Dyeing the yarn for Shetland Wool Week 1

I knitted a sample hat to work out how much yarn to dye and tried to remember to note the length of each colour used! I tried to use colours something like I was aiming to use.

All dyeing was carried out on well scoured yarn which was mordanted with alum and cream of tartar.

Following the picture (post of August 19th)
The left hand side DEEP PINK
This will be the centre area of the crown (as in the sample hat) and is the most striking part of the hat. It was one of the most straightforward to dye. It was dyed with 10% cochineal, starting with crushing the beetles!


Second from the left GREY
Getting grey was difficult. For many of the colours I did several trial runs. I had a supply of 10g skeins of commercial yarn already mordanted, I knew these would give me a reasonable, although not entirely accurate, match. However everything I tried was way out on grey. I had got all the other colours complete and my options were running out on getting grey when I remembered that I had a solution in my store in the garage. This was left over from making a part of a fancy yarn a few years ago for an exhibition entry. So I tried this on one of my trial yarns and it was perfect. My only regret is that it was not labelled that well - it just said 'logwood, elder and tin, 2011' but I have no-one to blame only myself. I do like to know exactly how I get a colour but in this instance it does not matter. In the unlikely event that I need some more I do have plenty left. Natural dyeing is not an exact science but I can make sure that my labelling is more meaningful in future than just giving me names!

The next post will follow along, although the next skein is the natural washed fleece – just for comparison – so lovely on its own. I decided it was too stark on its own and did dye it 'beach' colour!

Dyeing for Wool Week 2014

I have dyed this wool to knit my hat for Shetland wool week, you can see a picture of the seaweed that has been the inspiration for this – taken on Skaw the most northerly beach of Unst –the most northerly beach on Shetland. I have also included a picture of the hat that I knitted as a sample this was so that I could work out how much wool I would need in each colour!

All the yarn for the real hat was hand spun. I intended that it was all going to come from the fleece that I hand picked from Jamieson and Smith on my visit to Shetland in 2012. I think it was Ella that helped me on that Saturday afternoon in the fleece store! However to enable me to get the gold colour I had to cut a corner and use some of my early handspun Jacob yarn (the gold), but this brings back pleasant memories too so I am happy to include it.

The dyes I used for the hat were : cochineal, elder, heather, indigo, logwood, marjoram and silver weed. The yarn was mordanted with alum first and some yarns were over dyed whilst others were treated with modifiers to get the exact shades, well as exact as I could get.

More about the dyeing to follow !

If it doesn’t work out I can still wear the sample hat – that is either Jamieson and Smith’s best jumper weight yarn or some of my own handspun and hand dyed!

There are some pictures on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/janet.major

Repurposing vintage embroidered linen

As some of you know life has been a little difficult for me over the past few months. In hindsight this is been for about nine months now, although I didn't realise how bad I was getting until about November! I have now been diagnosed with chronic migraine. This is a relief as it is nothing more sinister but for those of us with chronic migraine it is a challenging & unpredictable condition. I am gradually getting to grips with the situation but still in the position of only having occasional days when I am completely headache free. The challenge at the moment is not to try and run around headless doing everything that I previously did on those days.

I have treated myself to a mini iPad that I can dictate to and hence spend less time at the laptop. This is being a big success.

I am on the look out for enjoyable textile projects that I can complete while headache free. It is a long time since I have done any real embroidery so I have set myself one!  It is to make a sleeve for my mini iPad for when in my handbag. I have a linen chair back saved while clearing my aunt's house.

 

It have used the 1950's floral arrangement for the sleeve front – apologies for the photos- the linen has played havoc with the photography!

I have researched some ideas from my textile library for a complimentary embroidery for the back of the case and enjoyed working this bluebell one.

 

I have backed this with iron on interfacing & padded it to give the case some body. Then I formed the sleeve and added some vintage mother of pearl buttons and two matching loops.

 I am delighted with my new iPad sleeve I hope you enjoy seeing it too.

