July 25, 2003
Children Can Be Very Useful!
I recently started reading the postings on the natural dyeing group on Yahoo. As I scanned down the list of subjects, I saw, as expected, “natural dyeing with mushrooms,” “natural dyeing with indigo,” “natural dyeing with cosmos,” “natural dyeing with calendula,” but I was brought up short when my eyes fell on “natural dyeing with children.” So, what part of a child do you suppose will give you the brightest, most lightfast dye?
Knitting Knews
Still struggling with the Navajo pottery design for my sock. I got a better "swirl" effect but it's based on a repeat of 34 stitches. 34 stitches = smaller-than-Lilliputian sock; 68 stitches = Bunyanesque sock. Argh! I'm determined to (a) have the pattern meet up along the "seam line" and (b) use some luscious pine green and terra cotta sport-weight yarn from my stash but getting the design and the stitch repeat and the strand-length limitations and the yarn weight and the gauge and the needle size to all cooperate is driving me completely barmy. K is encouraging me with great zeal but I suspect that's because she envisions a new pair of pine green and terra cotta Navajo-patterned socks in her sock drawer at the end of all this.
Dyeing Dyegest - A Milestone!
Last weekend I dyed with the first official dye garden flowers, the marigolds. Results: The 3-inch test piece I threw in (wet, this time; I remembered!) came out the most amazing burnt carrot color. But of course, that was a function of the ratio of a teensy piece of yarn to four cups of dye matter. The 1/2-ounce skein came out gold, not a honey brown like the alder and not the bright shrieking yellow of the dandelion, somewhere in between. While the color isn't particularly inspiring, it has a beautiful light metallic sheen, a first! The color on this yarn truly shimmers. More than once this weekend I found myself turning the ball of yarn around and around in my hands and staring at it fixedly and all aquiver, the way a cat stares at a flashlight spot on a wall.
