Immersion Dyeing With Osage Orange Sawdust; Newlywed Gloves Story; On Winding A Round Ball; Leslie's Moebius Scarf; Jofran's Northern Lights

Newlywed Handknit Gloves

Somewhere within the first year or so of my marriage, I had the notion that I would make Chris superb, 100% wool, handknit gloves. Chris was and is a dapper dresser and I felt he would surely love classic, finely knit gloves. I had never knit gloves before and the thought of bestowing such a gift to Chris thrilled me.

I chose a glove pattern from an old knitting pamphlet, 50’s vintage, which required a multi-plied fingering yarn. In the Detroit of the early 80’s one would be hard-pressed to find an open yarn store, let alone one which sold the wool fingering yarn I envisioned. However, cross the Detroit River via tunnel or bridge, and a knitter would find herself in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, a quaint little town, complete with it’s own old-fashioned yarn shop.

I spied gray wool fingering in the Canadian knit shop that fit the glove’s pattern requirement and went away with enough balls of yarn to complete the project. The gloves were to be a secret present, but since Chris generally left me to my own knitting devices, asking nary a question of what I was embarking on, I was safe to work even in front of his nose.

The pattern’s stitch gauge was about 9 stitches to 1 inch, a somewhat daunting gauge for a novice knitter, and the pattern itself was a seed stitch variation. It took me weeks to complete the gloves on wire-ishly thin needles. Once completed, lovingly blocked and dried, I presented the gloves to Chris.

He was impressed and very touched. I patted myself on the back and silently proclaimed, “Job well done!”

Only a few days later Detroit experienced one of its ice and snow storms. When Chris came home from work he sheepishly showed me his gloves, with most of the fingers and the palm torn to shreds. “What on earth…?” I exclaimed in horror. “I didn’t have an ice scraper in my car and unwittingly used my gloved hands to remove the ice from the windshield,” sighed Chris.

I never, to this day, knit Chris a pair of gloves again.

Above is a pic of Chris and our David, oldest of the spider, snapped around the time the glove story took place. Yes, we finally got our new copier/printer/scanner, making the above pic possible to show you.

Hiccup. Easter and Passover have come and gone but I've caught a few moments of celebration below.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you'll know I'm a tried and true potato freak. I have memories of my Grandma Proehl making potato pancakes in our kitchen when I was about 7, living on the east side of Detroit. Above you'll find some of my own '09 potato latkes, made from a recipe that cuts down on the oil and fat. Pure bliss. Please do e-mail me if you want the recipe. Mind you, making latkes is tedious work in the extreme, but well worth it!

Some of you may have noted from past posts that I've been baking quite a bit. I wanted to make hot cross buns for the first time in my life, being extremely drawn to the fruity dough, topped with delicious icing...but...I was afraid to try the yeast version. I have no idea why. I'm STILL fearful even after my bread baking foray with Librarian Leslie. Leslie says we simply need another session of bread making in order to conquer my fear, in her kitchen this time. I DID, however, make hot cross muffins, requiring no yeast nor kneading. They were pretty good, if I say so myself.

Kind reader of this blog, Terri, has been ever so encouraging as I travel the bread baking path and recently e-mailed me the following:
I don't know if this applies in your case, but I think a lot of people are intimidated by yeast breads because yeast is a living organism, which introduces a few extra variables. Since I know you're also a gardener, I'll use a gardening analogy for you. When you plant your potatoes, there are all these steps you need to do before and during the process. For example, you'll pick the right spot in the garden, prepare the soil, amending / adding as necessary, etc. Then you have to water, weed, etc. depending on the weather or other variables, the crop will come in earlier or later. By now, you know exactly what to do in order to get your potato crop (barring freak weather or a horde of hungry critters :) ). Yeast breads are similar. You go through all of these steps to get your dough ready. But if your kitchen is hotter or colder, or if your yeast is not as active, etc., it will take longer/ shorter before your bread rises and is ready to bake. As with anything, there's also a learning curve--what do they mean by "knead"? How do I know if I've kneaded the dough long enough? How can I tell that the dough has doubled/ etc. in size? Etc. You're lucky to have a friend like Leslie to walk you through the process, so you can see/ touch/ experience what the process is supposed to be like. With a few more bread baking sessions, I'm sure that you'll soon be an expert yourself!
Thank you, Terri, for all your welcome reassurance!

