ArgoKnot

ArgoKnot
A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life
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dyeing

Perfect May

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This wisteria vine is growing along the walk I take most days.  This and the azaleas and the spring green of unfurling ferns are what lures me outside each day.

I will enjoy playing with these two images for a tapestry cartoon, even if I never actually weave them.  Back at home I discovered a few mushrooms from the recent damp weather.  I’ve cut them and brought them in for identification.

I think they are Agaricus arvensis which are very common gilled mushrooms.  Part of identifying a mushroom involves getting a gill print on white paper (or black paper if the gill print is white). This gill print is a deep grey tinged with purple, very similar to the color of the gills themselves as you can see in the photo above.

This mushroom mostly gives tan, beige and grey in the dyebath; not too exciting since wool naturally comes in those colors.  But if I mordant with tin (and yes, I do have that) I might get a golden brown.  I’ve got 12 oz. of mushrooms, so it is a bit tempting…. and I actually remember where my dye pots are!

And there is news of Bob today.  The wind continues quite favorable for sailing, and he is now in the Gulf Stream so that current is pushing Pandora to speeds over 10 knots.  He is WAY offshore, but roughly the same latitude as the southern part of Georgia.  That’s a lot of ground covered in 48 hours.

Summer is for Workshops

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Getting ready for my first summer workshop!  A trip to New Hampshire for a day of indigo dyeing.  Luckily no mordant is needed for indigo dyeing, but my yarns must be clean and free of sizing and dirt, so I gave them a good soak in Eucalan and hung them out to dry!

Harrisville Designs

I started the weekend with a trip to Harrisville Designs.  What a scenic spot!  The building further in the distance houses the retail shop and the workshop studios.  Other buildings house the spinning operation for the yarns and the woodworking shop for building the looms.

Harrisville Public Library

This was the first sweltering hot day of the summer, so it was lovely to be in a town so full of water.  The library sits just a short walk from the Harrisville Design buildings and is on a large body of water called Harrisville Pond.  Such still water here funnels into a stream that rushes past the mill buildings in the previous photo.

A delightful place to have lunch, overlooking the Harrisville Design buildings, the rushing stream and the distant mountains!  What an idyllic spot!

The dyeing workshop took place at Long Ridge Farm in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, owned by Nancy Zeller.  The studio is on the right and includes a beautiful balcony on the back where we had lunch in the canopy of the surrounding trees. The barn is on the left.

Nancy Zeller (center) instructs us on making an indigo vat

The next morning was the workshop at Long Ridge Farm in Westmoreland, New Hampshire.  Another idyllic spot, with beautiful views of mountains, gardens, and sheep!  Nancy Zeller owns this bit of heaven and runs various workshops from her studio and barn.  We started the day in the studio, pictured here, but moved outside when the going got messy, and then moved into the barn when a thunderstorm passed by!  Through out it all, Nancy remained calm and organized!  She is a terrific teacher!

Mixing the stock solution from powdered indigo from India.

The color change: blue on top where the stock has oxygen, and yellow/green beneath where there is no oxygen.

Ready to Dye!

After the addition of Thiourea Dioxide and Lye (both of which get mixed separately with water in their own container before being added to the vat) we checked the color of our new indigo vat.  Yellow/Green color along with a Ph between 9 and 10 meant we were ready to dye!

My friend Susan standing near the growing skeins of indigo dyed yarns.

Look at all our gorgeous skeins of blue!  My friend Susan joined me for this workshop and she brought lots of cotton skeins which turned purply blues.  My skeins of merino and mohair and mohair/merino blends turned various shades of French blue!  It was so exciting!

The Artist Loft B&B in Brattleboro

During the weekend my friend Susan and I stayed at the Artist Loft just over the border in Brattleboro, Vermont.  What a lovely spot.  The large picture window overlooks the Connecticut River and the scenic bridge that crosses it. (You can tell I did not take this photo since there was no snow during our visit.)

View from the Artist Loft

Our stay was enhanced by a bit off shopping in Brattleboro.  The fabric shop Delectable Mountain Cloth is a must!  It is full of beautiful textiles, and I believe they are all natural fibers.  The food in Brattleboro was also a high point of the weekend!  Dinner at Fireworks and breakfast at Elliot Street Cafe were both great. The ultimate dining experience occurred at Burdick’s Restaurant in Walpole, New Hampshire!  That is a destination in itself!

