Dyeing discoveries, again

One of the great things about natural dyeing is that you get surprises and discoveries all the time.

So, I overdyed the linen for the tray cloths and napkins with a mixture of turmeric and yellow onionskins.

Then I thought I might dip dye them using a lily flower from the birthday bouquet and some pomegranate rinds I had in the freezer.

You'd expect a pinkish yellow, maybe

But I have enough experience not to assume anything. I did check this lovely book, which I hugely recommend if you fancy a bit of dyeing, Sasha Duerr's book

And they mention on the pomegranate page that it's not only a dye material, it's also a mordant, meaning it should attach pretty well to your fabric. And you can influence the color by adding alum and washing soda, both well known mordants, too, so I added them to the dyebath.

And got a positive explosion of yellow foam, which turned a lovely warm olive green in the dyebath, paler on fabric.

Here's the fine once-white cotton I drained it through.  Very delicate shade.  The dye looks brown here, oddly, because the camera's picking up underlying shades. It's green to the eye.

So fine, this is so much more interesting than synthetic dyes which come out the color on the packet, fine if you like it, but I fancied something else.

And I set up a dipdyeing station, and hung two pieces of the dyed fabric so just the ends trailed in the dye, and left them that way for a couple of hours.

Those cabinet doors have assisted in many a yarn and fabric dyeing session.

I knew the olive would not register like a solid color, but break into many shades, very few of which my camera can pick up, but subtle and very pleasing in person.

There are areas of pink, and the browns from the black walnut dye now have a pink cast. It's just very nice to handle.

One set of tray cloth and two napkins I left as is, and the other set I stamped, with a hand carved block and a commercially made bird.

I also made a set which I didn't dye, just cut and stitched to size.

Another advantage of designing your own fabric is that you don't have to work around the designs to get what you want. You just make the item then dye and stamp so the color and stamping is already where you want it to be. 

The shades and shapes are subtle to the point of imperceptible to eyes used to solid color commercial dyeing. You have to get tuned in!

This was a lot of fun. 

I did have motivation to get right on this, since last night I found that the convent where I learned goldwork embroidery with the Guild, and to whom I owe hundreds of hours of joy and exhibits and sales,  and where I took part in a Zoom centering prayer group, anyway, they have a knitting ministry.

The little community of Anglican sisters, which is very much focused on hands on social activism, knits in their recreation periods and gives the output directly to homeless people locally and in their New York city outreach.

Yesterday I found from their newsletter that in the whole group there's only one sock knitter.  So I wrote and said this just isn't right! They've been donated a lot of sock yarn and their sockly needs are pressing.

As of this morning they'd got back to me, very excited, agreed that socks are a continuing need. Sooooo they're sending me a batch of yarn, and I'll do a bit of ministry. 

They're not of my religion, not relevant when there's a need which they're handling in person. So, exciting new year project, and I cleared the decks a bit in anticipation.

Particularly important to have community ties this winter with the pandemic back up to speed -- again my state's a hotspot, after doing very well, isolation back again for me.  So this helps everyone.

And I had been considering whether to push on with my proposed exhibit of art dolls and stitching at the library. I'd pretty much concluded there was no point in setting up a textile/ abstract doll exhibit if nobody was going to see it, and it can wait.

I went to pick up books there this morning and found they've already closed to the public, and they brought my books to the door. So that confirms it, I guess.

Meanwhile, in the course of finding the natural dyeing book, I came across these dried flowers. 

They're too fragile to use in an artwork, so I made this image, which I can print out on silk organza and use that in an artwork. Waste nothing!

Christmas Eve Eve

Today's Christmas prep consists of taking the apricot sauce out of the freezer for Christmas dinner, and some of the cod out for Christmas Eve dinner. That's it.

I'm reading a couple of interesting books, both nonfiction, this one about how birds acquired their names. The title refers to a bird an ornithologist named for his ornithologist wife!  

The prose is very readable, even the introduction is interesting, but the font is holding me up, a bit small. 

Bird names originate all over, often the folk names which preceded the official ornithologist ones still hanging on despite all efforts to insist on the correct taxonomy. Some, such as goose, are so old we don't know the origin, other than speculating it's Indo-European, very old. 

And then the pilgrims arriving in New England, with no knowiedge at all, naming birds because they reminded them of European species. 

Hence the burly American robin, a completely different species from the tiny European robin redbreast. If you love this kind of thing you'll love this book.

And here's another lovely thoughtful one, part sewing instructions, part memoir, part illness journey, part musing on body image, arranged by season.. 

The photography, much of it her own,  is wonderful, pictures of projects and tools and fabrics, worth seeing even if you don't sew and really don't want to. She also has some intriguing thoughts about the therapeutic value of making in general, sewing in particular.

Behind Sanae Ishida, waiting in the wings,  is the  2022  Making calendar she illustrated, which is how I found her, a gift from dear C. 

You'll see more of it when the New Year gets here.  It's a series of animals and their arts, one each per month, lovely illustrations. 

I seem to have picked up Handsome Partner's Scottish New Year inhibition against studying the calendar before the New Year comes in!  

The number of Scottish traditions he followed.. he also had a wicked sense of humor, and it wouldn't surprise me if he made some of them up. 

His lifelong sorrow was that, as a redhead,  he couldn't first-foot our house -- be the first person over the threshold after midnight, bringing fuel (lump of coal) and food (bread or cake) and good cheer (Scotch), to be greeted with a kiss by the woman of the house. 

That's because only a dark haired male can do it. Our dark haired son was the official first footer, once he was old enough to stay awake.

Back to the present and the passage of time. I've been gradually moving spent flowers from the birthday bouquet, most of which is still going strong, either to press or to add to the dried flowers.

I have a little group of air plant, statice, and spent roses, the last from the bouquet, and yesterday I was just moving another rose into the arrangement when it exploded, making a lovely still life on the hearth, thereby illustrating exactly what I was doing.

Collaborative art.

And yesterday,  friend/ artist/contractor Mike, who designed and installed my mantelpiece and my library table as well as my deck and various great things around here, stopped over for a visit.

Bringing his homemade peppermint chocolate bark for Christmas. He's a great cook, baker and candy maker and we had a good catch-up before he, wife Dana and dogs, drive to Florida to spend Christmas with their Disney employee daughter.  

He gave me an animal update too. I knew their old Jack Russell died last year aged 19, leaving the middle aged Westie alone. So they now have a whirling dervish puppy of a Cavalier King Charles terrier, black and tan, who is leading them all a merry dance. His wife has been wanting a CKC for years. 

Brief health update around here: new med added in to address the blood pressure issue. So I got all my errands done, since I start on it today, and need to observe how I handle it. Hoping for no drama. No driving, just in case.

It's a good feeling to be all caught up, cleaners here last week, laundry done, food organized,  few cards mailed, just take walks and generally loaf about now. Wheeee!!