Autumn beanie

autumnbeanie Someone pointed out that this could very well be the colours of a hitherto-unknown footie team. Better not wear it down the Port, then. Or to a quidditch match.

It was actually a thank-you for the many kilos of dahlia flowers mentioned in a previous post. I had some balls from a grey, crossbreed fleece spun many moons ago that had already made one serviceable beanie, so I decided to put the rest of that part of the never-decreasing stash to good use.

The yarn was over-dyed with dahlia flowers (orange) modified with bicarb, and dried Tagetes minuta tops. I think I prefer these particular colours on white yarn, but after the workshop surprises, I might just do my next lot of natural dyeing at the Guild. There’s magic in them there pipes…

Natural dyeing workshop

After spending some weeks deciding on what exactly we were going to dye with, and then worrying on more than one occasion that the dyes weren’t going to p

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erform, last Saturday’s workshop was full of pleasant surprises…

There were seven participants, all friendly and enthusiastic, and all with interesting tales, information and tips to add to the proceedings. The dyes used were (from bottom to top): hawthorn berries, brown onion skins, red onion skins, Tagetes minuta, dahlia flowers, Tagetes lemonii (dried flowers/heads), Eucalyptus cinerea, E. incognita (yep!) and betel nuts.

I didn’t have time to follow Jenny Dean’s recipe (in Wild Colour) for the haws, so boiled up some leaves and twigs for about 40 minutes to get as much tannin in to the dyepot, then added about a kilo of berries and simmered for three-quarters of an hour, then left overnight. This mixture was strained and reheated for the dyeing experiment. They turned the woolen yarn a shade of light brown that I’d never had before, so that’s one for future ref.

onionsall

The onion skins were amazing! (right to left: brown onions, red onions, Tagetes lemonii). Even though we used a scant 50% wof, the brown ones dyed a deep copper, while the red ones (close-up below) came out dark, khaki green; the unmordanted ties were lime green, and both without trying. Could it have been the copper pipes at the Guild?

A smaller quantity of dahlia heads than I would have liked gave such a deep colour, and onions2red when we dipped half (or more) of the skein back in the liquor with bicarb added, well, even better.

I was concerned that as the tagetes flowers were dry, they’d give muted shades of old gold. Lemonmii gave such a deep sunshine gold that at first I thought it was the brown onions, and the minuta heads could have been fresh – the brightness and intensity of the resulting colour is still a source of amazement.

E. cinerea performed to its usual standard, while the other (maybe a type of peppermint gum?) gave a very pale yellow. Still a good shade to have in the line-up.

The betel nuts? These gave a deeper brown than I’ve ever managed before. None of the pinkish hue, mind. They were, as last time, soaked in water and bicarb for a couple of days.

All in all a successful run of experiments and a great bunch of people to work with!

Spinning the Tukidale I

This is definitely a fleece that prefers combing, and spinning from the bottom of the staple in the grease. Flicki spinning tukidale ng didn’t work, as at the bottom end there are a lot of shorter, finer fibres. With combing, I was able to remove these and set them aside to see what they spin up like. I’ll probably scour them and then put them through the wool combs.

I did scour a couple of lots of uncombed staples prior to spinning, but due to the high micron count, leaving the grease in is kinder on the hands (and everything else). I have yet to decide how to tackle these.

Back to the combed staples. The longer fibres were e tukidaleII asy to manage, and quick to spin and ply. The resulting yarn is quite pleasing for a first attempt – definitely too coarse for much other than a carpet, but still with a degree of softness. After scouring the skein, it came out whiter than white. I look forward to seeing how well it takes dye.

The next step is to spin some singles for warp. As the total fleece weight was 2.7Kg, there should be enough to experiment with.

Tukidale

Tukidale is just one of the many sheep breeds I’d read about in The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook – a publication that should come with an addiction-warning. After some research into which interesting fibres I could either find locally or import legally, I was amazed to find there is a Tukidale breeder in South Australia. Not only that, but less than 10km from home.

I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to try a “carpet wool” for myself, and perhaps introduce it to fellow Guild members. There must be some interest in a hard-wearing yarn for bags, rugs, tapestries, etc?

A short drive along one of those winding, Hills roads (a careful-what-you-have-for-breakfast-and-don’t-read-anything-if-you’re-a-passenger road) I was lucky enough to get the last fleece they had, although could have waited (eagerly) until the next shearing in September. I also learnt heaps about the breed in a very short time.

With long staples, minimal dirt and a large micron, this should be easy to clean. Spinning will be another matter; there doesn’t seem to be any information online about this particular breed, although some pictures of Scottish Blackface appear similar. Just have to get on and spin some…

Pomegranate II

Where does all the red go from the peel? Having been more successful with the betel nuts after an alkaline soak, I decided to try with pomegranates. A fair amount of peel was dried off in the food drier; it’s getting cooler and damp at the moment, so I wanted to avoid the harvest going mouldy.

A jam jar was filled to about a third of the way up with dried peel broken into small pieces, then water was added to within an inch from the top (to allow for bubbling, etc.) and then a good spoonful of bicarb. The colour came out shyly over the first few hours, but after a whil cotton e and with a bit of stirring….. treacle.

What with a host of other projects on the go, I actually forgot about this for a day, and couldn’t do anything until the third day anyway. A small skein of scoured cotton was added to liquor in a larger jar and left for a day (or two?). For the sake of speed, I gave the skein a wash in laundry powder (which made it go darker at first), then rinsed until clear. You can see that it produced quite an acceptable colour. skein

I didn’t want to leave wool soaking for so long in the liquor – pH10 – but then tossed between an alkaline soak and an alkaline boil and which would be the most damaging. Boil it was – for about twenty minutes. The colour isn’t all that bad, but the damage caused doesn’t really make the risk worthwhile. Maybe like a home perm.