Not Cooking – Dyeing

I know that you may think that  I have thoroughly lost it in the confusion of my home or that the heat had caused me to totally have a “melt down” – pardon the pun – when I show you the following photo.

These are carrot tops merrily boiling away on my stove.  No they aren’t for a strange kind of soup – nor are they some sort of strange experiment.

They are in fact being boiled in order to extract their colour so I can dye some wool with them.

Yes I know it sounds strange but it does work.  You need to use mature carrot tops for this.  There is more colour in them – young carrot leaves don’t have the same intensity of colour I have found.

There’s no real science to it – just bung them in the pot with enough water to cover and bring to the boil.  “Cook” – and I use the term loosely – for about half an hour then allow them to cool in the water.  Strain and the dye is ready to use.

The end result – depending on the type of mordant you use – gives you several different shades of green.

The pale almost yellowish green is carrot dye with alum added to it.  The darker green is carrot dye with iron added to it.  The same iron that you use around your garden to prevent or repair iron deficiency in your plants.  Pretty basic stuff.  That stunning shade of purple is Cochineal Food Dye – the kind you use to colour the icing on your cakes.  About a capful to a litre of water.

My Inspiration????   I bought a new book.  Yes I know another one, but I couldn’t resist.

“Dyeing to Knit” by Elaine Eskesen.  I did heaps of looking around before I bought this book wondering if it was as good as the reviews said it was – and it is!!.  Not only are you encourged to try new methods but also to experiment and not worry about mistakes.  There are several techniques that I had heard of but not tried before and yesterdays effort was the first – Space Dyeing.  Pretty simple stuff I know but I lacked the confidence – well no more…vbg.  Not only does she encourage you to dye your own hand spun wool but also to experiment with dyeing commercially prepared yarn – all sorts of prepared yarn.  Anything is possible according to this book.  There is a brilliant section on colours and how to experiment with them and how to get ideas. I don’t know about anyone else but colour theory is the bit that escapes me on a constant basis.  After reading this book I am beginning to understand it just a little better.  I know that sounds weird considering the strange combinations of colour I come up with at times – but honestly I just work on instinct and sometimes its right and sometimes it’s horribly wrong….lol.

Yesterdays experiment was space dyeing. Super fun and easy – having patience for each section of the wool to take the dye is the hardest bit.  I think (at times my measurements can be a bit off if I get distracted while counting) I have about 100 metres of pure 8 ply wool dyed.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it but I do know I’m enjoying looking at it and dreaming. 

Now to find the time to spin some more wool and experiment with that instead of commercially prepared wool.

Help – It’s Friday!!!

I know that we have actually had five whole days since the children went back to school but I’m not exactly sure where the days have gone.

Monday – peace at last.  All three were more than happy to be returning to school and catching up with their friends.

The dogs and I noticed the silence for a whole 10 minutes before we rejoiced and I carried on with housework while Ajax and Milly spent time sleeping undisturbed.

Tuesday – Spinners and Weavers meeting at Cohuna.  I didn’t achieve much while I was there but I did enjoy the other ladies company and it was nice to catch up on what everyone was doing. I came home with one or two sewing projects would you believe for the group that I have to have done by March’s meeting.  They are fairly simple so whipping them up will be easy – just as soon as I find time.

I arrived home from Cohuna to find the fabric I had ordered from Thousands of Bolts in the States had arrived.  I bought mainly neutrals as I have plenty of colours in the drawers already.  There was one peice that I just had to buy though.

I only bought a yard of this gorgeous fabric – who could resist it when there is Chocolate written all over it…vbg – now I’m wishing I had bought a bit more.  Some of it is destined to be made into little bags to hold chocolates for swaps and friends.  Notsure what  I will do with the rest – drool over it maybe.

Wednesday - more domestic duties.  A few bills to pay down the street then I came home to bottle plums and boil up some onion skins and carrot tops (the leaves) so I could dye some more wool.

