people who say that textile crafters lead a quiet, safe life - have probably never had a fine steel knitting needle sticking out of the palm of their hand! well, I've never injured myself with normal knitting needles before - but in size 1,5 mm they do go through the skin like a skewer! but to finish the minature below in time, I had to keep going regardless - and managed to finish my project in time. I painted the base made from calico with very diluted fabric paints, just to make the "bainin" wool stand out more.
the book pages are incredible - everyone has chosen a different style, which makes our textile book interesting to look at and a cross section of lots of textile techniques. we put it all together at the last meeting of the Connacht Textile Crafters (blog will soon be up and running - with photos of course) and I think, everyone was happy with the result. it'll make a nice (and easily portable) piece to put on show for our meetings and such!
this is my page entry - the miniature aran sweater, without bloodstains - I managed to put the knitting away before splashing drops all over it:)
I also put together all the dye results I achieved with the berries of the alder buckthorn (rhamnus frangula). another one of those dye mysteries: I mordanted all fibres the same (alum) and used pretty much the same ratios of berries to dye stuff! I have no idea why the colours came out so differently - but they did! the throwster's waste and degummed cocoons are far stronger in colour - but even the teeswater in front has a more intense colour than the nz lamb top under the silk on the right. all the colours from the second lot came out far bluer than the green tops I dyed in the first batch, and I just love the tone! the one really odd colour - the small amount of "orange" on the right side (back) is due to the colour change of photography. I didn't dye orange with the berries as well - it's a yellowish green in reality!
so now I have even more to add to my dyed stash of teeswater top - all in the soft colours of natural dyes that are so tempting to spin into nice soft singles.... I had planned to make a scarf like the one in the book "folk style" with it - but I think by now I have enough fibres to make 10 large scarves with it - if I ever get it all spun up! never mind the several large bags of nz lamb....
8 comments:
I like your blog.
Beautiful pictures.
Please visit:
http://holidayinparadise.blogspot.com
Good luck
Ouch! That looks rather nasty. What a relief to not get any blood on your knitting.
The alder buckthorn dye photo is great . Even though the colors are all so different, they really seem to coordinate rather well.
Autsch....autsch.... here too! My granny told me about injuries like that for she had a few herself, but it never happened to me. Anyway, the mini Aran is adorable!
Oh, je, und ich mache mich in einem Beitrag noch über die Verletzungsgefahr beim Stricken während einer Autofahrt lustig. Sorry. Das sieht jetzt irgendwie nicht so gut aus. Hoffentlich halten sich die Schmerzen in Grenzen.
Ich werde vermutlich über den Feiertag hier endlich auch mal Färben. Ich habe da so eine Idee im Kopf und keine Lust, nach der richtigen Wolle zu suchen. Also ist selbermachen angesagt. Wünsch mir Glück *gg*
Dir wünsch ich viel Spaß bei Eurem Treffen, der Mini-Aran ist wunderhübsch geworden. Bin auf den Blog schon sehr gespannt.
Alles Liebe
Kristin
Kristin - war halb so schlimm, ist schon wieder alles vorbei:)) ich bin da nicht zimperlich, solange ich mir nicht mein strickzeug verferkel! und so oft strick ich mit so duennen nadeln nicht mehr (das kommt, wenn man in eile ist - ist mir vorher noch nie passiert:))
jetzt geht es an die anderen nadeln - irgendwie ist mir gerade mehr nach sticken.... viel glueck beim faerben - hoffentlich kommt auch dabei raus, was du dir vorstellst!
Hi Bettina. On my monitor the colours look like an indigo blue. Are they really as blue as that? The colour all look lovely together too. Alderbuckthorn is a good one to have in the garden. It's not one that I have. Maybe I should. I wonder whether it is worth fermenting the berries?
Helen, I am still working with the berries. the main amount is picked now, but I think I can get another smaller amount in a few days! I should give it a try maybe with the fermenting! it's difficult to get the colour right - I'll send you another sample in an envelope for you to see. I am going to pick some berries for seeds anyway, I can include some for you (or Enys:)) they grow easily and are quite fast from seeds and the trees stay fairly small - you don't need a huge garden to grow one or two of them (can be pruned too!)
I wonder how fast is the blue from alder buckthorn (rhamnus frangula). Any experience?
Post a Comment