• Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • About this blog
    • Things I don’t blog about
    • På dansk?
    • Indlæg på dansk
  • Shop
  • Plant Dyeing
    • Dye plant list
    • Plant yarn gallery
    • Plant Dyeing Blog
  • Yarn & Fiber
    • Weaving
    • Spinning
    • Acid Dyeing
    • Plant Dyeing
    • Knitting
    • The Nettle Page
  • Chit Chat
    • Books & reading
    • Thoughts
    • Show-and-tell
    • Links
    • Farm Life
    • Garden
    • Critters

Colour Cottage

~ little house in a field

Colour Cottage

Tag Archives: fabric

Cushion survey

13 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Sewing, Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

fabric, home, Shop, track of the day

sofacushions

As an addendum to my weaving and clothing plans I have questions for all of you:

Which size cushions do you like and why?

Which closure do you prefer?

(NOT by me)12552a5b3eb7ed43647244a1c44ea7bc

If *I* can’t get handwoven cushions from my fabrics, perhaps somebody else would like to! Because there are bound to be leftovers, and I could certainly use some pocket money.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Wardrobe colouring

08 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Sewing, Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

clothing, colour, colourways, fabric, obsessions, swatch

monks sampling08

Today’s post is related to the previous one. As before I still struggle with my taste for colour, and every time I think I’ve developed a colourscheme of just 3-4 shades, I keep finding a few extras that would also go well. Some of them overlap into the next group, others are completely different. From buddhist monks’ robes to pale greens and blues, from intricate patterns to solids. My brain overloads completely with colours from nature all the time, any season. I could make swatches and sketches as a full time job and never get beyond that.

Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

What’s happening with my weaving?

01 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by Pia in Show-and-tell, Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

colour, cotton, crafts, creativity, fabric, yarn

34481
More or less nothing actually! Which feels really weird after being so obsessed with it for a while, but in fact it’s very natural. I can’t do all the things all the time but I need the occasional shift in focus. Doing just one thing seems like having to eat the same food 3 x 365, even if it’s your favourite.

But I haven’t grown tired of it, in fact it just started out that way, a piece of cloth I didn’t enjoy making and since it required a lot of focus and counting I can’t just get it done and be over with. And then your focus slips away even without headaches. Oh, and did I mention that it’s really skinny thread, the fabric is as thin as fine bed sheets. Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Image

Mute Monday

25 Monday May 2015

Tags

colour, colourways, cotton, fabric, pink

gypsy03

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted by Pia | Filed under Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 10 Comments

Perhaps winter

01 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Pia in Acid Dyeing, Garden, Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

brown, clothing, fabric, grey, weather, winter, wool

slag06

First winter day, and a promise of, but not quite real frost at least in this garden. It’s possible that I simply got out of bed too late, though! Uglemor has taken care of that bit of December greeting for me. 😉

Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Operation cotton – weld

17 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Farm Life, Food, Garden, Plant Dyeing, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

cotton, dyeing, fabric, red, strawberries, yarn, yellow

Having promised that I’d do something with my weld and some failed, beige fabrics from last year’s plant printing tests, I wrapped half a sheet around plants, water and more plants on top and the other half sheet loosely crumbled on top, floating. As well as one of the failed cotton skeins that I’ve been going on about forever but never shown yet. (I have just two more than I want to put into some dyebath again, for, like, the 5th time, THEN!)

Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Selling scraps

08 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Pia in Chit Chat, Plant Dyeing, Weaving, Yarn and Fiber

≈ 31 Comments

Tags

art, colour, fabric, Shop, silk, wool

silk3 cloth14

Birdie mentioned whether I’d sell the plant dyed yarns I’m not using (especially if they were fabrics). Raquel always wants to make scarves from it. 😉 My reply was, that until now I’ve used cheap, scruffy wool in very small skeins, so not very interesting for knitting at least, and I’m not really sure anyone would want it if they saw felt it in person.

Since I’m changing directions slightly both with my dyeing and yarn crafting, I thought it would be fun to do a survey, not because I expect any who reply to buy anything, but to help me choose materials. For myself mainly, but yes, if I could hand over an unwanted skein now and again in return for the ability to buy a couple of new ones to modify, that would be awesome. Sometimes I have an idea but abandon it halfway not because I hate the result, I just moved on quicker than my production pace.

I’d like to do more silks – mostly yarn, since fabric is expensive, so probably small quantities for needlework. Which yarn weights and skein lengths do you stitchery folks prefer? Do you use wool, and then which type? Chances are, you can teach me which threads I’d like to use myself…

I’m also probably going to experiment with dyeing wool fabric. Either handwoven or what I find. There will be fabric ends leftover from my weaving of all sorts. Do people look for small amounts of handwoven for quilting or textile “paintings” like some use handspun and handdyed mini-skeins? Would be über cool to swap or see a bit of my stuff used in someone elses stuff!