All eight bottles sealed – a bit of a miracle around here as at least one won’t seal.  What was left of the plums was stewed up and I made it into plum crumble for tea that night.  Super yum!!

Thursday - after an entire 4 hours of sleep – was spent shopping for groceries – in the rain!!!!!!!!!!!  By the time I came home I was only capable of  pottering around so I got stuck in and did some more spinning of the black alpaca that I had started a while ago.

Spinning, for me anyway, is a bit like meditating. My mind just wanders down no particular path and the only thing I have to concentrate on is feeding the wool into the bobbin and keeping the wheel moving. Bliss.  Two bobbins are now full – one is skeined  and is drying as I type while the other is waiting it’s turn.  I feel a pair of fingerless mittens might be the right project for this wool.

Friday – our apprentice is on holidays – one he had prebooked before we took him on so we didn’t feel that we should stop him taking the week off.  I went to work with Ashley today and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Not that I did much – we had to drive to Goodnight (40 minutes from Swan Hill)  to check out what needed to be done to possibly upgrade the power supply to a fruit growers shed. It took only about an hour and we were given a lovely box of nectarines fresh off the tree as a bonus.  I took some knitting for filling in those moments when Ashley didn’t need me and got a bit done.  It was a lovely restful morning.  This afternoon I have washed and acutally got clothes dry – a vast difference from yesterday – not that I’m complaining the rain was wonderful and quite heavy.  I have also been dyeing more wool with onion skins and carrot tops and I’m going to experiment with cochineal food dye – just to see what colours I can get.

The weekend – undecided yet.  Possibly both Ashley and I will be working on two transportable  houses that need “fitting off” ie screwing on powerpoints, light fittings etc before they are moved next week.  Murrabit market is on but I don’t think we will end up getting there on Saturday and it depends on the weather as it feels like more rain might be on the way.

Roll on next week.  At some stage I might start to catch up – as if!!!

A Fuzzy Mind

It’s a day for the fuzzies today.  In fact my mind feels like it has all this cobweb draped over it at the moment. 

I had to have Elise at work at 8 am this morning so after dropping her off I tackled some of the grocery shopping.  Came home, unloaded, put on a load of washing then went back down the street with James in tow for the banking, mail and rest of the shopping.

It’s hard this year to know what to get Nicola for her lunches as she can’t bite down on anything hard with her braces. At home it’s easy – 2 minute noodles, scrambled eggs,home made soup – but school is going to be tricky.  We have decided to trial yogurt and containers of fruit for her lunches (normally she takes a sandwhich or roll and fruit and biscuits) and I will have filling things like homemade soup for her when she gets home to tide her over until tea is ready.  The Othodonist rang yesterday to see how she was going and to ask if there were any problems. It was nice to be able to give him a good report on how she was managing.

I did quite a bit of spinning yesterday – so relaxing.  Meditation almost.  For once I managed to get a really fine and consistently sized thread which I am super happy about. 

I should sew today but honestly can’t be bothered.  I do have James’s school bag to mend and he does need a haircut but that might be later today.

I am working on a crocheted afghan for my Mum for her birthday – but am feeling the need to grab some knitting needles and make a dishcloth instead. 

Like my lilac that had hidden it’s bloom from the sun – I feel the need to hibernate – just for today.  Tomorrow the cobwebs will be gone and I will get on with things again.

Today’s Dilemma Is……..

Having spent more time down the street this morning getting the last few things for school and treating ourselves to a coffee/soft drink/bucket of chips the kids are now comfortably seated on the couch playing the Xbox.  I know a dreadful waste of time but honestly today I just don’t care.

My dilemma is do I spin some lovely black alpaca which I have just carded up…………………………

…………………or do I get stuck in and get this little quilt quilted now I finally have the gammill cleaned of all the crap that was sitting on it and it’s up and running.

I will confess to feeling a little weary not only from the trip down the street but also from the wheelbarrow load of pruning that  I did this morning and which is now mulched and residing in chopped up splendor in my compost bin.

