Ever since we started experiementing with natural dyes, I have fancied a dyers garden – filled with woad, weld, and madder and all the plants I could need. It’s not quite worked out like that – for a start we just dont have one huge patch of ground I want to dedicate to dyes alone. [...]
Archive for the ‘dyeing’ Category
woad bed
Posted in dyeing, make it yourself, tagged dyeing, natural dye on 19 March 2012 | 2 Comments »
the room of doom
Posted in crochet, dyeing, general wittering, house and home, knitting, make it yourself, spinning, weaving on 28 February 2012 | 2 Comments »
Over the last couple of days we have been tackling the room of doom aka the spare room. ‘Spare’ makes it seem surplus to requirements – not so – we have both worked from home in that room, it is the main storage area of our home dyed wool, in various stages of process, our [...]
woad exhaust
Posted in dyeing, make it yourself, tagged dyeing, natural dye, woad on 29 October 2011 | 7 Comments »
It is amazing how many colours you can get out of one plant, in the case of woad. Having dyed a nice gentle blue, and achieved a bright green by overdyeing, using woad in the traditional way, another, less exciting colour can be obtained by exhaust dyeing. The leaves that were strained when dyeing with [...]
woad dyeing
Posted in dyeing, make it yourself on 22 October 2011 | 7 Comments »
The hastily pre frost harvesting of woad (we never did have a frost, but there you go) was duly processed, again using Sally’s excellent instructions. On the right, the undyed yarn (Devon Closewool wool), centre: woad, and on the left, pre dyed with onion skins, it started as a zingy yellow, before being dipped in [...]
pre frost harvest
Posted in dyeing, general wittering, grow your own food on 19 October 2011 | 1 Comment »
Finally it feels like October. Last night we lit the woodburner for the first time this autumn, and today was sunny and crisp. Tonight they forecast frost, and so we rushed about doing our usual prefrost panic harvesting. As per usual, we have not got around to harvesting the woad, and frost is supposed to [...]
dyeing with comfrey
Posted in dyeing, make it yourself on 14 August 2011 | 4 Comments »
A few weeks ago, one of my new cuckoo marans pullets started laying lovely dark brown eggs, but not in the designated area, instead she made a nest in the undergrowth. And because of my rummaging in this prickly heap, to collect these early eggs (before she got the hang of it and moved to [...]
exhausting red
Posted in dyeing, make it yourself, tagged dyeing on 11 August 2011 | 3 Comments »
Last week I did some dyeing with all in one synthetic dyes. Much that I have a passion for dyeing with natural materials, I’m ok with the artificial ones too. The key, I think, is to use it all up. That way, all of the dye goes onto the fibre, and not down the drain and into the [...]
show
Posted in chickens, dyeing, general wittering, grow your own food, make it yourself, self-sufficiency, smallholding, vegetables on 31 July 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Totnes show today. Haven’t been for a few years, mostly due to weather.. really is not much fun when its muddy and raining. But the weather was ideal – warm but overcast, and along we went. And we did enjoy looking at the sheep and cows, and humming and harring, and dreaming about what we [...]
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