Deb on the Web

Black Sheep Gathering--Sunday

Wow, what a day!  I was terrible at getting a lot of photos as I walked around.  I was too busy petting and oogling at all the goods.  I have been some years where I don't see anything that interests me.  This year I wanted it all!  As I was unpacking this I thought maybe everything I looked at had jumped in.  I have to admit that a couple more trips to the car were made before I was finished.  The one stall I did remember to take a photo was at Crown Mountain Farms.  Now I had planned to spend most of my budget between here and the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth, but when Claus told me that I was there biggest customer of the weekend--yikes!  Here are photos of the CMF loot-Yum is all I can say about all this!  CMF orangey goodness is silk/merino (will be for sale on the site soon), their traditional roving in blues and browns (I have wanted to order this for a while) and Decendra Designs merino, silk and bunny in the Lucien colorway.  Sock Hop Yarn!  I am so happy to have scored this.  I am blogging away from home right now (still with cable problems) and didn't make a list of names.  I will amend this soon.  Part of the reason these were being sold at BSG and not on the site was that each skein was spun by a different lady.  I don't care that my feet won't completely match color wise.  They are all spun at the same rate.  I am hoping to start on these soon.  This little project was not on the mental shopping list, but watching Teyani spin away I had to have a go-- The wrist distaff is beautiful and I chose a nice heavy spindle.  I read the book this morning and am ready to give it a go.  I just love the reds in this CMF corredale pencil roving.
Here is unexpected highlight of the day.  Naturally dyed roving from Stick and Stone.  Margarete gave a talk about her process with using natural dyes and I was hooked.  Although I've taken a class she had different ideas that I really liked and she uses some different dyes (which she sells).  On top of the roving I came away with a few dyes and premordants.  One of the dyes is Saxon Blue--indigo with an acid (I am drawing a blank as to which one).  It can't be shipped so she only sells in person where she can make eye contact to make sure you know how to handle it.  I think I did drive a little more carefully on the way home.  Margarete also added the mentoring offer.  I'll be calling when I can't read my notes or to ask how she came up with various colors.  If you are a customer she is more than happy to share recipes.  She really feels that when you have the basics you come up with your own process.  I'm ready with everything except a space.  Working on that though!
BMFA booth?  Well I need something to show tomorrow don't I....

The anniversary--We got up and went out for a nice breakfast before I left for Eugene.  When I returned we went through all the goodies and then headed out to dinner.  DH had made reservations at one of our favorite fancy places in town.  Not that you can't just go eat in the bar in a pair of jeans.  But when we want to get a little dressed up this where we usually end up.  Had a great dinner that included razor clams--my favorite and some great champagne.  We came home totally stuffed and watched a very crazy depressing movie--loved it, but maybe not anniversary material.
Until tomorrow...

Color

I was stirring a pot of tomato rice soup on Fat Tuesday (a Venetian soup for Carnivale) and thinking about color.  I really tend to choose my recipes or create desserts based on the appeal of the color.  I find this strange since I will eat anything based on taste and aroma.  But when I cook for others I always look for vibrant, healthy or warming colors.  To me the juicy glissening of meat is a very appetizing color.
When I my thoughts moved over to color in knitting I realized my thoughts work somewhat the same.  The most important part of the yarn to me is what it feels like to work with.  The color is somewhat secondary and is often chosen based on what it will go with in my wardrobe, how others will perceive it or because of the person I'm making a project for.

It has been interested to look at my finished products from the dye class.  Here are my samples from the first week of dye class .  I really didn't like most of them.  They really weren't me and I couldn't see using these colors in combination.  Since this was a new experience I hadn't thought ahead about actual colors I wanted to create.  I was busy thinking about the whole process of it.  It was like cooking for me.
Week two I started to think about what I would use this yarn for Socks (specifically knee socks) and scarves (multi directional scarf) mainly.  I decided I didn't want to think of creating one big project as I wanted to use several different dye vats and techniques.  I loved the effect I got from dipping a whole hank in logwood gray before redipping different parts of the hank into logwood purple, cochineal, fustic and a blend of the latter two.  I brought a tin of saffron from the restaurant and we all got some brilliant colors of golds and yellow from that.  I did very little dyeing with the indigo pot during this class.  My biggest experiment was to immerse a hank of yarn in Barbera wine. I left the yarn in for two hours and when I took it out it had soaked up all the pigment but was splotchy with a little purple it places.  Mostly it was gray.  I should say that all this yarn was premordanted with alum and cream of tartar.  I decided not to rinse the yarn but just let it dry for a week.
The last class I brought some hand spun I purchased from Sudan farm a couple years ago.  I realized after the purchase I hadn't bought enough to knit the vest I had planned so it has just sat waiting for a project.  This went into the indigo pot.  I got the idea of having a worn denim look.  So I dipped it all and then went back and soaked only a portion of each hank for a while longer.  I really like the variegation.  I am going to get another skein of natural to add in for a little color work vest.
Back to the wine project.  I took another couple of bottles (thank goodness for wholesale!) and put the wine back in the tub.  I ended up taking the tub home and letting it sit for 3 days.  I decided to put it in an iron bath after for a short time to really set a rich color (wine is a stain not a dye).  After rinsing and drying I do have a rich colored yarn...slate gray...I love it, but it isn't what I expected.  I have talked to a couple of Oregon wine makers and they think the color definition has to do with the PH of the metal salts I'm using.  This will be an on going process.
The final products on other yarns dyed-- I did try spot dying some fiber and found that it didn't take as well after steaming.  I think I would prefer chemical dyes for this method.  This is all dyed with vegetable matter folks!!  I was amazed at the richness in color.  I don't know why since I just visited the Medievil museum in Paris and saw the beautiful unicorn tapestries that were hand dyed hundreds of years ago.
I am also becoming interested in the therapeutic uses of herb dyed yarns and fabric.  But that is an entirely different post.
I end this post in saying that I love color!  I am just starting to realize that what I enjoy for myself is not always what I think the general public might enjoy.  My favorite of these colors?  #1  and a dessert that I made last weekend but really didn't sell--a red potato and almond creme caramel.  Oh well, good thing I love to make people happy as well;)

Future Activities

Living in an apartment just isn't condusive to the dying process.  Everything in our kitchen is just slightly under sized.  So when we bought the farm I started having dreams of a dye room set up in the barn.  Of course we still need to put the barn back together a bit:)
But in the mean time I did start several dye herb plants last year and I have read several books about dying with wild plants and mushrooms (we have a lot).  I just wanted to post this link to that future self for when I'm ready.