Darn it – Spinning has won.  The idea of sitting on my butt with the rythmic sound of my spinning wheel doing it’s thing is far more attractive than the idea of standing in front of the gammill.

Off to make a cuppa, grab a few of the delicious biscuits that Elise made this morning then get stuck in.  Someone turn on the music – something soothing is the go. 

We Made a Shadehouse

Last weekend, despite the heat, Nicola and I got stuck in and worked really hard on the new shade house.  Ashley had been making noises about buying me a hot house but I honestly think that it is far to hot where I live to use it properly.  Can you imagine any plants standing up to the heat generated in a hot house on a 40 degree plus day?  Scary stuff even if we did cover it in shade cloth to break the force of the sun.  Luckily Ashley understood my reasoning behind not wanting a hot house but wanting a shade house instead and was willing to help.

 Nicola didn’t know she would be helping – but as Ashley, after screwing the wire framed “roof” section to the old swing had departed back down to his shed, Nicola got roped in to help me spread shadecloth and stayed to help finish the project. A project which in the end took us two days to complete – far longer than either of us thought it would.

House to the left of photo (about 8 feet away), cat cage in the back ground, vegie garden to the right.

We are so proud of ourselves.  Everything apart from the cable ties that were “liberated” from the work truck and the weed mat (which I had in the laundry for ages so it doesn’t count as a new purchase) was recycled.

An old Swing formed part of the frame work and another of the frames Ashley had made me out of square tube and reo (you can see one standing next to Nicola) was used as the roof section.  We cable tied the shade cloth to everything so it wouldn’t blow in any strong winds.  Used an old bed frame as a stand to lift the plants to working height.  Bread trays are used to sort plants into “ready to plant” and ”needing more time to grow” areas.

Bricks and some wire mesh were used to create shelves to hold necessary tools such as pots and bits and peices.  A gum tree that Ashley and I pruned, as some branches were lying rather heavily on the hen house roof, provided the thick mulch on the floor.  I put down newspaper, then weedmat then mulch in the hope that I might defeat any weeds that the poision didn’t get.

We have even included a Kitchen Sink which  I can use to wash my hands, pot up plants and deep water anything that looks a bit dry.  No the ladder isn’t staying there – I used it to show Ashley the height I want the sink at – he still has to make up a frame on legs to hold the sink in place.  It’s right next to the vegie garden which makes it super easy to check and water plants while I’m doing the same in the veg garden which has been receiving some long over due attention of late.

Today I planted  silver beet, lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli seeds into potting mix filled toilet rolls.  The idea is when the plants are big enough to put into the vegie garden I can pop them in loo rolls and all and minimise root disturbance.  There are more seeds to be planted but a bit at a time is the way to go at the moment.

Tonight I pruned quite a few plants around the vegie garden/shade house and have mulched them and they are now residing in the compost bin.  I haven’t had success with compost in the past but am hoping that finely mulched plant material may work better.  The vegie garden needs some serious compost/mulch/manure put into it as it seems to be mainly all sand for some reason and doesn’t hold water very well at all.

I’m still reading about the great gardeners of history – maybe their influence is inspiring this gardening craze at the moment. Margery Fish who created the wonderful garden at Lambrook Manor in Somerset has been my latest read.  If you get a chance, her book “We made a garden” , which tells the making of the garden at Lambrook Manor, is a brilliant read. Not only does she talk about her sucesses but also her failures.  How on earth she put up with her husband in the garden though has me beat.  I would have thumped him with a garden stake the minute he dug up or pruned some of my precious plants.  Walter Fish was a man of decided opinions on how to make and grow a garden and Margery worked around him and admits in her book that in some cases did her gardening without him knowing. Despite the limitations he put on her there is a genuine feel that she missed him dreadfully when he passed away.

