Monday 12 April 2010

Still here... but very busy!

I haven't had much time to knit nor write lately.

This is because I've been:
experimenting with natural dyes (here in silk yarns)
dyeing wool with indigo...


embroidering...
and spinning!

Here are some samples of the colours I dyed (with natural substances):
cottons (fabric)
and yarns(wool)

So far I've used English Madder, Indigo, Logwood, Alkanet, Turmeric (I'm pleased with these) and Annatto, Golden Rod, Heather, Safflower, Marigold (nothing to write home about... OK if you like very pale shades). I've got some Ivy marinating and my next experiments will be Weld, Cochineal and a couple more I'm waiting to receive on the post... Pictures coming as soon as I've got some results.

I have also got some acid dyes and I intend to dye some silk skeins... and combine them with my homespun wool (blue faced Leicester and merino). I'm also waiting for some interesting fibres: milk protein, corn, ingeo and bamboo...

Some of the work I'm doing is for course assignments (embroidery), and I hope at the end all of it will count towards it. I'm certainly learning lots and I'm having such a great time!

At the moment all my 'insights' are being jotted down in bits of paper here and there... once the frantic activity and experimenting subsides I will put all my thoughts down on 'keyboard and blog'.

The natural dyeing is very interesting as I'm building a catalogue of colours and even though I think some substances are pretty much 'non-events' I'm still learning and find this to be valuable as I never know when I'm going to need soft shades. At the moment I do prefer darker and more saturated colour.

I'm hoping to go back to part-time work in May, so I will have more time to do what I love as right now I'm only dyeing/spinning/working on the course/knitting at weekends... I'm feeling tired but happy and with lots of ideas simmering.

I'm also looking forward to the chapter in colour. I still have to do a piece or two for Stage 6 of Assignment 1. I've looked through my art books and there are a couple of lesser known Klimt portraits I really like for textures and colours, however when I photocopied them for the scrap/course book, the colours came up all wrong! I have printed them from the internet but I'm still not happy with the colours I've got. I think I will work from the book's images and just use the print-outs to refer to (noting that those are not the colours I'm aiming for.) I've selected some scraps of fabric, ribbons, buttons and yarns for this exercise and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in ;-) ...and I'm waiting for more colours to arrive to add some of my 'creation yarns' to the exercise.

PS: I didn't dye a single egg this Easter!

More shortly. Bye for now.