What have I done!?

Seriously...
I didn't have enough to do? Mother-of-pearl.

This past weekend, I went to Victoria, BC. More importantly, I went to Knotty by Nature! They are the most fabulous shop! It is a spinners/weavers/knitters paradise!

I saw of their faceook page a while back that they were going to have fleeces from Jacob sheep. !!!!
!!! I LOVE Jacob sheep. Their fleece is brilliant to spin... which is great. But WAY more importantly, they have four horns. Which is the most super black metal thing ever, right!?






So now I have to skirt this fleece. And wash it....
Waiting for a sunny day to do it!

Making Mordants

For those interested in Natural dyeing:
We wildcraft a lot of our dyes...
And we have the ready ability to make mordants!

Fantastic isn't it.

Let's back this up a little.

Where I live (Coast Salish Territories, Vancouver BC) there are SO many dyes to go collect. But there is magic in making your own mordants. I collected rusted pieces of metal from one of my garden plots. That is what i'm using for the iron mordant. For the copper, i'm using some thich copper wire i've had laying around the studio for a while!

For the iron, I put the rusted metal into a jar. I then put in 2 parts water, and 1 part white vinegar. I labeled the jar as such, and put it out on my porch.

For the copper, I put the copper wire into jars. I then filled the jars with 1 part water, and 1 part white vinegar. I also labeled these jars, and put them out on the porch.

These jars living on my porch have good company. As of right now there are 12 jars of various things being solar dyed. (A few of them are experiments to show what different mordants can do! Also, there are skeins of hanging naturally dyed yarns, and pots of dye plants growing. I think that all of these things together make the house look quite witchy, and that makes me happy!

So now I wait! The jars of copper mordants will turn blue, and they will be ready to use. The iron jar will become the colour of light tea, and it will be ready!

I can refill these jars again and again with their respective water/vinegar solutions, and continue to get my own homemade mordants!

Knitscene Accessories!

Did you hear?
The Knitscene accessories 2013 issue came out today for pre-order!

Want to know something else?
I've got one article, and two patterns in it!!

Brutally Beautiful

I have a friend.
She takes the most striking photos.

Want to see them?
She did a set of me playing in magnolia trees.

Lessons learned:
-Magnolia petals taste gross
-Amanda is a wizard

Amanda is a lady that not only takes photos of things, and makes them look amazing... but she also builds fantastical sets for her photos. The photos she did of Jess Hill take my breath away!!

Want to see them!? Here they are!

So the photo set she did of me are here....

Look at all of her things!!
Her website:
http://bebrutallybeautiful.ca

Her facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/brutallybeautiful?directed_target_id=0

Also, she makes jewelery... I have 2 of her pieces. !!! <3 And I love them! 
Right now on her etsy, she has bolo ties. They're fantastical!!


And finally....
I took this photo from her website....

Brilliance

Would you like to see the blog of someone great?

I met this lady when she was living in Vancouver, and she is super-rad! Also a natural dyer, and pattern designer!

She moved back to the UK, so I don't get to see the things she makes in real life... but I get to read her blog!

Pom Pom

The Summer issue of Pom Pom Quarterly came out today!

I have two patterns in it!!

I just today got to see the photos of all of the work!! It is so terribly exciting to see!

Solar Dyeing

Today I taught a solar dye workshop at Baaad Anna's, and it was seriously awesome. I got to bring six rad people into the natural dye world!

I told them I would blog about me rinsing out a skein of solar dyed yarn from my last class. (Hi guys!! Thanks for being so awesome in class today!)

So here it is:
The yarn is dk weight 100% merino yarn from Pollika. Seriously fantastic yarn.

The mordant things were alum and cream of tartar.

The dyes were henna, onion skins, and logwood extract.

They had been sitting in the sun on my porch for a few months.

When I opened the yarn it smelled gross... but not that bad.

I rinsed it outside with the hose, and mint Dr.bronners soap.

Here it is!