.

So…alum is a sulfate of some variety (not necessarily containing aluminum).  Alum has been used in water treatment, and in dyeing, and in pickling and as an aftershave, and on and on and on….

I now know that it is a really important ingredient when using black beans as a dye!

Lesson learned:  Alum is my friend!

On my stovetop I’m combining onions, beans and wool to see what I can come up with.

Here’s a quick tutorial on natural dyeing and making self striping yarn.

Assemble materials:  I’m dyeing Briggs and Little 1 ply yarn (80% wool 20% nylon).  I am dyeing it gold with onion skins which you can get free from the onion bins at the grocery store if you ask nicely, yellow with turmeric, and blue/grey/green with the water left after soaking black beans for a few days.

Prepare your skein for striping:  I am using my weaving warping board to help me make a long skein

The yarn is wrapped around these pegs to make a long loop.  The distance across is 1 meter, so it is easy to measure the skein.

If you don’t have a warping board winding the yarn around two chairs set far apart will also work

Be sure to tie up the skein in several places so that it won’t get tangled.  I tied every 2 meters as a guide for striping the yarn too.

To keep things from tangling, I gathered the skein up in a single-crochet like chain.
Prepare the dye liquids:

Onion skins can easily get stuck in the wool… 

…so I wrap them up in a mesh laundry bag…

…and boil them on the stove for a while, topping up the water when needed.

Black beans get soaked for 2 days, and then strained off.  The juice is then ready for dyeing.

Turmeric powder needs no other preparation other than pouring it in hot water when the dyeing begins.

Start Dyeing:

Selected portions of the skein are immersed in the pot of onion dye and boiled for a while.

The results are a golden rusty orangey yellow.

A different section of the skein is immersed in the pot and boiled with turmeric powder to dye it bright yellow.

The dyed portion must be kept clear of the stove element, and from the un-dyed yarn, so several big bowls are useful.The funny thing about dyeing is that it ends up differently each time.  The variables are numerous:  the wool (superwash or not, nylon content, etc), the quality and quantity of dyestuffs, the temperature, the time spent in the dye.  The first time I used turmeric powder, the results were a bright yellow.  This time it has turned out a yellowy gold colour, not too different from the onions.  I am intrigued to see how it looks when it is all dry.

Ever since I saw Yarn Piggy’s lovely colours achieved from Black Bean Dye, I decided I HAD to try it for myself!

image source: flyingpigknits.blogspot.com

Can you imagine that these lovely colours came from BEANS?!?!

image source: flyingpigknits.blogspot.com

The instructions seem easy enough….

Soak the dry beans, drain the murky purply dye water off, dye the wool (no heating or anything required!)  Plus, you can eat the beans while you are waiting for the perfect colour.  There’s a bit of experimenting with fiber types and after baths of ammonia or vinegar….but I’m game to give it a go!

black beans

soaking the beans for 2 days

skein of 100% wool

mordant bath of alum for an hour

soaking in bean juice

I decided to try an ammonia dip after taking the wool out of the bean  mixture.  It turned the yarn a greenish colour.

yarn drying in the sunshine

lichen green yarn compared to the original colour

I’m really impressed at how green the yarn is!  When I did a great deal of natural dyeing 2 summers ago I always struggled to get a good green.  This is a method that will work year round and end up a great green colour.  It’s making me curious about what would happen if I dyed it first with onions and second with beans with ammonia, it may turn an even brighter green.

More yarn is in the bean juice for a longer soak.  Fingers crossed for blue this time!