I discovered some amazing plants in my backyard but I don’t know what they are. Can you help me?
Thy are all doing very well! I bought the seeds from Grand Prismatic Seed. I would highly recommend their seeds.
Sand Dock? No idea.Buckthorn?No idea.
I looked at my list of seeds from this year, and the sources I can’t identify are Sand Dock, Murasaki, and Soapwort. Do you think you can match seeds to actual plant?
Oh, I also got those bobbins plied into a skein of yarn. It reminds me of oatmeal in pjs. It’s a 2ply sport weight, and the wool is Cheviot. This would be great for mittens, socks or an outerwear cardigan (use it in colour work).
Botanical Dyed Handspun Yarn
So that’s it for today’s blog post. My plants are calling me to start creating some dye baths; I will wait. I think today is a good day to bake up some muffins. I can’t resist a good wholesome baked good with a cup of coffee around 10:30 in the morning.
I separated these four braids of the combed top into two piles: orange and multi-coloured orange and pink onto one bobbin and then pink and multi-blue and yellow onto the other bobbin. Some I spun forward draw, and some I spin long draw. I LOVE long draw!
Sponning All This Cheviot
I separated these four braids of the combed top into two piles: orange and multi-coloured orange and pink onto one bobbin and then pink and multi-blue and yellow onto the other bobbin. Some I spun forward draw, and some I spin long draw. I LOVE long draw!
Spinning On My Ladybug 🐞
Here are both braids spun into one bobbin. I love how the colour I got from sunflower seeds casts an ox colour onto the fibre. The hibiscus actually cast a blue colour! I said yesterday the hibiscus produced a pink but I was wrong.
One Bobbin Complete
I don’t have a picture of the other bobbin, but to describe it, I’d say it has earthy tones.
Well that is it for today. It is Sunday, so I am heading out to pick some of the last flowers that continue to bloom in zone 7 (gardening term); cosmos and coreopsis.
Today the adventure begins to spin up all the fibre I dyed yesterday. So after I dyed up Day 11 of my advent five bits club, I grabbed a decaf coffee and found a cozy corner to sit and spin for a while. My wheel is a Schacht Ladybug wheel that I bought in 2017. She is very reliable and always gets the task at hand done.
Spinning Cheviot
I managed to get one of the “mini tops” spun. This colour is gorgeous in natural light; not as good as the camera. Don’t worry; after I turn all the fibre into yarn, I will take pictures outside where the lighting is best.
I watched a great class by the School of Sweet Georgia on natural dyeing with Fresh Indigo Leaves by Caitlin Ffrench. It made me run out to my garden and try to salvage what I had left as I realized I was underwatering them. It was a great refresher and showed how I could improve on the steps she demonstrated. I highly recommend all of Caitlin’s classes on natural dyeing and the school itself; so many topics to learn in the fibre arts.
Anyway, back to my garden, I went outside and picked off all the dried or damaged leaves, and I got rid of some plants that were crowding them. I also realized something is eating the smaller leaves (the plants are in containers, so I don’t think it is slugs) so if you have any idea, please comment below. Here is a before video, and I’ll post another video in the next post.
Before Photo of Indigo 😳
I also had some leftover dye yesterday, so I plunked in a skein of superwash Corriedale (a fantastic hard-wearing sock yarn). I saw the results last night, and the colour was too light, so I added some madder extract. Let’s see how that turns out tomorrow.
Natural dye on Corriedale
If you know anyone that is wanting to learn to use natural dyes, please share this blog post and remember to subscribe to this website, so you get a notification as to when I post my journey of dyeing and spinning again. Cheers,
