Something I'm really proud of is that it's made entirely of PLANT DYED wool fibres SPUN by ME. Most of the feather and fan pattern (a new one for me, and I'm a uh, fan) was dyed by fibre artist Helen of My Heart Exposed from her Folksy shop. She (and her daughters) are really inspiring plant dyers. I want her to write a book so I can learn much more about plant dyeing...
The rest of the yarn was plant dyed by me, one ply mainly greens, the other purples to oranges to greens to pinks, and I love the shifts. It's really subtle, but striking, even at Wonderwool it was noticed, and that was Thee Place to Wear Your Handmade Shawl. My only regret is that a tiny portion of mystery fibre near the neck is scratchy, but not so bad. Hey, I'm just amazed I can do this, from dyeing, to spinning, to actually Knitting A Lace thing! Next stop owning and shearing sheep ( my pal Cathleeds is threating this as a reality....) Thanks to her for taking us (incl kids) to Wonderwool. Also loads of thanks to Helen for her fibre and just being an inspiration generally....
Plant dyed! Wow! It looks awesome! What did you use for dying?
ReplyDeleteSpinning and dying is definitely in my to-do (well, to-learn) list.
(I started blogging recently so you are more than welcome to come and visit me :) www.rodprjonar.blogspot.com)
Happy Easter!
absolutely brilliant Rachel :)
ReplyDeleteThanks you two! There were so many plants used for dyeing I'm not sure I can remember them all, but some are Turmeric, onion skins, red cabbage,goldenrod, nettles, brazilwood, madder, elder and logwood (probably) maybe some horseradish too... probably some old indigo overdyed with nettles too for some of the greens. The only problem with spinning and Dyeing you own yarns is that then all my knitting projects take at least twice as long :)
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