HAND DYED YARNS for knitting, crochet and weaving

Pictures of some of the hand dyed yarns that Linda's Treehouse currently has to offer:

"Lourie" Merino Superwash DK (double knit)

100g/186m, needle 3.5-4.5:

"Kingfisher" fingering pure Merino, 1 ply,  100g/360m, knit with 3 - 4mm needles:

"Sunbird", Merino Lace Yarn, 1ply, 50g/335m:

"Papagayo", sport weight, merino superwash
 with a lot of twist, lovely to knit with,
100g/230m:

 The colour range changes frequently. Contact me to learn which colours are available

Fresh off the Loom:

Alpaca Blanket, which will be much used in our current chilly winter temperatures.

Size: 1.50 x 1.35 m

Warp Alpaca fingering, hand- dyed

Weft hand-dyed Alpaca DK

TIE-DYED WARP

                                                                               

                                                                       

                                                                                

                                                                                   

LACE ACCENTS

The latest shawl has only a few stripes of wild lace to show off the colour changes. The turquoise border shows the same (feather&fan) pattern with the WS rows in purl instead of knit stitches. The wide wavy border is worked in short rows.

WILD WEAVING

Scarf or a necklace? Several silk, mohair and cotton yarns woven on the 30cm Rigid Heddle Loom, embellished with beads and dyed silk cocoons. 

WILD KNITTING LACE SHAWL

This shawl was knit with a Merino/Alpaca blend lace yarn hand dyed with cochenille (see earlier post). I used 5mm needles to achieve a nice drape and lightness of fabric.

Merino/Alpaca Lace garn gestrickt mit 5 mm Nadeln. Das Tuch ist weich und luftig 

DYEING WITH COCHENILLE

Today I dyed with cochenille for the first time. There was some disappointment caused by lack of information and some pleasant surprises:

Heute habe ich das erste Mal mit Cochenille gefaerbt. Einige Ergebnisse waren enttaeuschend, aber es gab auch angenehme Ueberraschungen

I had 500g of silk yarn that I wanted to dye a strong bright red. Well, that didn't happen - the 200g I put into the first dye lot turned out pink instead. The first dye lot also produced a very dark almost burgundy red merino which I had expected.

Ich hatte 500g Seidengarn, das ich knallrot faerben wollte. Das hat nicht geklappt. Die 200g in der ersten Faerbeflotte wurden pink. Ein Strang Merino Garn wurde dunkel burgunder rot wie erwartet.

                                            silk                                     merino

I put another 200g of the silk into the second dye lot which produced a pale salmon colour that I didn't like at all. And a dark red Alpaca lace yarn which - and that was the pleasant surprise - brightened considerably in the final vinegar bath. After taking out the Alpaca I added some iron water (some nails left in a jar with water). This produced a powder purple/pink in the silk which I can see turning more towards mauve as it dries, and a dark mauve in another skein of merino/bamboo.

200g Seide in der 2ten Faerbeflotte wurden blass lachsfarben, was mir gar nicht gefiel. Ein Strang Alpaca Garn wurde dagegen dunkelrot und spaeter im Essigbad heller und leuchtender Rot - das war die angenehme Ueberraschung. Ich nahm das  Alpaca Garn raus und gab etwas Eisenwasser zu dem Farbbad. Nun wechselte die Seide zu einem puderigen lila/rosa das beim Trocknen zunehmend malvenfarben wild. Ein Strang Merino/Bambus wurde dunkel malvenfarben.

 
     silk           alpaca          merino/bamboo


For the third dye lot I had only 100g of merino/bamboo left which turned a lighter shade of mauve. I could possibly have gone on to dye softer shades of powder pink/mauve but unfortunately didn't have more fibre prepared.

Fuer die dritte Faerbeflotte hatte ich nun nur noch 100g Merino/Bambus uebrig, das etwas heller wurde als in der 2ten Faerbeflotte. Ich denke, ich haette noch weiter sanftere Toene faerben koennen, hatte aber leider nicht mehr Garne vorbereitet.