Back home with my newly dyed skeins drying in the birch tree.  It was a great workshop, and I highly recommend Nancy Zeller as an instructor!  Her farm is a wonderful destination and she is a thorough and organized teacher.  What a terrific weekend!

Precious Materials

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Last week a friend of mine asked if I wanted to join her for the monthly meeting of the Westchester (NY) weaving guild.  They were having a guest speaker; she couldn’t remember whom.  She thought he was a tapestry weaver and a member of the “New York study group.”  I wracked my brain!  I should who this man is!…..but I didn’t!

So I went.  And of course I knew him when he arrived to speak.  It was Stanley Bulbach, who also happens to be a member of the Textile Study Group of New York. I’m so glad I took advantage of the opportunity to hear Stanley speak and to see a few of his rugs in person.

Stanley Bulbach

As many people may know, Stanley spins his own yarn.  I did not know that he does this on a homemade spinning wheel that is based on a bicycle wheel he upcycled for the purpose!  He spins yarn from Lincoln fleece, which is long and lustrous, and when he wants something other than the natural colors of this fleece he turns to natural dyes for additional color.  His rugs really glow, something you cannot imagine from a photograph  They are beautiful!

I know you can’t see his rugs well in these photos, and I’m sorry about that.  Trust me that my photographic ability wouldn’t do them justice anyway.

What I want to say about his rugs is that they have a presence.  Even if I didn’t know that he’d done all the fiber preparation by hand, that he’d created the yarns by hand, that he’d woven the rug entirely by hand…. I know I would still feel the presence of something extraordinary about them. …which leads me to the title I gave this post: there is something precious in the quality of work done by hand with precious materials.
 It shows.

He also spent a good deal of his presentation on the need for textile artists to better advocate for our chosen field.  Of course we do!  I am a perfect example of someone who has not recognized this facet of working in textiles, and since I am so ill equipped to cover this subject I’ll just pass you along to Stanley’s website.

(His photographs don’t do justice to his rugs either)…

Alchemy

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Natural dyeing is still gathering steam throughout the US.  
When we leave here I hope to take some weld and madder with me to start a new dye garden in Essex.

Photo from NYTimes of Sasha Duerr's dye liquors

At the end of summer,  I hope to find some local plums to make Damson gin! (Can you guess I’ve been watching Masterpiece Theatre’s “Marple” while knitting?…the one with Geraldine McEwan!)

And a visit to the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx yielded a day of intense color and a rise in my own creative sap by seeing the glories of spring!

 

I have an armillary sphere in my garden, and now I want to display it like this, on a pedestal, and grow a vine through it!  This was my ‘take away’ gem of the day!


Ending the trip with a Bang!

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My last few days in Maine will be spent riding out what remains of hurricane Irene when she hits these shores.  Hopefully she will be spent by the time she arrives, but everyone has to be prepared for the worst!

We are in a small island harbor called Pulpit Rock in Penobscot Bay. There is a big rock formation at the mouth of this natural harbor that does look a bit like a pulpit.  More than looking like a podium this rock is famous for having a 200+ year old osprey nest at the pinnacle of the pulpit.

Our preparations for the storm are almost complete.  We have two anchors out to keep us from swinging when the winds increase, all the sails are furled and lashed down, loose items have all been stored below.  The larder is well stocked so I intend to cook some comfort food today, perhaps an egg/veggie/cheese timbale, onion soup, and warm homemade chocolate pudding!

Chocolate Pudding from Cook's Illustrated

Thank heave there is a good internet signal because I got the chocolate pudding recipe from this month’s Cook’s Illustrated!

 

 

Also on my agenda after we have finished our storm preparations, is watching a couple of good spinning DVDs I have on board while doing some spinning! I have Margaret Stove’s “Spinning for Lace” and Judith McKenzie’s “A Spinner’s Toolbox,” both from Interweave Press!

Handpainted cotton roving "Phoenix Garden"

And in my large bin of toys I have some handpainted cotton roving from Girl Meets Spindle in a colorway called “Phoenix Garden.”  Now doesn’t this sound like a good plan for riding out a tropical storm?

So I’m hoping that wherever you are you are safe and dry, and doing something fibery on this stormy weekend.

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