The garden - my main source for natural dyeing

A beautiful bright Easter weekend here and today there is no wind either, a truly beautiful day. 

Despite still battling food poisoning, and the resultant migraine I have managed to get in the garden on each of the last 4 days. It got rather neglected last year and I am trying not to play catch up all this year. 

I was cross with myself as last weekend I ate a hot cross bun without reading the label and that made me poorly. (I had to return to being dairy and onion free again!) this weekend I read the label brought and no mention of milk or cream or butter and I was still poorly although not so bad as the weekend before. 

I am pleased with the progress of the garden, last year we had the bamboo and its roots removed in March, a huge job! Today I completed the planting of two climbers and three trees to fill the spot. I am awaiting one more tree….. so more natural dyeing sources as they get established. On previous days I had cut the lawn/ moss patch and made straight edges on 3 sides of the bed under the apple tree….this looked so much better. The fourth side is going to join up with the side garden as I try and make cutting the lawn an easier job. 

The new bed, one more tree to arrive

I found a tremendous son and father who were apple tree pruning experts so the apple tree is in good shape and I have nearly got the cuttings stored away, some to be used as fire wood when dry and the bark of some to be used for natural dyeing and others for pea sticks etc in the garden. 

I don’t think you can see the sacks hanging at the back, they hold a stock of weld. 

Looking at the veranda 

The bark of apple gives a strong colour and these skeins all started with the basic apple bark colour and then had additives. These were dyed in 2016 and the colours are still strong. They were selected to be in the national exhibition of WSD, when it was held in the south west. 

Dyed with apple bark , left original natural wool colour, second left using apple bark 

At the end of last year I painted the covered veranda which adjoins the garden shed and this afternoon I treated myself to sitting in there. The only sound being bird song, the sun on my legs and able to enjoy the view. 

Looking out from the veranda 

Tomorrow’s job…deal with the  greenfly /whitefly on the roses… the wind has been too strong for me to feed the roses…how did they manage? 

I hope you all have had a lovely Easter too. 

A Baby Shawl in Knitweave

I have recently joined a knitting group which meets in Wymondham Abbey, (1) a beautiful space to sit and knit , drink coffee and chat.

I walk past this roof angel each time I go to knitting, I am always in awe of  the size and making of it

 

and the explanation

A request came via Norfolk Knitters and Stitches for Shawls for the neo natal group at the hospital. 

I am currently knitting the middle of the big Firth Shawl from Elizabeth Williamson. (2)

 

I am getting quite excited as I am half way through the 4th repeat of 4. ie the end is in sight. It is looking glorious. 

But this sort of shawl even if much smaller would not be suitable for such a  baby, the holes are too big! (See post of 24 Nov 25 for some photos)

I have had a Brother 830 knitting machine with 850 ribber since new about 1975/6. When we moved to Cheshire in 2001 I could not believe my knitting machine life. I lived a few miles from the legend that was Metropolitan Machine Knitting. It  was great  in may respects for good bin ends etc of yarn and more importantly courses. It was run by Carol  Hocknell who ran courses herself and had tutors of national and international repute. My machine knitting capabilities increased exponentially! 

2 of the many courses I attended were on Knitweave - the Audrey Palmer way. Audrey sadly was no longer with us  but had been a South African who had devised her own system of knitting with fine (synthetic), mainly crepe yarn, with another thicker synthetic yarn (eg acrylic) added by knitweave. Simply the yarn lays on the fabric’s surface and is held in place virtually invisibly by the finer yarn. When steamed this makes a very fine, stable fabric which drapes. (Thicker fabrics can be formed but they would be used for fabrics for skirts, jackets, etc. )

sample of the knitting

Also Audrey has also devised some great edgings and garments. I have 7 of her books, I think this is all she wrote. 

This is the main book

a sample of an edging

To get used to the system and how one can personally modify it, Audrey describes knitting a  baby blanket. I did this first course with Carol in April 2008

When my first grandson was born in May 2008, he had a traditional Shetland Shawl - square, knitted outside in.

And then this shawl I knitted on the course. 

This latter one looked great and was a very  useful addition, it could go into the washing machine endlessly and still look great. In fact it was also used with grandson 2 in 2013. Around that time I knitted several of these. 

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to knit another! First I found all my notes and started doing some samples, including off the edges. It came back to me fairly easily. I had modified Audrey's pattern by adding some Tuck rows too. The hardest thing was maintaining the correct order of the elements of the pattern. So many balls to keep in the air at once.

And once the shawl was done it needs steaming to make the shape perfect.  I dress it as I  would a Shetland shawl, and then there are the edges to add. I love Audrey's edges  -.so simple and  so effective. The first stage of each edge is to put one of the edges back on the needles, then the edge is knitted on using the knit machine. Again attention to detail, counting stitches, measuring lengths pays off. I like to use both threads I used in the shawl but this time treating them as one yarn.

Shawl dressing

Close up of edge, these are added to all 4 sides

The final shawl- I hope it is enjoyed

During lock down I knitted a top, and it is one that  doesn't crease either

This is described in a post here of 10 May 2020, or search on the right under ‘knitweave’.

Notes

1. Wymondham Abbey is well worth  a visit if you are in the area. It is very difficult to date the start of  the abbey, but a masonry wall underlying the south isle is unlikely to have been built before 1066.  ( ref Wymondham Abbey ed Paul Cattermole). For anyone  interested in Textiles there is on display  a replica  burse and associated information, one of the oldest pieces of embroidery in Britain, 700 years old!

2.Elizabeth Williamson, born in Shetland and from a line of Shetland Knitters, who designs  traditional shetland lace shawls. She, with her mother lead classes during Shetland Wool Week. She can be found at  Elizabeth Williamson Knitting.