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Sunny

Doesn't the sun make everything and everyone so much more cheerful? (Not an original idea, I know!) I wasn't working today and since it's half term I didn't feel guilty about taking time off. A friend came round for coffee and we chatted for ages in the garden. I later went to the allotment and sowed some dwarf french beans and planted out 6 tomato plants I'd been given. I'm puzzled by some broad beans I sowed several weeks ago; they're only just starting to appear. I think I tend to plant things too deep.

Talking of planting: I'm trying a trick someone told me about. I dug the holes for the tomatoes much deeper than the depth of the pots and I laid them on their side, so quite a bit of stem is buried. Apparently tomatoes can root all the way up the stem and a good root system helps them last better if the weather is dry. We are now not allowed to uses hoses on our site, so we need to get the plants as resistant as possible to drought. I must take photos - there's still a lot of bare earth, but it's filling up. I tend not to take much with me when I go to the allotment. I'm a bit afraid of losing things. In fact, I dug up a teaspoon the other day! I think it must have been made into compost...

Progress on the handspun shawl. I'm enjoying the bright green. I have about 50g of it and when it's finished I will end with more of the red as a border.

Pleasing pastels

Big daddy

I've just been to our local hardware shop and have found a great pot for my dyeing! Here's Big Daddy, next to my current dye pot. The new pot is made of stainless steel, allegedly, but was very cheap - only £14.99. I certainly wouldn't risk cooking in it because I'm sure things would burn, but for steaming it should be fine. Even better, I also bought a salad spinner that fits inside it perfectly, so with a brick under it I'll be able to keep the dye packets out of the water.

Colour

I have abandoned the evening class. It wasn't going in a direction that interests me and I found I was resenting time I felt I should spend on preparing materials for it. When it came to a choice between the class and dyeing, spinning and knitting there was no real decision to make.

I've been experimenting with the Landscape dyes again. I've run out of yellow, so most colours are on the blue side of things. Here are two skeins of merino yarn and some bfl tops.

 

The skeins were dyed by the cold-pour method, wrapped in clingfilm and steamed in a pan on the stove. The tops were dyed by the hot-pour method, where you bring your potful of water and fibre up to just below boiling, pour on your dyes and simmer for a while. It's interesting that I actually used more diluted dyes on the skeins than on the wool, but I suppose the extra water in the pot has diluted the colours on the right.

The yarn is some superwash merino that I bought online. It was described as dk, but I think it's much finer. I will try using it for socks and therefore I was aiming for stripes. We'll see!

Last night I dyed more of the yarn in more pastel colours, again by the cold-pour method. I think a couple of skeins have worked quite well. This morning I've dyed a batch of shetland dk that I bought off eBay - this time in the hot pot. I was disappointed to find that there was moth damage on this yarn, so the best thing was probably to dye it!

Knitting continues on the handspun Weaver's Wool Mini Shawl. I'm finding it easy to remain monogamous to this project.

Posting this before my computer goes batty again

 

I'm having a lot of fun knitting some of my hand-dyed, handspun blue-faced leicester wool into the 'Weaver's Wool Mini Shawl'. It's basically a triangular from-the-top shawl but with extra increase lines which give it a more rounded shape. The increases on the long, top edge are made twice as often as the inner increases, so the two outer edges will eventually extend in long points. The wool is very soft and I'm happy with the random effects of splitting the dyed tops and spinning it as it comes. Here's the cake of yarn:

When the blue is finished I have some darker greeny blue from the same dye pot and some red from another batch as a contrast.

Last week I was working on this sock, in  lovely orange Koigu:    

I did the toe but found the sock was too short. I've ripped it back but haven't yet redone the toe. I designed the sock myself and like the pattern, but wish I'd lined up the garter stitch triangle better. I will adjust on the second soc

This and that

 I've written up the chicken egg cosy pattern. I don't claim originality, but I've tweaked and amalgamated a few similar patterns that I found online. I've included a link on the side 'Files' menu. This is going to be one of the projects that people can do in the office fundraising workshops I'll run later this summer.

I've now done three weeks of my 10-week evening class at the City Lit, on pattern and colour in textiles. The course is mainly to do with printing on textiles, with a  theme for the term: 'the fabric of the city'. So far we've done block printing, screen printing and mono printing. We have to make a sketchbook of  ideas, which I've never done before and am finding great fun. In the sketchbook you're supposed to collect ideas, play around with the images you collect, record thoughts and research.  First we had to go out and photograph interesting things around us in London that could form the basis of patterns. Because I work in Bloomsbury I took pictures around the streets and squares near the university. I think my angle is going to be 'hidden gardens' and I'm hoping to do something with iron and trees - not sure what yet!

 

Little things

There is often something very charming about little things, I think. I've been playing around with the various chicken egg cosy patterns and have worked out my own version.

 

Three stitches are used: rib, stocking stitch and garter stitch. There's also casting on and casting off. I think it's be a fun project for my workshop.

Here are some crimson laced primroses (I don't think they're auriculas...) in the garden. Small but lovely!