Natural Dyeing with Brazilwood: Mordanting

Last fall at Rhinebeck, a friend and I came across Norm Hall's booth. Norm handcrafts spinning wheels, doesn't have a website, and has a waiting list that is years long. His wheels are gorgeous.

I wasn't in the market for being on the 5 year waiting list, but I did notice that he had bags of brazilwood shavings for sale as a by-product. You can get some really nice reds from brazilwood in the dyepot.

Here is my chosen victim:



I had seven skeins of Rowan Purelife British Breeds in Blue Face Leicester in boring white. It's a nice round 3-ply chunky yarn. I am planning on making the Owl Sweater with it, but I didn't want a white one. BFL is a good candidate for natural dyes since it is a longwool and it doesn't felt easily. There is a lot of rinsing and moving the yarn around during this process and I find it soothing to use a wool that I don't have to obsessively worry about destroying.



I wound the balls of yarn onto my swift. It's faster to spin that sucker around then use a niddy noddy.



Once I had all seven skeins done, I put big lose ties on them in four places to keep it from tangling. Natural dying involves a lot of steps and moving the yarn around, so it's best to put a lot of ties on the skeins to avoid a mass of tangles. I threw the yarn in a warm soapy water bath. This is important- any dirt or oils from your hands or mill machines will make the dye take up unevenly. Getting the yarn wet will also help with dye intake- it will take up the mordant and dye more evenly if the yarn is soaked through.

While the yarn is soaking, I mix up the mordant. I use Alum, which is also used as pickling salts, so it's fairly non-toxic. I use a lot of precautions as I dye in my kitchen (and I use said kitchen to cook quite a bit) so I use the least toxic chemicals I can find. The mordant allows natural dyes to attain some degree of washfastness. If you don't use a mordant, the color will just wash out and end up all over your hands and clothes as you work with it. A mordant remains in the fiber permanently, holding the dye. It also effects the final color outcome.



I also added some cream of tartar. This will brighten shades and soften the yarn. I go by the rule of thumb of 4 oz of mordant to 1lb of goods, and 1 oz of C of T. If you use too much mordant, it will make the fiber brittle.

Dissolve the mordant and C of T in some warm water, and then add is to a larger pot of water.



Rise the soap out of the yarn and add it to the mordant pot. Then slowly, and carefully, bring the pot to a gentle simmer. Hold it at the simmer for an hour and occasionally rotate the yarn (don't stir, or you'll end up with a felted mass).

Once the hour is up, cut the heat and let the yarn cool down to room temperature. Take the yarn out and rinse it at the same temperature. I then put mine in plastic bins to keep it damp since it takes overnight to make the dye stock.

Up next: making the Oh So Pretty colors.

QIVIUT!

I did it. I spun Qiviut.



I'm thinking this will not make a practical backyard pet.

The undercoat fiber of the arctic musk ox is short, downy, super soft and incredibly warm. Musk Ox are the only large mammals who spend the winter above the arctic circle, so I'm pretty confident in its ability to stay warm. Spinning it was a challenge- it had teeny tiny staple length and it was very slippery. It needed a lot of twist or it would fall apart, but too much and it would turn into wire and snap. It let you know exactly when it was done. I didn't have to draft at all- the fibers just slid from my hands and on to the bobbin somehow.

The fiber:


This was a birthday gift from a dear, dear friend. June seemed a bit sticky to try this, but it was a perfect mid-winter pick me up.

The single:


It took me no time to spin up two bobbins. Like I said, this stuff just flies out of your hand. It took me a while to get started, but once I got my tension correct it was just peachy. Can I just take this chance to sing songs of praise about the Majacraft Gem? As much as I love my Kromski Minstrel, the Gem works so much better than any other wheel I've spun on when it comes to fine downy fibers. It's super-sensitive to treadling and tension, which is exactly what you want when spinning a fiber like this.

The 2ply yarn:


This was taken before I set the twist in a warm bath and a good thwack. It's much more even and full now, but it's so dark and stormy today that I'm not getting good enough light to do this justice. I was pleasantly surprised while I was plying this, as I was unsure if I would end up with the singles coming apart. Thankfully, it only happened twice. I'll take that as a sign that my spinning is improving!

I ended up with 280 yards of laceweight 2-ply out of 2 oz. Qiviut blooms like a muthah once it's knitted up and worn a couple times. The bloom traps more air and makes the garment even warmer. There are a lot of traditional Inuit lace patterns specific to qiviut- most of them are delicate scarves, hats and cowls. While not a traditional lace pattern, I like this Smokering.

