In Progress

::Projects on our work table or needles.

Laura's projects

Just in time for very cold weather, I finished my new hat. 

All I've gotten around to doing on the Tova dress is cut it out-did you know canned tomatoes make great pattern weights?

So nice to get started on my Spindrift sweater:

Katie's projects

Laura's putting me to shame. I don't have much work in progress to show. I am working on finally, finally getting the collection of knitted and felted cozies together. 

There are eleven sizes all together and it's been fun to return to typing up patterns and doing pattern math now that the book work is done. It feels good to be doing this work again. I locked myself out of my house yesterday and so spent the day with Laura at her house. We worked together to hand-felt all the cozies and my knitting mojo must be spot-on because they all fit their intended jars or bottles perfectly. I'm very pleased with them and planning to send the pattern for technical editing this week. 

But hm, is that really it? I did finish my Rikke hat this week, but it grew and grew upon washing, rendering it unwearable. I'm hoping a run through the washer and dryer will tighten up the superwash yarn. Apparently I need to bust a major knitting move and get some more projects going if I'm going to keep up with Laura's knitting productivity, her Spindrift is already enviable and it's just a few inches... Maybe I should try to catch up with her? We'll see.

Local Color 2

In my last dyeing post I shared the beginning of an experimental dye bath made of clay-rich soil. Unexpectedly, the result of dying/staining fabric with our soil was very subtle:

After letting the fabric soak in the slurry for a couple of days, I rinsed it thoroughly-and was surprised by how little color remained. I'm guessing we don't have as much clay in our soil as I thought we did. (Bad for dyeing, but great for gardening!) My boys and I then collected some different clays revealed when we had grading done. We rubbed pastes of these clays into the fabric:

None of these other clays worked much better than the initial soil. We also used bits of charred wood from our brush pile to make marks on the fabric-as you can see, these were more successful, and I'd like to explore that more in the future. (I know from past experience that you can very successfully stain fabric with pure earth based pigments like red or yellow iron oxide...we just don't have any here on our place...)

My second bath is lichens:

We have an area in our woods that has plentiful lichen-it is easy to collect a bunch without having to worry about over-harvesting. I found the simplest way to collect it is to scour the ground as you walk-big clumps fall out of the top most tree branches. As per Eileen Bolton's book, Lichens for Vegetable Dyeing, I dried the lichen (90 grams-or 4 packed cups) then ground it into fine pieces before adding water to it. I brought the dye pot to a simmer and let it cook for 2 hours. I then took it off the heat and without straining out the lichen, set it aside for a couple of days. I have found this an effective way to extract more color. I then introduced damp mordanted wool, and brought the pot to a simmer-for about 2 hours. At this point the fabric had color and the dye bath did not, so I knew the bath was exhausted:

When dry the fabric lightens up:

Glad to get a bit of color!

I have a delightfully funky experiment in the works with another batch of lichen-I'll have wait a few more weeks to share it:

Tangents

::Tangents is the collection spot for the things we're thinking about, obsessively researching, and doing at home and on the web.

Laura's Tangents:

I'm enjoying indoor gardening lately-growing micro greens on windowsills. Instead of buying bags of seed starting mix, I used the directions in The New Seed Starters Handbook, to sterilize (well moistened) finished compost by baking it in the oven. Hoping this will prevent damping off/weed seeds...

We got a bunch of work done on our roof today. The view from up there is pretty nice:

I love how you can see the boys' bedrooms taking shape:

Hoping to start on a Tova top for myself this week, oh and I also have a new knitting project underway-Spindrift by Cecily Glowik MacDonald.

 

Katie's Tangents:

January is really the best time to make garden plans, isn't it? I've been having fun putting together a Pinterest board that contains ideas I'd like to maybe incorporate into the hardscaping of my yard. I'd like to make our home feel more connected to our yard and surrounding landscape, and am excited to work more on that this Spring. 

I've been cooking a lot lately and am enjoying the book Salad for Dinner. I'm also intrigued by the author's newest book, Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: A Backyard Garden-to-Table Cookbook - doesn't that look like an inspiring read? 

One more cooking thing- One of my favorite cooking blogs is Eating from the Ground Up and I'm excited to try her Mustard Caviar recipe- I'm hoping to mix it up today. 

In Progress

::Projects on our work table or needles.

Katie's projects

I'm working on a new design- a small embellished clutch. The idea for chunky, colorful cross stitch on knitting has been in my head for a while so it's fun to finally be able to try it out.  So far, I like it.

And it's also the first time I used this super-tricky method of applying a zipper to knits. It worked amazingly well- still a bit fussy, but so much better than sewing.

The clutch also includes a tassel and pompom zipper pull, 

As you may have guessed by now, I'm aiming for a colorful, bohemian, more-is-more aesthetic. Next up is a small change purse with an all-over cross stitch design and a larger clutch that will combine knitting and leather. It's so fun to work on something simple, new and colorful! 

Laura's projects

My first ever sock is back to this point...It got underway so auspiciously, but when it was big enough to try on it was way too big...Being able to try on the sock part way through? Reason enough to make toe-up socks, I say. 

I love my little beret, but it doesn't really keep my ears warm. Copying Katie I started a Rikke hat-she suggested knitting it flat since it is all garter stitch:

After setting it aside for weeks, I finally finished Isaac's little hooded vest! I used this pattern, altering it by picking up stitches for the placket and making it ribbed, and this project as a hood starting point....Now all I need to do is use Katie's tutorial to make a couple of buttons!

Local color 1

As my rainbow project came to it's natural end, I mulled over ideas for a new year long endeavor. I wanted to somehow continue my focused study of the land we live on. It has been ages since I did any natural dyeing, and since having found my favorite dye stuffs, even longer since I experimented with new and different dye materials. I happen to have a lovely big piece of PFD (prepared for dyeing) wool yardage from testfabrics to work with:

I mordanted several 1/4 yard pieces with alum following the directions in J.N. Liles book:

Finding anything to dye with in the winter might seem daunting, but just as I was able to find plenty of stuff for my rainbow project, there are surprisingly many options around. Years ago I took a bogolanfini workshop which explored the possibilities of mark making and coloring fabric with soil and clay. Upon setting out to dye fabric once a week, all year long with different plants growing on our 20 acres, what better way to begin than with the (clay rich) soil under everything?

I made a slurry of soil and water and then:

I heated this mess to a simmer, took it off the heat and am going to let it sit awhile. I'll share the result of this dye bath and the starting of another next week. Looking forward to another color filled year!