                                        merino/bamboo

Should I be able to lay my hands on some more cochenille I would like to try this again.
Sollte ich nochmals an cochenille kommen, wuerde ich es gerne nochmal probieren. 

DYEING WITH REED - FAERBEN MIT SCHILFBLUETEN

Six shades of yellow and green were the result of dyeing with reed.

For the three greens iron water was added to the dye pot. (nails left in water in a glas bottle for several days)

I followed Dorothea Fischer's recipe in her book "Naturfarben auf Wolle und Seide"   and found that I need a lot less reed blooms than the recipe mentioned (only a bit more than half the amount). I presume that due to our climate - the stronger sun and warmer temperatures - the dye yielded by the plants might be much more effective than in the middle European climate. 

Sechs Gelb- und Gruentoene habe ich beim Faerben mit Schilf erzielt. Fuer die Gruentoene wurde dem Farbbad Eisenwasser zugesetzt (Naegel in einem Marmeladenglas mit Wasser bedeckt fuer mehrere Tage).

Ich habe Dorothea Fischers Rezept aus ihrem Buch "Naturfarben auf Wolle und Seide" benutzt und fand, dass ich bedeutend weniger Schilfblueten brauchte als das Rezept angibt (nur etwa die Haelfte). Ich vermute, dass dies an unserem Klima in Sued Afrika liegt; durch die starke Sonne und die hoeheren Temperaturen koennte die Farbeffizienz hoeher sein als im mitteleuropaeischen Klima.

For comparison: the first skein on the left was dyed with onion skins, the second with carrot leaves and the three following skeins with reed blooms.

Zum Vergleich: der erste Strang links wurde mit Zwiebelschalen, der zweite mit Karottenblaettern und die drei naechsten mit Schilf gefaerbt.

GILET WITH COLLAR - WESTE MIT KRAGEN

Left over Noro Silk Garden Lite and hand spun yarns were used for this gilet which also belongs to the WildKnitting family. The unusual shape is achieved by using short rows and results in a wide swinging piece with a collar.

Fuer diese Weste habe ich Reste von Noro Silk Garden Lite und mehrere hand gesponnene und gefaerbte Garne benutzt. Die etwas ungewoehnliche Trapezform entsteht durch verkuerzte Reihen; sie ergibt eine lange, weit schwingende Weste mit Kragen.

A wide strip was added to make the gilet longer. Irregular placement of feather & fan segments makes the stripes less severe and gives movement and structure to the knitting.

An der unteren Kante habe ich einen breiten Streifen angestrickt, um die Weste laenger zu machen. Das ungeplante, unregelmaessige Einsetzen von feather&fan Mustersaetzen laesst die Streifen ineinander fliessen.

Unfortunately, my beautiful model was not available.

Leider stand mein huebsches Model nicht zur Verfuegung.

Blue Waves Moebius

The construction is the same as in the previous Moebius wrap, this time knitted in the Feather & Fan pattern. The yarn is an Alpaca yarn from Serena Alpacas which I hand dyed in different shades of blue.

There are at several different ways to wear a Moebius wrap.

















Our son's lovely fiance is modeling.

CRAVING COLOUR - LUST AUF FARBEN

Last month during a trip to Germany my friend Ute and I went to the north of the country to the area around Hamburg and the small town of Geesthacht where we visited Dorothea Fischer. Dorothea lives in a lovely house which greets you with colours: Wherever you look you find large baskets with yarns  in all colours of the rainbow and clouds of silk scarves in any possible shade from dark to pastel. 











Even the pot plants flower in pinks and purples.

The yarns - silk/cashmere/merino/alpaca and mixtures of these - are all hand dyed with plants.

Dorothea teaches plant dyeing and Ute and I hope to be able to participate in one of Dorothea's classes next year. 

I purchased the pattern for the poppy flower shawl and hope I will be able to start knitting it soon.












Go to Dorothea's website to see her yarns and the interesting knitting patterns she has for sale. 

here is the link: www.lustauffarben.de

Gilet and Scarf

simple tabby woven on 4 shafts . Marina gave me the pattern for the gilet. 

