Tuesday Adventures

I know some people may go on adventure of a Tuesday afternoon all the time, but (much like Dolly Parton before me) I'm usually working 9 to 5. However, yesterday I took the day off and went with a friend and our kids to Remlinger Farms. It's a small amusement park near the foothills of the Cascade Mountain range. My friend Jolene has a daughter who is about the same age as my son, and they are buddies. Mom friend/kid friend combos are the best for going to amusement park outings. A good time was had by all.

Anyway,  Remlinger Farms is right down the road from Tolt Yarn and Wool, so of course we had to stop there before we started for home. I picked up a ball of Rowan Tweed, which is going to become Glenveagh Mitts from the Fall 2014 issue of Knitscene a ball of Twirl Petals, which is going to join a lighter ball of Twirl that I picked up the last time I was at Tolt and become an original design that's percolating in my brain; and three balls of YOTH, two Big Sister and one Little Brother. I don't have any designs on the YOTH right now, but it's just such gorgeous yarn and you can't really get it anywhere else so of course I had to grab some.

My friend's daughter noticed a waste basket full of scrap yarn under the ball winder. She asked if she could have some. She ended up coming home with a whole bag of scrap yarn - ask and you shall receive!

THEN my car battery died because I'm an idiot, and Veronika, the force behind YOTH Yarn and a lovely human gave me a jump and saved the day. It was quite funny. The whole shop was willing to help. It made me love Tolt even more!

Now it's back to work and back to reality for me. The weather outside is gloom and rain, and while there are some who would be disappointed by this, I will always be in favor of July days that feel like September. It makes my heart happy.

Gray Ivy

Sunday I spent the day dyeing, preserving herbs from my garden, and working on a sweater. I also watched American Hustle, which was very good.

I dyed yarn with Ivy berries that I picked throughout the neighborhood, with an iron mordant solution added directly to the dyebath. It turned out a nice medium warm gray. Mordants are so magic to me. Adding a mineral to plant matter can shift and in some cases (like ivy berries, which yields yellow without the addition of iron) change the color altogether.

If you're interested in learning more about the iron solution, I got the recipe from the wonderful We Will Tell You All Of Our Secrets blog.

Making potions with poison berries and rust seemed like something Snow White's evil stepmother might have done, which I liked.

As I was dyeing, I was overcome with an intense feeling of gratitude for the women who preserved the knowledge of natural dyeing - the women who, when the world said "this knowledge is obsolete" answered "no, this knowledge is valuable." The women who kept their legacy, and passed it down to those who were willing to receive it.

♥♥♥♥

These skeins dyed with logwood and madder are drying on my porch right now! 

Some of it is variegated!

Black Bean Dye!

Isn't it just the best when you can make use of something that would usually be thrown away? It's like discovering a treasure under your bed or something.

Today's treasure is the water that turns all bluish dark color when you soak dried black beans overnight. The beans become dinner and the soaking water becomes a dye bath.

I had seen pictures of other people's black bean dyed yarns, and so I was expecting mine to come out as a member of the blue family. However, natural dyes do not always play by my rules. They play by the rules of science, which can sometimes seem indistinguishable from the rules of magic.

Hence, my yarn came out a purplish brownish color. It looks brown in some lights, and rather lavender in others. It's quite pretty, but I will continue to play with heat, mordants and ph, and I'm sure I will get the black beans to do many more things.

Day of lovely things

Today my sister Owl and I took a mini road trip to Tolt Yarn and Wool. What a wonderful shop! I want to stay there all the time. They have such a great selection of hand dyed and small-producer yarns! The staff are also really great - so friendly and really exited to talk about yarn. It's really a very special place.

I got 3 skeins of Yoth - two big sister and one little brother,  a skein of Twirl Petals, a skein of Madelinetosh Pashmina, and a skein of Hazel Knits lively dk.

I can't wait to get these babies on some needles! Wheeeee!

After our trip to Tolt we explored some woods and foraged some scotch broom, horsetail and nettles. The scotch broom and horsetail are destined for my dye pots, and the nettles went home with Owl for her soup pot. There were carpets and carpets of horsetail that weren't quite ready to harvest, but I guess that's a good excuse to head back out to Carnation before too long!