Marigold – Morgenfrue 2015

Tags

dyeing, flowers, orange, plantefarvning, plants, summer, wool

I know I said not to bother with Calendula officinalis, but as I was ridding my sadly very small weld patch from a

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Tansy take 2

Tags

green, plantefarvning, wool

Last year I only did a few skeins – and this year the situation is the same, only I did it differently.

I did two with iron in the dyebath (mordanted with alum and one not) and one with leaves only.

Then I read that the best colour is from the leaves before the plants bloom. Well obviously that’s too late, so I guess I’ll have to do a teensy test in 2014 as well.

Grøn med Rejnfan

Sidste år blev det til gul med blomsterne, i år forsøgte jeg mig med bladene samt med jernvitriol. Sidstnævnte både på alunbejdset uld og ubejdset. Bagefter læste jeg så, at planten rent faktisk giver bedst farve før den blomstrer, men så har jeg jo noget at prøve igen til næste år.

Common reed – tagrør

Tags

green, iron sulfate, natural dyeing, nature, plantefarvning, silk, wool

It’s time right now here in DK at least to harvest the “feathers” from Phragmites australis.I haven’t used it before and only have time for this one experiment. Some say it can be frozen, others that the dye can be frozen, but nobody seems to be very sure.

The old recipes say to divide your fiber in 2 batches, dyeing one after the other and then dunking half of each portion in iron for 15 minutes (needs to be a warm bath it seems). Several have said that the 2nd bath doesn’t really give much though. One could perhaps dye the first portion for a shorter time? Dye ratio at least 3:1 I’d say for just the one bath.

Anyways, a lovely green. I dyed some birch skeins real quick and did one overdye, which is almost electric to look at.

Some people get a neon green, or like a granny smith apple. Could be the water, could  be that I use CoT and they only use alum? If I run into another batch I may try. I also put a small bunch in the freezer for testing if they keep.

Post on frozen reeds >>

Tid til at høste tagrør

Hvis man er glad for grøn, så er det nu man kan plukke “fjerene” af tagrør og koge dem et par timer. Mindst 3:1 forhold til et enkelt farvebad, de gamle opskrifter siger man kan smide en portion mere i, men det bliver lidt kedeligt. Muligvis skal man tage hold 1 op tidligere end 1 time? Man kan efterdyppe 15 minutter i et varmt bad med jernvitriol for at gøre farven mørk, eller man kan komme gult garn i, som det birkefarvede ovenfor.

Silken blev lidt fesen. Det hele er bejdset med alun. Nogen får mere neon/æblegrøn, om det er vandet eller om det er fordi jeg også bejdser med vinsten vides pt. ikke. Hvis jeg render ind i flere, prøver jeg måske, ellers har jeg som test puttet et par duske i fryseren, for at se om de virker bagefter.

Tagetes 3

Tags

dyeing, flowers, garden, green, orange, plantefarvning, wool, yellow

Having used double up plant to yarn the first time, I wanted to test the dye properties at 1:1 ratio. I used the tagetes tenuifolia.

I did 1 alum, 1 rhubarb and then 1 copper mordanted in a pot of its own. And yes, it’s different, but not green like the first year, I must have really overdone it back then. Now I’m intrigued as to actually getting green on purpose.

Rhubarb: you disappoint me (again). It may be that it only works in some plant combinations, but frankly then I can’t be bothered. I also have no succes with it on cotton, but more on that later.

These three skeins didn’t even get simmered, I just put them in the warm dyebath to soak. So I decided to test how far I could go on the exhaust, one skein at a time. 5 more skeins, so that’s 200 g yarn from 75 g of flowers.

Tagetes 1

Tagetes 2

Tagetes igen igen

Sidst brugte jeg dobbelt op af plante i forhold til garn, så jeg ville lige teste en gang 1:1. Samt det rabarberbejdsede garn og kobber i en gryde for sig.

Denne gang fik jeg ikke grøn fra kobber som det første år, så nu tænker jeg jo på, hvordan man får det med vilje. Rabarber er igen meget skuffende/kedeligt, jeg tror ikke det er noget jeg vil bruge krudt på igen.

Efter 3 fed farvet 1:1 ville jeg så teste hvor meget ekstra farve der var i, så jeg blev ved med at putte garn i, et fed af gangen indtil det blev meget lyst. 5 stk. blev det til, så det er i alt 200 g garn til 75 g blomster! Jeg brugte Appelsintagetes denne gang.

How often?

Tags

blog, blogging, community, footsie, have, hverdag hver dag, intention, maleri, plantefarvning, poll, rundspørge, seasons, skrive, sommer, tegning, writing

The number of plant dyeing posts in my draft list is exploding at the moment, so I’ve run into a “problem” with frequency.

Even if I do 3 posts a week, I’m still 2 weeks ahead and that leaves no slots open for other stuff I’d like to talk about. I know that many people do a post a day, but do all the people read all the posts?

I also want to keep my current library structure of one plant:one post to keep it all easier to look up later, for myself as well. So making one huge post a week with 3-5 plants won’t work either. And what about the gardening, that’s right now as well! (of course there is always the option to not actually blog everything you do)

For myself, there is no problem in seasonal blogging, changing the main subject matter in cycles. But I realize that some people only come here for the spinning or the dyeing and they’ll most likely go away if I only write about philosophical matters or painting for 2 months. That would be sad. I do want to keep all of you here, a blog without interaction is useless.

That means I want your input, I really do. Seasonal subjects OR seasonal post explosions with intermittent dead zones? I expect at least 50 different replies. 

Incidentally this post was written with my left hand, sitting sideways to the keyboard, because Arthur is having his midday nap on me.

And yes, I do have a teeny post for tomorrow with no plants in it whatsoever.