Some Dedicated Sewing Time

It was far too hot and muggy today to spend too much time in the garden.  I did manage to get a few more weeds pulled but it was a bit like working in a bowl of water there was so much humidity in the air so  I gave up and came inside with the intention of finishing off a couple of quilt tops.

I had about half the blocks sewn together on the Brick Quilt and it really didn’t take that much longer to get the rest sewn and then sew them into rows.

I was taking this photo by lunchtime which wasn’t a bad effort I thought.  Check out the colour of the sky in the back ground.  It promised rain all day (in between sunshine) but we only had a few drops – not really worth getting excited about really.  Ohh before I forget this is the quilt-a-long that Ava is doing.  You can find the link to the quilt-a-long here at Ava  Landen: Modern Quilting.

 After lunch, a couple of cups of tea and a read of my new book I got stuck into the Hidden Spools quilt.  The blocks had been made for some time but I hadn’t found time, or to be honest motivation, to put them together.

My assistant was more than happy to sit on the quilt and hold it down for me as I sewed on the borders.  Trouble was he got grumpy when I wanted to move it and I got some very dirty looks by the time I was done – not to mention being subjected to quite a lot of tail swishing.

Despite the “help” I did manage to get this finished by quarter to five this afternoon and I’m quite pleased with the overall look.  For a while there I thought it might have been too busy but I don’t think it is.  I wasn’t sure too on the border fabric but it was the only dark colour I had in enough quantity to go around the quilt. A bit more used up from my stash.

Now there are two more tops keeping my cupboards warm until I find time to work out the backing fabric and quilt them.  I will not acknowledge the dozen or so quilts that are all organised to quilt….I just haven’t had the time, or motivation, or a gammill that isn’t covered in crap and started on them.  Perhaps when the kids go back to school.

To Bendigo and Back

Home again after a very nice and leisurely trip to Bendigo yesterday.  There was no choice about the leisurely part as the number of cars on the road doing 80 km/hr instead of 100 km/hr was unbelieveable.  Even with two fully loaded grain trucks behind one car there was no way the driver was pulling off to the side and letting the trucks though.  Instead they had to pass in convoy – not a pleasant sight I have to tell you. Nicola began to wonder if I was playing Leap Frog as I passed so many cars and no I wasn’t speeding. I set the cruise control for 100 km/hr and still caught up and passed with no problems.

Bendigo wasn’t as busy as I thought it might be.  We had a bit of therapy in Spotlight which is always very pleasant…vbg.  I must admit to being very disappointed with Spotlight this trip.  I bought fat quarters which I loved but there wasn’t lots to choose from and I was particuarly looking for a nice bit of fabric to make a simple dress but there was nothing.  Their dress fabric selection was very poor – nothing like it used to be even a couple of years ago.  Even the bridal section – which always seemed to have heaps – was right down on choices.  Perhaps sewing is on the way out I wondered then rounded the corner to find a full selection of sewing machines!!!  Work that one out.

Off to the Bendigo Market place for lunch. Nothing fancy – just chinese take away that we both love.  I had promised Nicola a really nice dress ring if she was very brave at the orthodontist so of course we had to go shopping for that.  We were in luck – all the jewelers had up 50% off sales so we got a lovely little ring with a purple stone – nice and simple and it looks lovely on her – for $70 less than normal price.  It will last her years and be a pleasant memory for when she had to get her braces.

Out to Lake Weroona to sit in the sunshine and have a little walk around the lake.  We really weren’t interested in doing much shopping and it was much more fun to count how many turtles we could see in the lake waters….vbg.  As always I forgot to take the camera so don’t even have photos.

Into the Orthodontist.  Barely had time to sit down before they called us in and started working on Nicola.  They even offered me a coffee or tea – I started to wonder then just how long it would take but we were only there for an hour.  Nicola did really well.  It didn’t really hurt but was it was akward as the Ortho had to bend one of the wires 90 degrees as one of her teeth is on such an angle.  Forget about the braces all being in a straight line – until her teeth start to move the braces and wires look like a really crooked fence.  Nicola even got a goodie bag full of dental products – including an electric toothbrush – all to help her maintain her teeth and the braces.

