Monday, October 01, 2012

dip dye...

dip dye

two-tone cowl

dip dye stripes

reflecting on the dye pot

'Tis the season for knitting. We are still being blessed with loads of sunshine and relatively warm weather - October 1st and I'm still wearing my Birks! - but there is a bit of a nip in the mornings and evenings, and the shortening daylight makes me want to wrap myself in wool. A while back a friend gifted me with two large skeins of squishy grey wool. It wasn't enough for a sweater, but a big plush cowl seemed a good fit to wrap myself on these cold in the morning/warm in the afternoon days. I kept things simple in the knitting, just seed stitch round and round until I ran out of yarn. But I had a little plan in mind to add some interest - dip dyeing! I made up a little dyepot of logwood (with a touch of iron) and dipped half the cowl in for a few minutes, repeating a few times. It created a subtle shift, light grey changing over to a darker grey-blue, but I like it.

While I was at it I tried dipping a couple shirts. The striped one worked out better than the other - you might think your shirt is clean but hidden grease stains will show up poorly when dyeing. Oops.

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I've always been obsessed with the weather - I keep track of it on a neurotic sort of level. The last couple months of sunshine have been great, but I'll be honest and say that it's been a bit boring too. I'm longing for a bit of wildness in the weather. Our old house was also very sheltered, which meant even when a storm was howling we could barely tell. But tonight I'm sitting in my living room and listening to the wind stir up around the house, gusting through the leaves outside. I love it. The sunny days are continuing to stick around, but it's good to get a little preview of winter storms.

4 comments:

Els said...

Ahhhh, what a lovely way to (even more) make something beautiful: that cowl is gorgeous!
Nice last reflection photo ;-)
(caught up a bit and enjoyed the seaweed, the dolphins ánd the bears !!!!)

oh, albatross said...

"I'm longing for a bit of wildness in the weather." what a beautiful sentence.

Sandra Dunn said...

Love the blue dyes! Weather is such a romantic! I get charged from the heavy prairie winds here. :)

Michaelanne said...

oooohhhh!!! I love your cowl K:) What a great idea!