Hiccup. More Easter memories...
Chris and I scooted over to our Alexander's newly acquired apartment on the night before Easter. While I prepared our fave spinach pie for supper, Chris, Alex, and Alex's friends, Gus and Dave, kept themselves busy. See this past post for our spinach pie recipe: Rose and Leaf Tam; Deborah Newton's Sleigh-Ride Gloves; Bulky Spinning Tips; Ravelry; The Spinning Loft; And Hand Exercises for Spinners.

Gus did so by cooking up some duck eggs he brought and eating them. Gus said duck eggs are kinda rubbery. What's been your experience with them, readers? Do you like them?

A few marshmallow-ey Peeps were devoured. Alex was on the phone for awhile...rather rude if you ask me. And Dave expertly helped color some hardboils for our egg-tapping tradition. To see more about our Greek egg-tapping tradition, see the past post: Striated Blending Using Mini Combs; Slubs On Purpose; EZ's Hand To Hand Pullover; Funky Faroese Socks; Leslie's Half-Gloves; and 3 Fiberish Stories.

Hiccup. Now the following pics have nothing really to do with any holidays, but still relate to food. Good food. Well, I suppose that depends on your tastes. As for me, I was introduced not long ago to "green smoothies." I had no idea that there were MANY people drinking green smoothies all over the world. Just Google "green smoothie" to see for yourself and to find interesting recipes. What is it? Well, simply put it makes use of any leafy green such as chard, mustard, kale, spinach, etc. And to that you add fruit(s). And to that you add some water. Put a few (or several even) green leaves, cut up fruit, and a cup or more of water (depending on how much smoothie you want) into a blender. Whiz it all up 'til smooth. Ta da. Sound icky? It's NOT, believe me it's not. And it's packed with vitamins. Try one and share your recipe, please.

Here's a green smoothie of frozen blueberries, kale leaves (I cut out the stems in this case but I suppose you can leave them in), and water.

Perhaps it doesn't look pretty, but it's tasty and oh-so-excellent for you.

Hiccup. The Lunar Ladies had what turned out to be a most magickal day a few weeks ago. First we traveled to New Haven, CT in order to view the Handweavers' Guild of Connecticut gallery show. Click on their "special events" to learn more about the show itself.

Above you'll find (l to r): Elizabeth (Lady Sunshine); Leslie (Madame Moonshadow); Jenna (Duchess of Dirt); and Maureen (Queen Bag Lady).

The gallery show was held at Fairhaven Furniture. This is a neat place in and of itself. They carry LOTS of classy merchandise, including jewelry, to consider taking home with you. Cool door, eh? Our lovely E is our own personal Vanna.

My friend, Rita, was one of two featured weavers. Other pieces were created by guild members.

Here's an exquisite piece by Rita that immediately caught my eye. It's entitled "Cross Ventilation" and is made from cotton warp, iris leaves and redtwig dogwood twigs weft, with a paper lining. This '08-'09 piece incorporated spaced warp, plain and twill weaves, with inset "window" openings. I kept coming back to look at this weaving...it drew me in.

Above you'll find one of several amazing collections of Rita's boxes and bags displayed in the gallery.

Here's a close-up view of the purse featured above. Rita calls it "Soft Green Purse." It's also an '08-'09 piece, created from handspun cotton warp, rush leaves and handspun silk yarn weft. The same yarns are used to weave the lining fabric and to make the cabled strap. Agate beads adorn the front; with one bead being used as a closure. It is a twill weave.

All I can say is WOW whenever I get a chance to view Rita's work! The Lunar Ladies were blown away and in equal awe!!

This eye-catcher of a piece was made by the other featured weaver, Antonia Kormos. She hand dyed the yarn with synthetic dyes back in the 1970's.

Amongst the other beautiful pieces created by the CT guild members, this one stood out for me. It was woven by one of the weaving show's judges, Sarah Fortin. She named it"3-D Scarf" and its made from Soysilk, silk, and cashmere/silk. Pretty!

The Lunar Ladies' outing to CT finished with proverbial fireworks. We had been invited to Rita's house after we viewed the gallery show. Here we are, with Rita herself, in her greenhouse filled with unbelievably gorgeous flowering plants. A tour of her grounds had us all speechless. Thank you, Rita and Steve, for making memories 1000-fold.

Hiccup.

