Finders Keepers

Coming soon - lots more Keeper necklaces, made with cotton thread from my various dyeing experiments.

Dyeing With Spring

Finally got around to take some photos of the fabric and threads that I was experimenting with in this post, and here are the results. 

These are all mercerised cotton thread, like the kind used used for crocheting. They were soaked with (from left to right) daffodils, dandelion stems, dandelion flowers, and fennel leaves.

As you can see, the daffodils gave a really vibrant yellow, I'm completely in love with that colour!

The fabric I used here is a very luxurious silk-linen blend, from a pair of trousers in my scrap fabric pile. From left to right: dandelion stems, dandelion flowers, and fennel leaves.

This are my favourites, from the daffodil jar. Look how vivid the colours are! The fabric on the left is a polycotton blend, I think, and I folded it in accordion pleats to fit it into the jar, and it came out with this awesome stripey, tie-dye effect, I love it! The other piece of fabric is the same silk-linen blend as above, and I  simply crushed it up and pushed it into the jar, which may be why the colour is much more uniform.

I've also just started another jar two days ago, with more of that silk-linen blend, and a whole bunch of fennel leaves, so we'll see how that turns out in a week or so.

Greens and Yellows

More dyeing experiments with (from top) fennel leaves, dandelion stems, and daffodil flowers. I also had a second jar of dandelion flowers on the go at the same time, but they're not pictured because I've taken pictures of those before.

The fabric and threads are currently mordanting (is that even a real word?) in alum, salt, or a mixture of both, so I'll post photos of the final results when they're dry. Just a word of warning to anyone attempting something similar - fermenting flowers smell worse than the Devil's own gunk after 5 days in a jar, so PLEASE hold your breath when opening the jars up. 

Also, for anyone interested in home dyeing with natural ingredients/materials, I highly recommend a visit to the beautiful Tinctory blog for some inspiration. 

Swatches

Here are the results from the solar dying experiments I did last week. I left these in a jar for about 5 days, then rinsed them out and dried them.

Mercerised cotton thread soaked in (from left): strawberry, raspberry and loganberry tea infusion, forsythia flowers, and dandelion flowers.

I was pleasantly surprised at how vivid the yellow turned out to be from the forsythia pot, the colour looked fairly weak when it was soaking. 

From left: polycotton in strawberry, raspberry and loganberry infusion, linen in same, polycotton in dandelion flowers brew, and linen in forsythia brew.

The first two pieces of fabric on the left don't seem to have absorbed any of the dye at all, and the other piece of polycotton has been dyed a very faint yellow hue, although it just looks dirty here. And again, the linen soaked in forsythia came out in a fairly strong shade of yellow. I wish they were still flowering so I could gather them up and try and obtain a stronger shade of yellow, but sadly, all the bushes around here seem to have shed most of their flowers.

But I have got four other pots on the windowsill right now, and I will post results when I rinse and dry out the swatches. 

Yellow

A sample of sunshine last week - solar dyeing with flowers, and a delicious pastry.

Forsythia flowers and leaves.

Dandelions, about to be plunged into boiling water (top), and 'cooking' (below). The jar on the left contains the forsythia brew. 

Pastel de nata for breakfast. 

Experiments With Purple

Made a fruit loaf using this recipe, but substituted frozen cherries, smoked prunes and a spoonful of blueberry jam in place of the bananas. I also used some vanilla soy milk and a tiny splash of ginger wine, instead of the coffee I used in the earlier recipe. The insides of the loaf were a lovely shade of purple, and it was great toasted, with some Nutella on top.

Red cabbage casserole, with grated cheese on top. Yes, it really was that violent shade of purple. May not be the prettiest dish around, but it was hella tasty.

Used a couple of leaves from the red cabbage to dye some white crochet cotton, and it came out this lovely shade of pale blue. My earlier experiments using vegetable matter to dye stuff can be seen here. I always get a little surprised when picking them out of the dye bath, as the colours are never really what I expect them to be.

Candy Colours

The stripey Dr. Who/ Tom Baker scarf has been completed! I finished it off on Monday night, much sooner than I thought it would take. I'd originally intended to make it as cumbersomely long as the scarf Tom Baker wears in the series, but S obviously wasn't too keen on tripping himself up everytime he took a step, so I eventually ended the scarf when it was about 1.5 metres long.

The colours aren't that similar to the original, but really, who would notice unless they were the ultimate Dr. Who uber-geek?

It was also a good way of using up most of my stash before going back home to Sydney for the summer. I'm sure I'll build up another stash over there pretty damn quickly anyway. Plus, now S can keep himself warm while watching old episodes of the Doctor till his eyeballs bleed.

Those two packets of Koolaid (sent by a lovely friend from Arizona) have been used to cook up something delicious.

It looks mighty fine, but it's definitely not edible.
It's a batch of freshly dyed, handspun yarn! The lovely, intense, orange colour was acheived by dyeing it twice. I was over-ambitious and tried to dye it before my first cup of coffee in the morning, and it ended up being a bit of a shitfuck. The colour came out nicely but not as intense, and I'd forgotten to tie the yarn up properly so it'd all gotten tangled up.
After I spent about 2 hours untangling it, I re-dyed it again, finally getting this awesome candy shade.


I've also been working on a secret project that will be unveiled soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

But now, it's Christmas Eve, and I have guests in the living room waiting for the party to start!