There is more of her vintage needlework in the drawer - I have a plan for a case for the paper tissues I carry in my handbag too! So watch this space!

Shetland fleece washed and unwashed

This is a comparison of Shetland fleece washed by my version of the fermented suint method. I am delighted with how it has turned out.

the unwashed version, as  shown ( and discussed) on Sept 1st 2013!

Quite a striking difference!

I used a separate bath for the Shetland and the Jacob fleece and washed sections of each fleece at a time to make the process manageable.

Washing Fleece My Fermented Suint Method

For those that have been following this you will know that I first started writing about this in September when I had got round to washing some fleece. I then got distracted and never actually described what I had done. So here goes – but remember I did do this in September, it was warmer and as it must involve a chemical reaction it will be a lot slower now. However, come late February /early March I am looking forward to setting this up again ( as I have been really lucky to have been given a super Jacob fleece!)

Basically the suint (sweat from the sheep) and the lanolin in the fleece along with rainwater makes ‘soap’ so you will not need to add any soap or detergent. It appears that the fleece gets clean on its own. Having tried this on a fairly fresh Shetland fleece and an older Jacob fleece I can say that the method has worked well for me and I will continue to use it in future.

I liked the fact that the rinsed and dried fleece still had some lanolin in it – it did not feel completely dry and lacklustre!

What you need to start:

An outdoor space
Large container with a lid  – I used a large translucent plastic storage box with lid and also a vintage galvanised round bath with lid
Rainwater
Fleece
Container to rinse the fleece in

Desirable:

Watering can for adding the rinse water to the garden
Rubber gloves
Washing machine
Pillowcase
Large net – eg net curtain  eg to go over a triangular washing line / tree for drying the fleece

 How to set the ‘fleece washing bath up’

Add rainwater to the container until it is between half and three quarters full. Add fleece to this , you need to be able to swirl it about so it must not be crammed in too full. I would say to get a good result less rather than more if you are dithering about adding more! The fleece needs to be submerged, so add a bit more water as needed (don’t worry about odd bits that come to the surface). Now you are going to put the lid on and leave it for 7 days. If the sun can get to it so much the better, if it is not sunny but cooler it will take longer than 7 days. You can go and look at it, it will start to smell, the water will go brown and it will get a film on the surface. Look at some of the locks, give them a little rub. You will know when the bath has ‘worked’.

Rinsing

The trick is to keep as much of this wonderful ‘fermented suint bath’ as you can. So I would take out sections of fleece at a time and squeeze them and put them straight away into another container.  YOU ARE GOING TO KEEP THE VERY DIRTY LOOKING WATER TO WASH THE REST OF THE FLEECE. If you have unlimited rainwater use it, however I used tap water for the rinsing and it worked well. I did find that I did 5 /6 rinsings until the rinse water ran clear. I collected all the rinse water and added it to the garden. The plants loved it. So although it seemed arduous at the time it was being as sustainable as possible. At this point I put the fleece in a pillow case and put it in the washing machine for a slow spin ( no rinse just a slow spin). After that I opened up and pegged the net curtain on the washing line and spread the fleece on this – if the weather is not up to that then on a sheet on a spare bit of floor – garage / kitchen ???? will work. It won’t take long to dry but do make sure it is really dry before storing it and again a pillowcase is the ideal storage method- with an accurate label tied on, and the top tied up so no moth can get in.

Back to your ‘Fleece Washing Bath’

You now take the next section of your unwashed fleece and add it to the very dirty and smelly water that you have just taken the fleece out of! Again make sure you have not added so much it is crammed in too tight. Add a bit more rainwater if the level has dropped. I have found that you will only need to leave the fleece in this potent mixture for 48 hours. Then take it out and rinse it as before.  Add more fleece to the even smellier bath and leave that for another 48 hours and so on….