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On a different note, can somebody enlighten me what the current trend of photographing your own feet is about? Often with flowers, in focus and out of. Because I just don’t get it. Mind you, I don’t really have a lot of cute shoes, so maybe that’s why. I do have red gum boots. Perhaps I should do a theme involving those? Or would that just be kinky….

Hvor ofte skal man blogge?

–  svaret er naturligvis, så ofte man lyster, men:

Plantefarvningssæsonen er på sit højeste, og dermed bliver kladdelisten over blogindlæg meget lang. Selv hvis jeg kun skriver om det ene emne er jeg to uger forud, og så er der lissom slet ikke plads til at skrive om alt muligt andet! (kæmpe katastrofe, ja?)

Jeg ved godt at mange skriver hver dag, men bliver det også læst? Blog uden kommunikation er jo kedeligt tidspilde.

Mange kommer her kun for plantefarvning eller spinding eller måske et tredje emne, og jeg tænker at de måske finder andre græsgange mens jeg knævrer om de emner de ikke gider. Så jeg prøver at blande bare en lille smule, for at få nogen samtaler i gang og holde dem.

Selv har jeg ikke problemer med sæsonprægede emner, men hvis alle garnfolkene forsvinder når jeg så skriver om maleri eller hverdagens tanker om min nye cykel, så er det jo lidt trist. Samtidig ønsker jeg at holde planen med 1 plante = 1 indlæg, så der bliver en nem struktur at finde rundt i for plantefarvere og mig selv.

Så nu vil jeg have input – her har danskerne chancen for at sige noget for en gangs skyld og få noget indflydelse. Skal det være periodevis masseblogning hvor det hele bliver skudt af på en gang med efterfølgende dødvande, eller emner der skifter med årstiden? Gisp, og hvad med haveindlæg, dem er jeg knap nok begyndt på, men de ligger jo også lige NU.

Jeg kunne også lave 3 blogge, men så ender de pludselig med at ligge halvdøde og glemte hen hele tiden. Hesteblog, fotoblog, dansk blog, haveblog, tanker og teser…. Jeg er ikke rigtig “jeg har lige lavet mig en avocadomad med purløg og tomat som jeg vil nyde i min skyggefulde pavillon”-typen, så det behøver ikke ligefrem sin egen blog.

Så hvad vil I ha’?! Dem der siger noget vinder. (måske) Jeg har en mistanke om at danske bloggere kun kan finde ud af af bruge Blogspot, men I må rigtig gerne fortælle mig, at jeg tager helt fejl.

Og nu vil jeg så forsøge at spise den avocadomad og huske servietten til når det hele falder fra hinanden. Avocado på rugbrød indtages nemmest som guacamole, men det havde mit blodsukker ikke lige tid til at vente på. Og hjemmelavet hyldedrik og sol, så bliver det ikke mere idyllisk.

Fibery stuff this week

Tags

blue, crafts, dorset, fiber friday, filtning, green, madder, plantefarvning, red, suffolk, tools, uld, woad, wool, yellow

Pincushion progress:

First one felted and stitched up ready to fill, but I want to add icord loops or something to have the option of hanging them from a hook. (if I can find a suitable location away from cat paws) I decided to try out the dye with regular laundry detergent, twice. Original yarn included in the photo. It turned out rather larger than I expected after my blanket adventure, but I liked the fabric the way it was, so didn’t want to give it another go at a higher temp.

Second one felted and ready to be stitched. Yarn is dyed with madder exhaust and Dyer’s Chamomile. Also washed with the clothes and detergent.

Third one – yarn chosen but the shape hasn’t presented itself to me yet. Possibly a cube. Originally all three were going to be like the first, but then the second wanted to be different and I obliged. Apparently my inner self does not want to be classy, and for now I’m listening – as long as it’s actually saying something, fine! Even if it means the house will look like a cirkus… Skeins are dyed with Dyer’s Chamomile and Weld (the lighter one).

Suffolk preparation started:

I’ve decided to just finger pick everything to get rid of the tiny bits of vegetable matter, then loosely blend on hand cards, which I hate but really doesn’t take such a long time as I imagined. To be spun into yarn for the tapestry testing, and when I’m done I have a huge box of Dorset that I’ve plant dyed which needs the same treatment. I thought I said something about not production spinning?!

Sample loom 1 done:

Seems to be working fairly well, I’ll be testing various widths of warp, how many meters of yarn go into xx cm of weaving etc. I tried at first without nails, just wrapping around, but I think it will work better with nails on the front. Possibly because the frame is so small, pulling the warp up from the back really makes it very taut. As well as being fiddly to adjust the gaps.
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Ugens fiberprojekter

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Nålepuder af plantefarvet garn undervejs: Første er klar til at blive fyldt, og så skal jeg lige have lavet en løkke i toppen til at hænge den op, inden jeg kan sy den sidste kant. Garnet er farvet med vaid.

Nr. 2 er filtet og klar til at blive syet sammen (kraprod og gåseurt), den sidste er der fundet garn frem til (gåseurt og vau). Jeg har vasket det sammen med tøjet og almindeligt vaskepulver, noget plantefarve kan ikke lide den behandling, men jeg ville lige prøve at se hvordan disse, normalt ret farveægte typer holdt sig.

Jeg er endelig gået i gang med den sidste klargøring af min Suffolk ham som jeg gik og sjatfarvede i sommer. Det bliver pillet fra hinanden med fingrene for at blive fri for plantefnuller og håndkartet løseligt (hvilket jeg er herredårlig til, men det går faktisk hurtigere end antaget.) Ja, og så er der naturligvis den kæmpe kasse Dorset jeg har plantefarvet, som skal samme vej…

Og så har jeg lavet en miniature væveramme til at lave lidt garn- og tekniktest på.