Seasons

"To everything there is a season...". Living in Minnesota really makes that clear! There is little you can do to alter it, so you have to make the best of whatever season you are in. When your work is tied to nature you can't always do what you want when you want. You give up some of that control.
Even though a new calendar year has started, there is little new yet. January is consistently a long, cold, snowy month. This year is no exception. It is in the 20's below, windy and snowing today. At least the days are getting longer!

Looking at it another way, I am warm, in my spinning room, spinning the last of the wool I have ready to spin. I have music playing, a space heater toasting my toes, and a good cup of tea.  The dogs are asleep on the floor around me. Cozy! Even though it is the dead of winter, there is plenty to do. This is a good time to catch up from last year and get ready for the busy days of spring. 

                                                

Soon everything will all change. It is sort of like waking up from a nap. Sheering will start in about a month. Then lambing. Then things start to poke through the snow. It will be time to get the garden ready for another year, and there will be new plants to dye with. While I am spinning, my mind is wandering to warmer days. I am anxious to start dyeing outside again.

I have been thinking a lot about expanding my repertoire of dye plants by enlarging the dye garden. There are several plants and shrubs I want to add. The garden catalogues are coming in almost daily. I have been researching which plants work well for dyeing, although I have no plans to abandon the happy accidents of the last year! I also have to do the renovation on my camper! I plan to use that to attend shows and festivals as well as to get to new places to forage for dye stuff.

It seems like a quiet time of year, the middle of winter. But actually, it is a very needed and busy time. You just have to agree to do the things that need doing now and wait until the proper season to do the others.

Why use natural plant and insect dyes?

Why take the time to create colors from nature that are not reproducible, are time consuming to create, and often have surprising results? People are drawn to it for many reasons.  It is a form of personal expression; a way of creating something purely unique; of developing a closer relationship with color and with the world around us. It is usually more time consuming than using commercial dyes, often requiring a number of steps. It is not reproducible, in that you will likely never create exactly the same results more than once. But the results are rarely completely without merit, whether they teach us something new or show us a surprising twist of nature. Even if we end up with a color we are not happy with, all is not lost. We can over-dye with another color, after-mordant the wool with a different material, or blend the wool with other colors.

I think of dyeing with natural dyestuff as an extension of the art of creating my own fiber. We can think about color in much the same was as any other part of the fiber. No two animals produce the exact same fleece. The wool from one animal changes depending on what part of the animal the wool is from and from year to year. The fleece from one animal will never be quite the same from one sheering to another. This is due in part to aging, food, environment, health, and many more variables.

Plant and insect dyes are much the same. They differ from plant to plant, time of year, year to year, soil types, water characteristics, and much more. When we add in all the other variables of creating the dye bath and dyeing the fiber such as, mordants, assists, timing, water used to make the bath, type of pot the dye bath is created in we start to appreciate how individual each “dye experiment” is.

I think all this helps to make each piece I create something truly unique and individual. That is the reason I am drawn to natural dyes. It is the same reason that I spin my own fiber, raised my own animals, and processed the fiber by hand or at most at a small mill. It is easy to purchase commercial yarns that are created in commercial mills using wool pools and chemical dyes to ensure consistency. And you can use that to create things from other people’s patterns, or create your own. You could just purchase that sweater rather than bothering with any of it! It is all on a continuum. We each choose jump in where we feel comfortable.

Natural Dye Class Scheduled

This morning I went to Dakota Fiber Mill to meet with Chris Armbrust, owner-operator, to discuss the class I will be presenting there in a few weeks. I love going to see her! She is always so enthusiastic and full of information.  The class is scheduled for Saturday, February 1, 2014. We have room for six participants in a class. Each participant will be given four hanks of wool yarn to play with.  We will be dyeing with red cabbage, onion skins, and walnut hulls. There will be lots of fun and information. Lunch will be served. The cost of the class is $45. All supplies will be provided. The class will run from 9am to around 4pm. To sign up contact Chris at Dakota Fiber:

        Phone:1-701-238-4002; email: dakotafibermill@gmail.com

It should be a lot of fun. We will learn about dyeing with plants and get to play with fiber and dye pots. Also, if you have not been to the mill before, it is a great chance to come and look around, see how things work. There are also a lot of furry critters to meet!