Above is a pic of Patti. Patti and I met and became friends when I was reading Tarot at "Kindred Spirits" in Brattleboro (alas, now closed). Patti wanted to learn to spin so here she is at my house, holding up her very first handspun. Yay Patti!!! Bravo!

Patti's work is very interesting. Her work is done exclusively by barter. Patti says, "I am a trained and certified dreamworker, and have done psychospiritual soul work/play and spiritual direction and journey accompaniment for many years. However, I choose to work by barter only. Barter is not free, but rather an exchange of energies that does not involve money. It is more flexible and more communal. It works on a one-to-one ratio. An hour of your time + an hour of my time. It is high-touch rather than high-tech. References available. Please see my website for more information. Namaste."

Hiccup.

Leslie, of the Lunar Ladies, spun and knitted this lovely moebius scarf a few years ago. Leslie, do please tell us about the yarn and stitch pattern. Thank you.

Here's the moebius with its deliberate twist.

Beginning to put on the moebius scarf.

Accentuating the twist.

The twisted part is now lifted up and onto her head. Very attractive, indeed, and incredibly cozy-looking.

Hiccup.

Jofran spun up a very pretty skein of Louet's Northern Lights wool top in the colorway of "Tropical Skittles." Here's what Jofran had to say about it:
Spindle spun on my Molinor (Greensleeves); plied on my Schacht wheel with the smallest whorl; over-plied then whacked on my counter between hot and cold baths (three of them). The whacking was fun! Regarding Tropical Skittles - I am always amazed at how the almost lurid roving turned into such a subtle yarn....
Jofran, what are you planning to make with this handspun? Why did you choose to over-ply? And hey girlfriend, didn't I give you that bag of Tropical Skittles? Lurid???!!! OK, it WAS bright in the bag... But it was meant to challenge you because it wasn't exactly your favorite colors.

The last few months of posts have featured my Louet Northern Lights project, in the colorway of "Sunset."

I've finished knitting the outer portion of what I'm calling my "Flame Hat." The lining is being knit out of a naturally brown Romney cross. The lace stitch I used on the orange-y part is from Barbara Walker's, "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns." The stitch is called "Little Lace Chain," pg. 234. The hat itself is pointed, as you can see, and it flops over perkily to one side or t'other. Some bling, in the form of beads, will definitely find its way onto the hat.

Hiccup.

The techie portion of this blog has to do with natural dyeing this month. Awhile back, Leslie and I got together in my dye studio to dye her handspun Shetland wool and handspun 100% llama for one of her projects in the BOOK.

The technique we wanted to show involved making an immersion bath of one color...in our case in was Osage orange sawdust. What made it fun was that her skeins went from cream to dark grey, all heading for the same bath. And, when the skeins vary in fiber type, it's neat to see the color that gets picked up by the skeins. It's good to note that within a dyestuff, there may be more than one color. Sometimes, one fiber type will pick up one of the colors within the dyestuff and another fiber type will pick up something else. How do you know what fiber type will pick up which dye from the dyestuff? Sampling, that much-repeated bit of sage advice. We chose, however, NOT to sample in this case and settled on being pleased with whatever came from the pot.

The night before Leslie was to come over for dyeing, I weighed out some of the Osage Orange sawdust in my dye mixing box. This past post shows my dye box and more: My Dye Studio.
The sawdust was put into the leg of an old, nylon pantyhose. It's easy to do this if you put the nylon leg inside a jar, with the leg opening folded over the opening of the jar and held in place with a rubber band. How much Osage orange did I use? I sort of by-gosh-or-by-gollied it. I'm personally not looking to reproduce a color EXACTLY in ANY of my dye projects and don't expect you'll want to reproduce what I do verbatim. If you like recipes for dyes, you'll find none in my upcoming BOOK (except for an indigo urine dye vat). I'm far more serendipitous of a dyer than being held hard and fast to most recipes. I DID, however, take a peek at one of my excellent dye reference books that I keep in my dye studio...in this case, Trudy Van Stralen's "Indigo, Madder, and Marigold ~ A Portfolio Of Colors From Natural Dyes," and decided on 1.5 oz of sawdust for the 7.4 oz of fiber to be dyed. I came to this amount of dye by checking how strong Osage orange can be in a general sort of sense, studying the pics of yarns in Trudy's book using Osage orange, and then made an educated guesstimate.

Yes, I know what the nylon stocking looks like in the pot, you naughty folks...

