1. Yarn dyeing paraphanalia 2. Ivy dye bath with yarn 3. Yarn dyed with ivy, virginia creeper, virginia creeper with iron added, and red clover 4. Frazier! 5. Afternoon tea and knitting 6. Ivy & Virgina Creeper dyebaths 7. Bankhead crew 8. Albinistic hooded warbler we caught a couple days ago
5 comments:
That yarn is Gorgeous. How long do you have to leave it in the die to get those colors? Do you have plans for it yet? And what are you (?) working on with the fabric yarn on the chair in the picture? Did you get the trailers out at Bankhead yet?
And, what makes a bird albinistic but not albino?!
I need answers!! p.s. Frazier is adorable as usual. Say hi for me.
Molly,
Glad to hear from you. The whole dyeing process is quite long... but we have lots of free time out at Bankhead, as you know. You have to mordant the yarn (you soak it in a solution of alum, cream of tarter & water). Mordanting helps the dye to be more colorfast and allows for more dye to be taken up by the yarn. You have to simmer the yarn in the solution for an hour and then let it cool. The same for the plant material - you have to simmer it in water for an hour or more, depending on how well the dye comes out of the plant, and then let it cool. Then you pour off the dye and discard the plant material. Then you simmer the yarn in the dye for an hour or so until the yarn turns the color you want. Those are the guidelines, but it seems like every plant works a little different. The yarns I showed were just little samples we made to test out the colors. We didn't want to waste a whole skein of yarn on an ugly color. I dyed one skein of wool & Rachel dyed one skein of cotton, but they weren't finished drying when I left yesterday, so I didn't take an pictures.
In the other picture I am working on my skirt. I am actually finished knitting it. I had EXACTLY enough yarn to knit it and now I don't have any left to sew it together, so I am not sure what I am going to do to sew it together. I don't want to buy a whole skein of yarn just to sew it together. But, as soon as I get it figured out, I'll post lots of pictures about it.
Ahh.. the trailers. Yes, they are there. But I was told yesterday by Allison that we probably won't be able to use them at all this year. It has to do something with legal something or other. I don't really understand, but they have to have documents to let us use them & they have to go through a bunch of stuff in order to find them a permenant home, clear trees for a place for them to go, etc. and most likely that won't happen this summer. HUGE disappointment. I'm actually pretty pissed about it.
And, as far as albinistic birds - its just that it has some feathers that are white, but the whole bird isn't. You can see the white wing feathers & also on the back of the bird's 'neck' at the edge of the hood, there are light yellow feathers. That would not normally be there. It would just be the same olivey-green color as its back.
And yes, of course Frazier is adorable.
This may be the longest comment in history.
That totally sucks about the trailers...what a bunch of government red tape (I think I just sounded like my Dad).
About sewing up, I read somewhere that you could use embroidery floss. It is much cheaper and the advice I read said that if you choose a similar color, then you can't even tell.
jill... Yeah, I could tell you were knitting the skirt in that photo, i meant in the picture of the bankhead gang, there looks like torn fabric balls (like we got at that vintage store!?) on the chair in the foreground. Whats that?
THat process does sound pretty extensive, but a good distraction for you guys. Hopefully your dyed skeins work out well... we want pictures as soon as they are finished! I can't believe you're practically done with the skirt already! Let me know if it fits well with the alterations you made... I am dreading dealing with that when i finally finish the lace... but hopefully soon.
The deal with the trailers sucks! I can't believe they could actually take an entire year to just get through some stupid paperwork or something, with them right there and you guys still sleeping on teh ground. Boo.
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