Chris has added a store and classroom area next to the mill. Of course I had to shop before I could leave! I bought some wool, some yarn, a Dakota Fiber Mill t-shirt. I checked out a lot of her other goodies, a line of soaps for humans, laundry and dogs, wool wash, greeting cards, and other fun stuff.  She has knitting and needle felting  supplies and lots more. I wish I had brought my camera along. It would be nice to have taken some pictures.

Chris has a new lodger, a camel named Abraham. He has been there about a month. He is very friendly. She also raises a number of sheep, angora goats, angora rabbits, and suri alpaca. She also has a couple yaks. Cola, the dog and a talking bird keep her company in the mill.

I purchased several different rovings. I had a hard time restraining myself from buying lots of her yarns. She has beautiful yarn, spun in the mill. Some of it is natural colors and some is dyed. She has a lot of different kinds of fiber right there at the farm to play with and mix. She has some really wonderful yarn. I can't wait to knit with it.

I am excited about this class. It will be fun to play with dyeing again! I haven't had much time to do it since last fall. It should be a lot of fun.

Happy New Year!

It is very cold here on the first day of 2014. The high is to be 7 below; with the wind it feels like 23 below. The low tonight is to be 23 below. This is good weather to stay inside and knit, spin, weave, or whatever moves you.

I have finished several new projects lately, including the cowl at the left. This is a very quick pattern, knit out of some of my Icelandic wool spun into a two ply worsted weight yarn. The pattern for this cowl will be posted later.


I also crocheted several pairs of slippers from some of  my bulky spun two-ply wool. This is a grey pair I made for a friend. I also made several other pairs that have been given as gifts. They are fast and easy and especially ware made out of wool. I thought that the Pom-poms added a special touch reminiscent of the era this slipper is from. Some things are too good to forget!

We still have one more Christmas celebration. We will be getting together with my husband's family this weekend. My nephew and his new wife (they were married this summer) both teach in a small village in Alaska. They will be joining us. They are expecting a baby in April. They won't get back down here until next summer so we are having a baby shower as well this weekend. I found this little swearter pattern on Ravelry.com (Fast Baby Cardigan by Jan Cullen). I changed the buttons and designed the hat to match.

The pattern is very easy to follow. She has included several sizes, two different trim edges, and directions for boy or girl. I knit this out of Misty Baby Alpaca. It is so soft and snugly. I am hoping to get more items made before April to send up to the baby. It is hard, not knowing whether it is a girl or a boy! This is the first grandchild/niece/nephew on that side of the family so everyone is excited.

I also decided to try to design a crocheted headband and flower. They are so popular right now. This one buttons in the back of the neck for ease of wearing. It should keep someone's ears very warm. 

DYEING CLASS SCHEDUlED!!!

The date for the natural dyeing class has been set. It will be held at Dakota Fiber Mill in Kindred, ND in the first Saturday in February. The class will run from 9am to 4pm. Lunch will be served. All supplies will be provided, just wear old clothes or an apron. We will be dyeing with onion skins, red 

cabbage, and walnut hulls. Yarn to dye will be provided. The cost is $45 per person. Please contact Kristi at  Dakota Fiber Mill if you are interested in joining us for this class. Should be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there. 

Before I sign off I want to thank all of my readers for joining me on this journey into the exploration of color, fiber, and a few side trips...I have enjoyed writing this blog. I plan to write more about natural dyeing and fiber production in the coming year. I have ideas for informative blogs on dye stuff, mordants, and gathering. I will also be sharing patterns as the are created and tested. I want to wish you all the very best in the coming year!