This is a blank I dyed from my Sulfer Cosmos. The brilliant orange is with alum, the darkest orange is alum with an ammonia afterwash. I love how the colors come out. I'm planning on a 2nd dye with Annato to fill the white area with some yellow. Next time I plan on folding the blank (which I made myself) along the wide axis instead of the long one (if that makes sence). So each row will have all three colors. This blank is double stranded, so I will have 2x the yarn. One to share, one to keep.
I ran into a friend at a local craft store. Joansie and I had previously met at a knitting group in the local library, and again in a class (I think). Neither of us was in a rush, so we stopped to chat over coffee. She showed me a sweater she wasn't sure about. WASN"T SURE ABOUT??? The sweater was a lovely shade of blue with intricate cablework on the back and an interesting cable along the front. I wish I'd had a camera with me. (I only had a wallet, not even my phone).
She's an amazing knitter, so we're going to trade knitting lessons for dying lessons! (Fun but messy work). I had my Bosworth Charkha in the car, and since she'd never seen one she took pictures for her blog (which I bootlegged for mine).
This is getting the charkha ready to spin.
Here I'm spinning, then drawing the cotton puni out to make the thread. Once I get going I can turn the wheel and draw the thread at the same time. Just takes practice.
Here I'm packing things away. I always take fiber with me so I'm ready to spin any time I wish. The Bosworths make an amazing instrument, and theres enough room for me to take puni's along with me in the casing.
Ta Dah! My amazing Bosworth charkha and I!All in all it was a fun day.
Live well and dye happy,
Leah
That orange is so gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteIt was a fun day!!!! I'm glad we ran into each other. Did you read some of the comments about your charkha on my blog. Interesting!
Wow!!! So that is how you do it... I just crochet it...
ReplyDeleteSusan
Sulfur cosmos is super easy to grow (makes a great cut flower too). The more flowers you use, the deeper the colors you can get. From a pale orange through a REALLY dark one.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan. I wish I could say I knit it by hand, but the truth is that I used a borrowed knitting machine to make the blank. I plan on skeining the two strands separately. One will be used in a Dye-it-yourself swap, and the other kept for a project which hasn't made itself known to me yet. thanks so much for visiting. I hope you'll join my blog and follow along!
ReplyDelete