FO- Plaid Scarf

I have mixed feelings about weaving. I know a lot of people who weave love the entire process including the warping. That's just unbelievable to me. Maybe it's because there's math involved, it's tedious and you have to plan it out in advance. One wrong move and you end up with a tangled mass of angry yarn. That seems like the perfect storm of things that will create unnecessary bitchiness, meltdowns, and loom-tossing.

Aside from that mess, I'm pretty in love with weaving.







This scarf is big enough to wrap around your neck three or four times, which is great since I'm sending it off to keep necks warm in Maine. Since warping takes me forever, I tend to make enormously long pieces just to get as much weaving time as possible. I'll cut them in half and make two scarves if I have to- anything to delay putting on more warp. Once you get started weaving, it doesn't take too long at all. I probably did this in five or six hours (oooh, maybe I should mention that since it's a birthday gift and more than a month late), and it's at least 7 feet long. It's much faster than knitting, and it takes less yardage. You can make it as warm and dense or as airy and lacy as you would like.

Happy belated birthday, Mom! The package is in the mail.

Mothra

This brazen little bastard was flying around the living room on Sunday morning. My super kung-fu reflexes decimated it before I could ask it any questions.



I'm pretty sure the mister brought him in last weekend with a load of clothes stored at his mom's house. He came home happy that he found some clothes that still fit tucked away in a forgotten closet (I guess that's a suburban thing). How was he to know that he was bringing doom and destruction into the abode?

I am obsessively over-cautious about wool-eating pests. Everything woolie I own is stored in either a space-saver bag or in a bin. The exception is whatever I have for a work in progress- that's out. Lately I've, um, had quite a bit in progress. In springtime, I wash and carefully seal up all my sweaters for storage. I have sachets of lavender and cedar chips in every nook I can. I don't use mothballs since a) they are carcinogenic and b) they smell terrible. All the window screens are checked for tears and holes every spring. Why, Mothra, WHHHHYYYYY?

It's just a waiting game now to see what the chosen larval meal might be. I have a bad feeling that it's something expensive. Something cashmere.

Spinning Romney

I'm starting to really revel in the winter weather. When I see the temperature plunge into the single digits I start squealing with glee. What other time of year encourages you to stay inside more than winter?

All those fleeces that I packed away after Rhinebeck are coming alive once again. The Romney fleece is coming along nicely. So far I've got 3 bobbins spun up and ready to be plied, and I'll probably need at least 3 more bobbins of singles. I've been carding more fleece as needed, so I'm always spinning from these ethereal fluffy batts. It makes the task at hand much more enjoyable.



Would it be asking for trouble if I started knitting before I was completely done spinning?

FO- Yarn Over Steek Vest

This one only took a couple days to make.




It's the Yarn-over Steek Vest by Teva Durham. I thought the overwhelmingly girly pink color of the sample garment wasn't right, but I liked the concept of the design.



I used 4 skeins of Rowan Soft Tweed that I had dyed first in a henna exhaust bath and then in an alkanet exhaust. The end result was very brown and earthy looking. I thought it was a good match for a raw, organic looking garment.



I made some changes to the armhole and shoulders. I wasn't getting row gauge (not even close) and it's one of those patterns where it factors in. I just fudged the decreases and added rows until it was big enough, while keeping the yarn-overs going in the middle.

It's a sexy, but wearable.



I was going to finish the armholes with some crochet, but decided that the raw look didn't detract from the rest of the piece.



The specs: I used 4 skeins of Rowan Soft Tweed- about 435 yards. I used size 11 needles, and then fudged the pattern to accommodate my row gauge- I did rows of plain st stitch in between armhole decreases and I didn't decrease as much for the shoulders. This is the large size, but I added some decreases to shape the waste and ended up with the stitch count of the medium.

The open front means it's very stretchy and form-fitting. It's one of those unusual pieces that you need a little attitude to wear.

A is for Aarlan Arwetta

Of course. Let my maddening alphabet game begin.



I picked up 3.5 skeins (735 yards) from Catherine Knits when she was destashing. It's a Swiss yarn that claims on the website that it's been discontinued. I saw it stocked in a lot of department stores in a gazillion colors while I was there for about $3 US dollars a skein. It's 75% superwash wool (or, as the label informs me, it's "hot washable") with 25% nylon and acrylic. It's a tightly twisted 4-ply. It seems like a good, workhorse yarn. Not too soft. Not too scratchy.

I decided to use it to cast on for the Shetland Shorty. It's a boob-holster that will use up about 600 yards. It's reputed to move along quite quickly.

And so begins my destash adventure.