Natural Dyes and Linen

 Would you believe that my family is planning on moving again? It would be my 5th move since I started this blog in 2008. If I'm lucky the future will hold a "craft room" for me...fingers crossed. I've been thinning out my possessions in preparation for moving.  I had little bottles of dye-stuff from Maiwa, the natural dye store in Vancouver BC. I figured a good use for these little bits would be to experiment dyeing something other than wool. I went with my second favorite textile---linen.

I cut little squares and began experimenting. Dying fabric and cellulose fiber is new to me. It was so much fun  using these little squares because there was no harm done if I screwed it up. It's not as risky as dying a yarn that took 2 weeks to spin, right?

Normally I don't like cutch but on fabric it looked nice. I added iron to cutch and got a totally cool dark taupe.  Marigold made a nice orange-yellow. I added tartaric acid to marigold and got a pale yellow.

I tried black tea and got a dull color. I used marigolds and back tea and it looked a little more interesting.

 The logwood experiment was interesting. When I added tartaric acid I got an orange instead of the standard purple that usually comes from logwood.



The house that we are trying to buy was built in 1912. I've looked at paint swatches of color palettes from that time period. Of course they only had natural pigments back then. Inspired by the old-timey colors and the linen swatches I was dying, I decided to make a color palette: cutch, marigold, cutch with iron, logwood with tartaric acid, and marigold with black tea! I showed the palette to my Hubby and he was not impressed. That's okay.  I'll just keep day-dreaming of remodeling my future home.

Hemp - Better as Food

After watching Food, Inc. my 13-year-old decided to be a Vegan. Our family is already Vegetarian, so it's not too much of a stretch to take out the dairy. My diet has been really bad since I came back to Seattle--diet coke, pizza, croissants, and late night potato chips---so I, too, decided to make a change. Seattle is a great place for Vegans. There's a PCC or co-op in basically every neighborhood. We also have Vegan restaurants. Healeo is by my house and they have a sandwich board out front that says: VEGAN HEMP SOFT SERVE. I had ignored this sign until I became a Vegan. Last weekend I went to check out this product and let me tell you, it was the best "ice cream" that I'd ever have. It also got me thinking about hemp. I'd purchased some hemp fiber at the last spin-in that I went to. After eating it, I decided to spin it.
It looks like fake blond hair and it feel like spinning string vs. spinning yarn. I had read that it doesn't get soft until you soak it. It did get a little soft after it got wet, but it still felt like string. The other interesting thing that happened while I spun this fiber was that my nose and eyes became very itchy and eventually my hands swelled! I was having an allergic reaction. The fiber seemed very dusty and I'm not sure if it was the fiber or the funny dust particles that were flying around that I was allergic to. I googled "hemp allergy" and all the hemp-positive sites said there is no such thing. Or they report no allergies to hemp seeds. Hmmmm....
This last photo is of the singles, 2-ply (little bow), and a pile of 3-ply hemp. It's string to me. I'll probably just use it to tie off skeins.

After that unenjoyable spinning experience I picked up some wonderfully soft Blue Face Leicester and began to spin my true love: WOOL.