We were home by 6 pm to a lovely pizza tea.  Nicola had mashed veg though as her mouth was very sore by then.  By the time she was ready for bed she was in tears at the pain and is still asleep as I type this at 9.30 am.  I’m letting her sleep for as long as she needs to this morning.

Thank you all for your lovely birthday wishes too.  It was so nice to check my emails last night and see  them all. I did have a lovely birthday – very quiet if you don’t count the driving and shopping – and was pleasantly spoilt by the family.  Now I’m just waiting on a couple of books to arrive that I ordered for my birthday and I’m done.  Ashley didn’t know what to get me so I bought the books I have been wanting for ages and told him they were my present…vbg.

Off to check the mail and see if my books have arrived.  Have a lovely day.

Catherine

Braces And A Birthday

Today is my birthday.  

Another year gone and I just don’t remember so many of the passing days….vbg. 

Today is also the day that Nicola and I go to Bendigo so she can get her braces.

No doubt, by the time many  of you are reading this post, we will have either left home, arrived in Bendigo or be travelling home depending on where you live.

A leisurely trip is planned.

A little retail therapy is also planned.

A nice lunch somewhere – no doubt a food court as we will be to busy shopping to go anywhere else…lol…..is planned. 

At 2.30 pm we have to be at the Orthodontist then we will return home to pizza which Elise has said she will cook for tea.  I just hope Nicola can eat it.

The following morning I’m predicting a very looooong sleep in to make up for the lack of one today.

New Socks

Whooo Hooooo…….I’m so excited. 

Remember this sock??

Now it has a mate.

I’m wearing them as I type cause it is quite chilly tonight and I can officially say they are super warm and comfy.

Off to put my DPNs away in the correct bag and plan the next knitting adventure.

 I need to have something organised – Nicola gets her braces on Tuesday and I think we could be at the Orthodontist for quite a while.  Something to stop me worrying would be a good thing….sigh.

Double Pointed Needles

I will admit, weird as it may seem, I have a real “thing” for Double Pointed Needles. 

Perhaps it’s the fact you can knit from either end with them. 

Perhaps it’s the actual knitting that intrigues me – after all no seams and you get to just to knit in garter stitch which ends up looking like stocking stitch.

Perhaps it’s the knitting round and round in a loop with no changing direction that gets me.  

Either way I love my DPN’s and when ever I see them in an op shop I just have to buy them just in case I don’t have that size….vbg.

When you think about it buying knitting needles or crochet hooks in an op shop makes sense.  Quite often they only cost 2o cents and often less compared to the $6.00 or more they are priced at in other shops.  I know which amount I prefer to pay.

I have a really bad habit though. I tend to throw them into a plastic bag with their siblings and cousins and not worry about keeping the sizes together which makes life interesting when I am hunting for a particular size.

So today, as I was sick and tired of hunting though the bag, I decided to make some very simple DPN bags.

So simple and easy using 2.5 inch strips from my scrap box and some ribbon.  They took, at most, ten minutes for each bag to make including the cutting of the strip to the right length and only slightly longer if I stuffed up and sewed them they wrong way round…sigh.

I used some inch wide ribbon (because it was sitting there and needed using) to make a band to slip the top of the bag under to stop the needles falling out and wrote the needles sizes on it. 

Hopeing that I was being really clever, I put not only the size in milimetres but also the UK size and the US size as so many of my patterns seem to be from those countries.

Now at least I can just grab out the bag of needles I want, pop the empty DPN bag into the currently used knitting bag, knit to my hearts content and when I’m finished return the needles to the DPN bag so I know what size and where they are for the next knitting adventure.

On the other hand my Mother absolutely loathes DPN’s and will avoid knitting in the round at all costs, to the point she has reworked/rewritten patterns so she doesn’t have to use them.  Honestly the woman is mad….vbg.