Even though when you take the fleece out of the fermented suint bath it has an odour that you think you won’t be able to get rid of, don’t worry – it will come out in the rinse and the air as it dries and the texture of the washed fleece is, in my opinion, the best I have had from any sort of fleece washing I have done.

When you have finished washing all of the fleece you can put the contents of this washing bath on the garden too – it might be a bit potent – so I would make sure it didn’t go on any plant directly.

Machine Knitting is good for the brain!

My aim is to alternate sorting out my newly acquired knitting machines with actually producing garments. So today was one of these days. The task was to knit a second sleeve for a wool jumper for my husband. I have modified the pattern (more in a later post) so I am knitting the sleeves first to triple check the tension etc.
I completed the rib and set the machine for stocking stitch. However when I returned and knitted this it seemed to be taking more rows to get to the armhole! Had I not reset the row counter correctly? The Knitleader sheet certainly appeared to be moving as I knitted each row.
Well as I got to the armhole I noticed the row counter was double the number I expected! This told me that the Knitleader was only moving forward as the carriage moved in one direction.
( This had happened to me previously, so having done a temporary fix  I bought a replacement Knitleader from eBay. The Knitleaders are probably 30 years old so is it surprising they are now failing? )

So how I solved this problem - knitting with no yarn was needed. I marked the length of 60 rows (14.7cm) on the Knitleader and knitted 60 rows with no yarn - yes only 7.4cm was actually knitted which confirmed why the sleeve was too long. I added my custom modification to one arm on the Knitleader & repeated knitting the 60 rows, the distance knitted was still 7.4cm.
So, I swapped the modification to the other arm and knitted the 60 rows again and this time I got the full 14.7 cm.
So the immediate problem is solved & as long as I check this modification is not slipping every 20 or so rows it should function.
Longer term I have to decide whether to have the Knitleader professionally mended or just work out shapings from my schematic pattern diagrams.
These vintage knitting machines ( in general) work very well, once the sponge bar is replaced, and they have been thoroughly cleaned and oiled. My experience is that whether it is a Knit radar/contour from a knitmaster ( which tends to get gummed up) or a Brother Knitleader ( in which the triggering mechanism seems to get worn) these devices need more TLC than the actual knitting machine to get functioning well.
So fingers crossed all will work well now and I can finish this jumper for DH.

** The modification works as it provides sufficient extra leverage when the carriage passes to 'trip' the knitleader to register a row.

Knitmaster SK700 Knitting Machine

What a great 'textile' way to start a New Year! During the latter part of 2013 I've been increasing my range of Knitting Machines- to include both Brother and ( now) Knitmaster. (that is in addition to the 3 even more Vintage models).

I am concentrating on a Knitmaster 700SK made in 1985. Having replaced the sponge bar foam (see later for supplier *) & given it a thorough clean (& oil **) yesterday I found time to actually knit with it! In it's hey day it was described as ' top of the range' and given what it will do and how robust it is - I think the advertising was very accurate.

What a treat this was, so all patterning now tried - plain, fair- isle, tuck, tuck- lace, slip, intarsia & punch lace! Punch lace being the real reason I bought the machine! I am delighted with the machine. The Ribber looks even more exciting- but that is for later.
I have made a list of Projects - Machine Knitting, Sewing, Weaving and Other. I have decided to alternate making progress in producing a garment/ item with making progress in getting my ‘new’ machines in working order.

Notes

*Xena Knits recommended for their replacement foam & fixing instructions - allow several hours to do this well. I use Nail Varnish remover to get rid of the 'old' glue that I can't scrape out.
**Metropolitan Machine Knitting sell Ballistol Oil that comes in a 'pen' which can be refilled. Great to use once all the black goey grease that has built up over the years has been removed from the knitting machine. Do not use 'Three in One'.
For those wanting to know more about cleaning Knitting Machine there is great advice from the Guild of Machine Knitters at www.guild-mach-knit.org.uk

Manuals: if you have an 'old' Knitting Machine and no manual many are available for free download from www.aboutknittingmachines.com