Leslie had earlier secured her skeins with loose, figure-8, ties. She also had wetted her yarn overnight with warm water and a drop or two of dish detergent. The dish detergent opens up the fibers, getting them ready to accept mordant and dye. Make sure the mordant and assist (if you're using one) is well dissolved in plenty of water that the yarn can swim freely in. The water with the mordant is cold. The yarn was sitting in cold water by the time Leslie brought it. There would be no cause for felting the fibers because the yarn was not going into a drastically different water temperature. Of course, Leslie and I were going to be very careful not to agitate the yarn at any point to avoid felting, as well.

The handspun first was going to be pre-mordanted with alum and a cream of tartar assist. The alum mordant will help the dye to adhere to the fiber and the cream of tartar will help keep the fibers soft. Pre-mordanting, as opposed to throwing mordant into the pot with the dyestuff, tends to assure better light and wash fastness and overall dye results. Again, how much alum and cream of tartar to use was decided by looking at some of my dye reference books.

The pots we used for mordanting and dyeing have a stainless steel, colander-type, insert. Eagle eyes will spot that they're nothing other than turkey fryer pots. These holey inserts are very useful to dyers and below you'll see why.

Leslie put the yarn into the colander which was sitting in the pot of mordant solution. The burner of the stove was turned to high, and for the first 10 minutes or so, Leslie occasionally lifted the colander containing the yarn 'til it was out of the solution and dripping back into the pot. This action of raising and lowering the colander now and again helps insure that the mordant fully enters into the yarn. Plus, it's easier on the yarn than using just a spoon and letting the wet, vulnerable yarn hang there. In any case, beware whenever you have a spoon in your hand around a dyepot...those spoons have a way of wanting to stir far too aggressively!

The pot was brought to temp, which was 200 degrees F. If we weren't planning to dye until the next day or beyond, I would have removed the pot when it reached temp and placed it on a blanket on the floor. Around and covering the hot pot I would have put two or so wool blankets. Yes, the pot would be put to bed, so to speak. These blankets keep the pot at temp for hours, without wasting fuel. BUT, in this case Leslie and I needed to dye that same day we pre-mordanted, so we kept a lid on the pot and brought the temp down 'til the pot was at a simmer. This simmer was kept constant for one hour.

Here's Leslie bringing the colander of mordanted fiber out of the pot...

and setting it on a bucket to drip. The dripped mordant was put back into the mordant pot and will be re-used at a later date. I like to rinse the yarn/fiber that's been pre-mordanted before I put it into the dyepot containing dye. This removes any mordant particles that are sitting on the outside of the yarn/fiber that might muddy up a dyebath. If the yarn is HOT as it's going to be when coming out of the mordant bath, then be sure to rinse it once in equally HOT water, to avoid felting. We had been cooking the dyebath with the Osage orange sawdust for the same amount of time we cooked the mordant pot. Both pots were HOT. The sawdust needed to simmer 1 hour in the pot before dyeing in order to release the dye. The nylon stocking of sawdust was removed from the pot before the yarn was put in. Leslie took the stocking with sawdust home with her 'cause there might be more dye power in it.

Here's the yarn as it cooks in the dyebath.

Just as Leslie raised and lowered the colander of yarn in the mordant bath, she did the same with the actual dyebath. This helps cut back on dye taking in one place and not so much in another.

Leslie knit a wonderful pair of EZ-designed "Jogger's Mitts." Again, please note that all the yarns were in the same dyebath, with the changes occurring because the fibers were differing starting colors and types. Note also that one of the yarns is yellow whilst the other two are green! Cool, eh? Thank you, Leslie, for spending your time dyeing with me!

Hiccup. Will finish this post with a few bits of correspondence that either came in to the spider and/or was sent out by the spider.

First, a very nice reader by the name of Judith had seen my past post talking about the exploding box of baking soda I carry when I travel: Scouring Fleece To Keep Lock Formation. Judith wrote:
I was looking at your Blog because I just bought a Coopworth fleece and was seeking ideas for what to make using it.

I saw your comments about baking soda. That's been my help with acid problems for 50 years but now it's off limits because I need to severely limit my sodium. I've stopped taking Nexium because it blocks the effectiveness of my heart medicine! I can't use Tums because that interferes with my cholesterol medicine.

