Silk scarves

Here are the three scarves I've made in the last couple of days. The red (Landscape 'Crab Apple') is actually a short row knit giving lovely curves, rosemary is a long scarf, knit diagonally (decrease one side, increase the other) and the onion skins is knit lengthwise with a stitch called 'Daisy Chain' (courtesy Vogue Knitting 'Stitchionary' Volume one) down the centre.

Off to Incube8tr this afternoon. More spinning!

Dyeing with Rosemary and Onion Skins

The 9"x5" Market is on again, this Sunday and I'm busy trying to make some silk scarves. A more luxurious item, that can, hopefully translate into either Summer scarves or Christmas presents.

As part of this project, I've tried some natural dyeing. The usual dyeing process involving Landscape dyes.

The first one I tried was with Rosemary. At first it was a bit disappointing and unfortunately difficult to photograph. The colour is a soft golden almost, but not quite, green. The colour you're supposed to achieve with Rosemary is a green. However, upon further reading of India Flint's 'Eco colour' I figure I should have harvested and chopped up the leaves, off the branches I trimmed, instead of just chucking in the whole lot as they came off the bush. I will try that next time.

The next dye I was really keen to use was Onion Skins. I have dyed with this at the Plant Craft Cottage in the Botanical Gardens and loved the colour this humble plant material provided. My local green grocer, generously provided me with a bag of onion skins. (It would have taken me months to collect a bagful!)

I wasn't disappointed. This beautiful, I don't want to say 'brown' as it doesn't convey the colour, Autumn leaf colour will knit into a beautiful scarf.

The process of dyeing is simple. I chose to use a more gentle method as suggested by India Flint, of bringing the dye material to a boil and then letting the pot brew. This worked very well with both materials and when I finally added the yarn as well. I simply bought the dyepot to the heat and then let it sit.

As these scarves are made from yarn which is both wool and silk, it is interesting how well the silk takes up the dye, to the detriment of the wool. To get a strong colour on the wool, I'm going to have to dye it separately. The natural dyes are noticeable, but the commercial red dye I used, really shows the difference.

There's so much to try.

Painting for Don's Party

I finished the painting for my friend and it's now hanging at the HTC Arts Space, ready for the opening of the play, 'Don's Party'.

It was quite a challenge and I still think I could have done something better...now I'm thinking it should have been more like the original...smaller copies rather than just one. More time may or may not have helped, I might have still just procrastinated.

I am glad I did get it done.

Fractal spinning

Yesterday was the meeting of the Experimental Spinners group at the HWSG. This meeting coincided with the Weaving Certificate class so we were surrounded by lots of colour and texture as they were working on their cram-weave scarves.

We were working on Fractal spinning, which was inspired by a skein called 'George' and two articles in the Summer 2007 issue of Spin-off.

Definition: A fractal is generally "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole, “a property called self-similarity. The term was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning "broken" or "fractured."
(http://www.wikipedia.org/ – search for ‘fractal’)

For the purposes of spinning, it is applied to multi-coloured tops where we split the top into ever smaller lengths. There are, of course, variations on the main idea, and these can also be applied to any series whether, tops, fleece or textures.

I chose these beautiful silk tops, of which I only had 10grams. Enough to finish in a short time. I split them down the middle and spun the first half as it came from the top. I did a little pulling apart to try and maintain some blocks of colour, but I wasn't very precise or finicky. This was my first bobbin.

The second bobbin, I split the remainder of the top and spun half, and, continued splitting in this way until I wasn't drafting when I was spinning. I managed to split it four times (five lengths). I wasn't sure of the result, as at times, the second bobbin seemed quite different, but then at the end I couldn't really tell them apart!

I then plied these two together to get a beautiful yarn, which is quite reflective of the original tops, but far more subtle. Unfortunately, my halves weren't exact and I had a little left over, so I Andean plied that off. Having scales on hand would have been good!

I now have a small 10gm skein of silk...but what to do with it?

Au revoir to Incube8r

This week is my last week at Incube8r. I'm quite sad about this as I really like the idea and how much thought, caring and energy have gone into the shop.

I'm not entirely leaving though, as I will continue to drop in to the shop and sit and spin on the occassional Saturday afternoon.

I hope to make a big effort for next winter and get back into the shop, depending on the ever growing waiting list.

I have put in some more 'cuffs' into the shop for a last fling. All red and black! I haven't really done very much with these. They were inspired by Bjork at the Big Day Out, if you remember, and have sold. They've been fun to make this week.

Times like this always make you think of what can be done. Really great results, require alot of time and energy to make things work. Trying to divide time between family, house, groups, and all sorts of other ventures does put a large dent in your time committment to any one area. For me, I've come to the conclusion, this is my reality for the moment. So progress is always going to be small and slow, but it is progress.

Oh No! More Socks

Yes, went to SnB with sock yarn in hand and needing a set of 2.25mm or 2.50mm needles. All set to go. The latest 'Yarn' magazine (yes it's out, though Woolybutt seems to have a very early copy), has two sock patterns in them and I thought I would try one out. Sounds like a good plan.

Poor Lorraine at Woolybutt, she was so embarrassed, having neither set. I didn't want to substitute needles any further, so I found another sock yarn that required a different sized needle and purchased that. I am going to do more than one sock, aren't I. So now I have a ball of Opal in the colour Neon, and a ball of Tofutsies, which includes Chitin (Shrimp and Crabshell) in a more sedate colour.

I did have problems though with the other pattern in Yarn, when it started from the toes. Couldn't figure it out so that it looked neat. I think that is one for a quieter time and a bit of research. The instructions were a bit on the light side and apart from how to wrap the yarn around the needle, didn't really help the novice. I suspect that there is an explanation in another issue.

Further problems - the pattern I did choose uses a more elastic yarn than I have, so it will be interesting to see if they stay up and fit.

Skeins at Incube8r

I finished these two skeins that were started at Country Conference, working at Incube8r on the weekend. That does sound sort of weird, but I did go in on both afternoons and sat there and spun. Talked to people and had an all round good time.


It was interesting packing up all my gear and trundling down Smith St. with a trolley, consisting of spinning wheel, assorted equipment and finished product. Not quite a bag lady yet. Saturday was quite busy with one sale and hopefully a new person keen to join Experimental spinning.

Sunday was quieter, but a friend dropped in which made for a pleasant break, and, I was able to get both skeins finished.....just....I'd forgotton the shopped closed right on 4pm on a Sunday. Fortunately, a late rush of shoppers didn't make me look too bad!

Both skeins worked out well, but the puff yarn was definitely my favourite. This was the new yarn I learnt at Country Conference and I really like the effect. Add in that you seem to get quite good meterage for such a textured yarn, I'll definitely be doing this again!

The other is a slubby yarn, knot plied then plied to balance. The last orange binder, is perhaps a bit too orange and the yarn is a bit busy. I do love the slubs, which were created with a new technique.

Definitely, an interesting weekend, but far too busy.

PS. Welcome Spring