 The scarf was knit with the silk/alpaca yarn that was mentioned in an older post.

T

Food Colours

Experimenting with food colours again. The multicoloured tops show quite strong colours - just what I wanted. 

I'll try to keep the colour sequence and not mix the colours during spinning. 

Brag

admittedly, i am not too fond about the expression 'brag' but that is the word the guild members use when members show their latest projects.

During the Fibre Break Away in September we also had one "brag"evening (instead of the originally planned fashion show). This is what i had to show:

The gilet is constructed from several squares woven on the diagonal frame with merino that i had dyed and spun before. the edges are knitted. It was a bit of a gamble as i didn't have a lot of this particular yarn - i have about 10 cm left over from the multicoloured yarn and a little bit more of the blue. Phew - just made it :-)

DYEING WOOL

back from germany and trying to get used to the cold temperatures at night and in the mornings i woke up this morning to an amazing 20.6 degrees C. the 'berg wind' gave us this wonderful warm weather (it'll most probably also bring rain tonight or tomorrow, therefore we have to enjoy it as long as it lasts).

last week i had tried to buy the dylon dyes for wool that i previously used but had

to learn that the product has been changed. the packages are larger and more expensive of course and - surprise, surprise - a 50g package of dye powder for about 4 times the price also dyes only 250g of fabric/fibre! it was also not clear from the text on the package what the dye would look like on wool (lighter than cotton was all the information given). well, we won't know before we try:

i mixed the dye powder of one pack

age with 250g of salt, added 500 ml warm water and stirred until dye powder and salt were dissolved. then i added another 3 l of cold water, stirred and added 300g of wet merino tops. they instantly took on colour, after 30 min i decided to add another 200g of wool. after an hour of soaking i removed the wool from the dye bath. the 200g added later turned out much lighter. several rinses were necessary to remove any access dye which however seemed to have lost its dyeing power. the 'ocean blue' i used came out as a strong royal blue. the second skein was dyed with 'denim blue'

pros: 1. no heating/simmering, 2. easy to add additional wool after short periods of time to gradate colours from dark to light 3. fast results

cons: 1. price (between R34 and R56 per package, depending on the colour - the little tins used to cost between R13 and R16), 2. most shops don't carry the whole range of colours, product has to be ordered.

Carol, i am sure you can give a more scientific explanation about these dyes. what are they? fibre reactive? or...?

UFOS

before flying to germany for 3 weeks i am trying to finish as many ufos as i can.

one of these ufos is a waist coat consisting of three squares woven on a 40x40 frame with a thick yarn hand spun from merino tops dyed with carrot leaves.

I wanted to finish the piece with crochet borders and found that the thick yarn that

was perfect for frame weaving was too thick for the crochet borders; they turned out to be too chunky.

well, not a problem. if you spin your own yarn you can spin it anyway you need it. i just sat down and spun a thinner singles yarn (for crochet it didn't have to be plied) and now i was able to achieve the look i wanted

DYEING HANDSPUN ALPACA/SILK

one single baby alpaca was spun and one single silk (didn't enjoy spinning the silk - this is really hard work) and then plied.

the colour idea was hot reds, pinks and oranges for a chilli mix.

my favourite way of mixing colours is to pour the dye solution into a little bowl and use a sponge to saturate sections of the yarn (or top) with the dye

now all the different colours are added and i will put
the skeins on top of each other and roll them into a big fat roll, put them into an oven bag (thank you for that idea, carol) and then put the bag into my big dye pot with water. that went onto the gas stove to simmer for approx. 30 min.

i let the water cool down over night (outside to give michael a chance to cook dinner - aren't i lucky!!!)

the next morning i rinsed the skeins in cool water. not much rinsing was necessary - there was hardly any dye remaining.

...and after drying this is what i got: not red hot chilli peppers but beautifully soft shades of pink, purple, orange and red - just like the hibiscus in front of the house.

not what i wanted - but - i am pleased.

and start thinking about what to make with this soft yarn. a scarf?