So, in addition to restricting my diet to foods that don't bother me, I've been drinking ginger tea, and eating candied ginger. It's odd, because these cause a little burning sensation going down, but they seem to help quite a bit, as much or more than baking soda. I like the two types of ginger tea available from Traditional Medicinals. I also like to grate ginger root & make a tea with hot water, adding a little milk. Both the tea and the candied ginger root are available at larger grocery stores as well as natural food stores.

It helps to have some ginger tea before a meal, and to avoid eating between meals.

Other helps: munching on celery & carrots, avoiding onions, tomatoes, cheese. Also, avoiding ale (as in beer).

This is all quite a change for me but the indigestion was so severe that I'm better off with these changes. As a side benefit, I've lost 20 pounds.

Maybe your readers have some favorite projects using Coopworth fleece. Readers? Thank you, Judith, for these great tummy tips.

Another lovely reader, named Sarah, wrote the following:
I love natural dyes but I have two problems, one is crocking and the other is fiber damage. For example, I just dyed a wool fleece in lac extract, about 5% WOF with alum mordant, and I cannot seem to rince all the residual dye out. I get the rince water to run fairly clear and then when it dries and I handle it I end up with purple fingers. Also, the locks have become brittle. These are two problems I run into a lot and am not sure why. Any suggestions?

The spider answers:
Lac. Notorious for leaving a residue behind and thus creating some crocking problems. One reason for this is that lac is hard to dissolve completely. I use citric acid (purchased from Earthues or Dharma) to help the process along. Recommended by Michele Wipplinger, owner of Earthues, is 3% citric acid to the weight of the extract. Believe me, this addition will help immensely.

Now as for fiber damage with some dyes, several things could be the reason. For one thing, some dyes are simply harder on some fibers than others. Kamala is VERY hard on wool and silk, for instance. How do I know? Trial and error. Another reason for fiber damage could be your heating method...especially keying in on how hot and for how long. You might like this method (note ~this has already been explained above but it might help to take it in in another way): If you're using an immersion dyeing technique, once you have the fiber in, bring the pot up to temp and hold it there for maybe 5 minutes or so. Then turn off the heat and "put the pot to bed." What I mean is: lay a blanket on the floor, put the hot pot on it (careful!! I do this in my garage dye studio), and take two more blankets (preferably wool, but whatever you have will do) and wrap the whole pot in each of them. This will keep the pot at temp with no possibility of boiling or over-boiling (a real and all too prevalent problem). Then, just leave the pot wrapped up for at least a night, or even more. End result: dyeing is completed and the fibers are less prone to fritzing out.

Sounds like you're very careful about not overdoing the mordant, which is great. Some dyers add way too much mordant and fry their fibers that way. Oh, btw, I pre-mordant by "putting the pot to bed," too.

Thank you Sarah for your great questions.

Kind Clare wrote and asked me what I meant by the term "fingering in" when spinning?
The spider responds:
Regarding "fingering in," it is a deliberate act of incorporating stray or loose fibers into the yarn by rolling the just-spun yarn between your thumb and finger(s) right after the point of contact, in-keeping with the direction that the twist is going in. This action smooths the yarn. Fingering in can be done lightly, thereby maintaining any air you've allowed into the yarn to be intact (allowing for loft). Or fingering in can be done in conjunction with squeezing all the air out of the yarn, ending up with a harder yarn overall (getting rid of loft).

Thank you, Clare, for posing this question. Keep those questions coming, please.

And last but not least, on Ravelry I wrote about my love of making a round ball without a ball-winder:
I prefer to wind my balls by hand and choose to do so nine times out of ten over using a ball-winder. Being someone who likes the journey, I truly enjoy the act of winding a lovely ball. I even do this kind of winding as a passenger in the car, laying the opened skein around my bent legs to avoid tangles. As a spinner who only uses handspun yarn, perhaps I like the yarn going through my fingers once again…hmmm…whatever the reason, I’m in complete control so that the yarn never stretches due to a too-tightly wound ball. I rarely worry about winding a center-pull ball by hand because I’ve personally not found a need for it in my work once the knitting begins. I do start winding by wrapping the yarn several times around the outside of 4 fingers. Then I take that little “skein” off my hand and squish it together, making a nice, soft core, and begin winding a different direction for awhile. I keep changing direction of the winding and end up with a beautifully round ball, with the only “core” being the yarn itself.

Happy Beltane! 'til next time.