A little bit of Felt

So to continue with documentation of my dyeing would let on that I've not been felting.  However, I did make a new piece.  A pillow.  I had a small piece of deep irregular blue silk and it was calling to me.  It looked like the night sky.  So I did a Rabbit jumped over the moon.  But...it looked more like a Poodle than a rabbit  =-)   A white Poodle.....with it's long ears flying behind him as he soars high into the sky.

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My camera is charged...waiting for the pokeberries to finish ... I'm letting them soak for a while longer.  Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was signed by Inkberry?  AKA Pokeberry juice?  After all these years the signatures are a faded brown.

Now... a little embroidery for detail. 

Dyeing without a Computer

Well, I've had the computer blues for some time now.  My main computer decided it's memory bank was full and would freeze leaving me with a wild screen of rectangles of color.  So instead of blogging and sharing...I took time off.  I spent time in the fresh air riding my new bike:

 So many temptations when the weather is so nice....but.... first I just had to take a walk and gather dye material.  =-)  The dogs searched and nosed around....but they couldn't tell the difference between oak galls and rocks!

But I found these.. the woods were full of acorns and oak galls this year...

I also picked lots of these....covered them with water and let them soak for a week...  Don't they look cheery sitting in that pot...waiting for the hot water?

Boy oh boy did they stink when I lifted the top of the crock pot this weekend.

I also decided to try some poke berries.  They stain the ground around them purple and when the birds eat them...well, the purple poopz do a number on your car paint.  They are the most gorgeous color...dark and inviting....but poisonous.  I love the fushia colored stems.

I also made up some walnut ink and added a pinch of iron.  This went into a quart canning jar with some silk .... but I will leave that for the next set of pictures.  My camera batteries have died and won't let me load up any more pictures....Ah, technology...

Goldenrod and the 3 Silks

So to continue my adventure....I started with this

 

trimmed the leaves and put the flowers in the first pot. It was brought to a simmer for an hour then strained and silk added.  As crazy as it seems I managed to leave it in the pot without looking, lifting or sneaking peak for a week.  When it was done and the silk removed, I added Tumeric and made a second pot. More silk was added.  But I hadn't thrown away those flowers.... all the stems and leaves were chopped, added then simmered on the stove.  It never boiled....just let off steam and occasionally flipped a leaf.  I then strained the leaf brew, added alum and put in some silk to make pot number three. 

They simmered all night, but at 5 am this morning the Big Bear (DH) woke me up and asked if those crockpots in the basement were suppose to be cooking all night.  =-)  He said it smelled like hot dogs!  But I got this:

  

The middle is butter yellow...flowers no mordant...not sure how color fast it will be.  The left is flowers and tumeric...a most gorgeous gold.  The right is leaves, stems, 2nd dip flowers with alum....the golden brown is where the edges peeked out from the brew.

And I was happily pleased after.

Next....I'm looking at these

 

Found in my wild garden.