In which case, what types of fabric do you look for, when you look?

Cellulose fibers such as cotton and linen are out of my league now. They are difficult to dye. I do not have the energy to go into it this year, or ever. It doesn’t feel important when I know I can make protein fibers shine.

I have considered dyeing larger quantities of some nice knitting yarn, because I had various requests. Problem is, people talk but they don’t pay up front and I can’t afford to stock up on many kilos of nice yarn. If I have to spin it myself I’m not going to part with it for “a friendly price”! And I’m not really looking to set up an actual shop for small items that demand too much time compared to their price. At least not at my current energy level.

So anyway, while I’m trying out this tapestry/artistic weaving thing with ideas of some embroidery on top or meshed in specialty yarns, searching for a path among different types of yarns than I’m used to, I basically would like to hear what everybody else out there likes for various purposes. I hope to narrow down my spinning and weaving baseline staple to a few things that I use 80-90% of the time rather than have 300 g of every fiber under the sun.

I also don’t know yet what I’m going to “major” in. Will it be weaving or making/designing yarn? Or is textiles simply my grounding exercise that keeps the more brainy creativities alive, such as photo(shopping), writing – and what about the painting? I feel like I’m trying various things out, like different semesters in an education, and eventually perhaps I’ll fall deeper into one than the others. Which means leftovers from the activities that end up on the back shelf.

minis1 cloth2 hankies2

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Pia’s Playground

14 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by Pia in På dansk, Plant Dyeing

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

colour, cotton, creativity, fabric, forest, garden, mad scientist, oak, pattern, plants

-or “Where’s my Igor?”

I’m no good at it so far, I haven’t done my research yet, but I just had to try, didn’t I…..

Various cottons and one mystery cloth washed in soda, some soaked in red wine for tannin (YES, it had gone bad, ok?), some cooked with sumak, some with horse shoes, some a bit of both. I also had one treated with milk but forgot to label them, so I dunno which one that is.

Everything will be sitting in the greenhouse in various buckets now for weeks or months depending on my patience. Some with plant matter on the outside, others just in Alum/CoT water, or iron or everything. I did take notes….

Basically I’m just going to keep adding layers until they look interesting. The worst that can happen is nothing. Plant material: what caught my eye in the garden that day.

≈ Leave a Comment

Plantetryk på stof

Jeg har ikke helt fået studeret emnet nok, det er svært at få plantefarve til at fæste på bomuld, især direkte som tryk fra blade mm.

Men jeg måtte alligevel iværksætte et par vanvittige eksperimenter…

Stoffet er vasket i soda, noget af det har fået garvesyre fra rødvin eller hjortetakblade/bark, noget har været dyppet i jernvand eller stænket med det, ligget i blød med hestesko, sådan lidt efter tilfældighedernes princip. Jeg er helt sikker på jeg også har haft et stykke i mælk (skulle binde protein i stoffet, så det tager mere farve), men glemte at sætte labels på sidste år. Så nu ved jeg ikke hvilket stykke det er….

Nu får det hele lov at ligge i spande i drivhuset nogen uger eller måneder, alt efter hvor god jeg er til at styre min nysgerrighed. Det værste der kan ske er jo ingenting!

Vidste du, at man kan kommentere min blog uden at være wordpress medlem? Bare udfyld navn er nok. Det er så hyggeligt med dialog fremfor monolog!

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Follow On:

  • WordPress
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Etsy

I write about:

Month by month:

Instagram

The Maiden insisted on being blue despite my antics, will she come online after my posting issues yesterday? 1/3
Pia

Pia

Knitter, spinner, weaver, painter, photographer with a passion for horses. Addicted to reading and learning.

View Full Profile →

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Tags

acrylic acrylics alpaca appreciation art autumn berries black blogging blue brown cat cats clothing colour colourways cotton country life crafts creativity determination DIY dog dorset dyeing environment equipment exercise experimenting fabric fatigue fiber friday flow flowers forest funyarn garden gardening green greenhouse grey health hexagon hexiflat horses inner conviction inspiration intention kitten leaves life link love loom mad science merino mixed media modifier mordant natural dyeing nature nettles oak orange paint Painting pets Photography Photoshop pink plantefarvning plants procrastination purple quote reading red relax seasons silk snow solar dyeing spring studio suffolk summer sweater tapestry tools trees video weather weaving wildlife winter woad wool writing yarn yarn along yellow

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
    Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
    %d bloggers like this: