new turtle...

A little variation on the green sea turtle took shape this week. Some fabrics came out of the dye pot in wonderful olive tones (my apologies, I've completely forgotten what the dye bath was made from!) and an Olive Ridley turtle seemed completely appropriate. This little fellow is entirely hand stitched, and all fabrics (cottons, linen, silk) used are natural dyed by me. Feels like a 'complete' sort of piece, when I think of how much my own two hands put into this turtle. If you like the feel of it too, he will be in the shop later today.

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>>>some thoughts on making...
I have talked a lot recently about getting back to making pieces for the shop more regularly, producing more, and more often. But I've come to realize that may not necessarily happen, and as there have been some recent inquiries I thought you deserved a little bit of an explanation.

Please understand first off that I very much appreciate all you folks who are interested in my work, whether you purchase something or just share your words of encouragement. It is very rewarding to make something with your own hands that others respond to so positively. But.

When I first got into selling things online, I quickly got into a rhythm of working all day at my job and then coming home and sewing much of the evenings and weekends. After a time, I was pretty intent on keeping interest on my making, and started to feel guilty if I wasn't stitching in my free time, or stitching or crafting on something personal rather than for the shop. I am a pretty slow maker, so I was trying to make up for that by making any chance I got. It probably doesn't help that I have pretty heavily ingrained beliefs that I always need to be "productive" and should also be doing something "useful". But we won't get into the psychology behind that for just now. Anyway, then came the forced respite of my broken wrist last year. I tried to get back into it once I healed, but a number of events and distractions kept me from ever getting back to my old pace again. Moving in the fall, and the subsequent disorganization / re-organization of my craft materials (and my life) made it easy to let days slip by without picking up a needle. I let go of the 'guilt', letting this break become a new sort of rhythm that eased my sore fingers and tired back.

I don't handle stress well. Not at all. I read something recently about people with my particular date of birth (and yes, please give such generalizations a healthy bucketful of salt) - that we often reach a place in our careers where we are comfortable, and make no further attempts to progress or be challenged, because don't want to deal with the potential stress. That definitely struck a chord with me, and might be at least partially true. And whether I should just buck up and learn how to handle a bit more stress, there is no denying that it doesn't suit me particularly well. Stress affects me mentally and physically (and there is no denying two jobs and a side hobby that all require lots of sitting and repetitive motion are not good for the body). My previous making habits were just not sustainable. So I've come to accept that free time can be a good thing, and sometimes a very necessary thing. Time to go for a long walk, time to escape for a weekend, time to just spend with friends and family. And yes, even time to occasionally just do nothing.

For now anyway, I have decided I can only do what I can do. Pieces will continue to trickle into the shop, and while I appreciate your interest I have decided to not accept custom orders for at least the next little while. Your interest in my work is very heartwarming to me, so thank you for sticking around even if I am not the most productive of makers. Wishing you a very happy weekend and I see the sun is making a lazy attempt to peer through the grey clouds. Time to get out for a walk, I think.

dip dye...

'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.

a sunday in september...

Today felt quiet. AK and I have been puttering about at home, only a moderate variation on yesterday, and the day before. These last few days of holiday after our trip have had no real obligations, which has been just perfect for settling back in. Welcome to September, folks.

As usual there are some projects on the go, the shortening days making my crafting tendencies switch into high gear. Does anyone else feel like there are more projects on the "make" list than shall ever be accomplished? I could blame the internet, but I suspect it's just the fault of my over-active brain.

Yesterday on my river walk I gathered salal and oregon grape berries which I simmered into a dye liquid this morning. Last year I did oregon grape and salal separately, but I didn't find many salal berries this time so elected to just throw them together. The larger jar has this mixture; in the smaller jar I added the leftover berry mash to some logwood exhaust and simmered it a little longer.

With the days getting a bit cooler, AK *needs* a new toque, especially as he gets ready for some outdoor work this month. Some cables are taking shape in a dark green tweed, perfect for fall.

And I am slowly making progress on a completely hand stitched skirt in grey cotton jersey. It's a little bit Alabama Chanin, with a shape inspired by Eileen Fisher, and a generous dose of my own west coast skew thrown in. It may even get a dip in the dye pot before I'm done, if I keep ogling India Flint's work.

What projects are you working on?

week end...

>> happy to be finishing off a long week, watching the dusk slowly slip in and feeling the air cool off, just a little.

>> feeling full, after riding our bikes into town for dinner, sitting on the deck of the local mexican restaurant and drinking pineapple/lime margaritas in the late afternoon sun.

>> pulling gorgeous yellow-oranges out of the onion skin dye jar to dry overnight.

>> thinking that freshly dyed fabric might could become more chanterelles before sunday night.

>> planning to get up before dawn tomorrow to go fishing on the river as the sun comes up. i suspect the others will be fishing and i'll be 'shooting' instead in that early morning light.

>> feeling settled in our decision to move into a little house in october, an opportunity that came out of nowhere but has all sorts of possibilities our current basement suite does not - a whole house, quick access to the beach, a basement workshop, a sewing room, room for a garden, perhaps room for a dog...

>> wondering what else the weekend might have in store. wishing you a good one.

in progress...

that title could probably describe a lot of things in my life right now, or just my life in general, but i feel it particularly describes how i'm feeling about crafting these days. nothing is flowing especially well, and my inspiration feels just out of reach. i feel like i've been giving you this story for a while now. sorry if you're tired of it. but that's okay, it'll come. or it won't. at this time i think i'm okay with that ebb and flow. i'm never gonna call myself an artist - i'm just a girl who makes things once in a while, when the mood strikes me. and when it doesn't, well, i've got other things to do.

all that said, there are a few things on the go around here:
>> this continued rainy weather has me playing with wool a fair bit. right now i'm working on this golden autumn hat pattern, although i'm calling mine 'grey summer' for obvious reasons.
>> i did a bit of logwood dyeing last week. i got a variety of purples on cotton, linen and silk - the darkest near black on the silk. i attempted a bit of shibori folding on the piece of linen, which was previously dyed lightly with madder. and the big piece of cotton gauze i'm hoping to make into a dress.
>> finally finished up a humpback whale for a custom order. it is closer to the older style of my humpbacks than the more recent ones i have done - i think i like them both ways.
>> and a custom request for some ochre stars on a rock led me to make a second one (in front in the photo) that went into the shop today.
>> speaking of the shop, you can now find the crab & fish and deer & owl sets from my collaboration with Abby Glassenberg.

are you making anything these days?

saturday-ing...

lots of puttering as usual on a saturday. above you can see some recent results out of the dye jars. the gray-greens on the left are from cherry & plum leaves mixed with a bit of iron, the middle greeny-yellows are from domestic carrot tops, and the greens on the right are from fennel. i knew when i threw the fennel into the pot that i didn't have much dye material to work with, and after a few days sitting in a jar i could see i wasn't getting much colour. so on a whim i added a little iron mordant which helped darken the colour up a little, especially on the wool. always an experiment!

other things on the go today:
>> trip to the farmers market to get some fresh veggies.
>> mordanting a bunch of other fabric for future dyeing (did some tannin pre-mordanting last night, alum acetate and alum sulfate today...again, experimenting with different ideas).
>> bread rising by the heater (which is on - hello, summer?).
>> made some pesto (some for now, some to freeze) with fresh garlic scapes and spinach from the farmers market.
>> a little weeding in the garden
>> my truck heard that i had spent money on something else last week (more on that later) and so i'm off to the mechanic shortly to see why it's making that funny noise all of a sudden. always...
>> planning to make some more of my favourite granola bars later.
>> eyeing those custom orders that i've been neglecting this week. i think after i finish them i will be making a switch in creative direction for a bit. did i mention you can still get 25% off in the shop until the end of June?
>> and speaking of creatures, you can still take home the lovely deer & owl set.

wishing you all a happy saturday!

misdirected...

call it procrastination. lack of focus. avoidance. stubborness, really. i'm horrible that way. as soon as there is something i 'should' be working on, it becomes the last thing i am interested in. at work i generally am fine, knowing that things just need to be done, and to just do it. but in life...well, not so much. A knows this about me; he knows my little quirks so well. ask me to make something in particular - knit socks, draw a picture, work within specific confines on a project - and nine times out of 10 my wall comes up and i don't want to do it. i'll find 20 other things to work on instead, sometimes even something that is almost indistinguishable from the actual thing I should be working on. even when i want to work on the project. really, how sad is that?

Abby made an awesome fish to go along with my crab. i think they are a great set. my piece to go along with her deer? hmmm, it's not taking shape well. i can't seem to settle on a beast, and each time i try to sketch one out i just can't 'see' it. the inspiration is just out of reach, as it seems with my stitching in general these days, with my life in general these days. and so i'm the deadbeat holding up this collaboration. sorry Abby. and sorry to anyone still reading here, that i'm such a bummer lately.

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one place where inspiration is flowing, in as much as it could really be called inspiration, is in the dye pot. plants and minerals are finding their way into pots and jars, releasing their colours to be soaked up by waiting fabrics. these are some recent images snapped of what's percolating, and what's coming out at the end. you can click any of the images for more details.

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>>> this film looks like it will be full of inspiration.

dyeing days...

natural dyeing continues around here, something to do in between the rain drops and sun rays. i have been collecting black bean soaking liquid, after seeing the blue that Lisa got, and Joni's green. i completely forgot that they used baking soda in their dye liquid though, and so i got grey-purple (mordanted with alum, by the way). which really, is what i would expect based on the colour of the soaking liquid. it perhaps was not what i set out for in the beginning, but i quite like it. natural dyeing is full of surprises. in the photo you can see the results on washing linen, silk, cotton, and cotton jersey.

i prepared some other dye liquids over the weekend, but don't have fabric results yet to show. right now several sections of our yard are being overtaken by poppies (so vibrant and pretty, but after the bloom the plants are lackluster at best). i thought i would try gathering up the spent petals and see if i could get any colour from them. in that first shot of the poppy jar you can see the shift of colour, from bright orange-coral petals, to pale pink when they contact the hot water, and the darker pink liquid below. very curious to see what colour i get on fabric.

and that last picture? can you see what it is? i have dyed with avocado skins before, which give a nice dusty pink colour. but i have seen some results online and had some hints in my own experimenting, that i might get a much darker colour with just the avocado pits. so that is what i'm trying here. i don't know if it was necessary, but i had a bit of fun smashing up the pits with a hammer. i am letting them soak for a few days to get a dye liquid as well.

updates to come as the summer of natural dyeing progresses...

detour / mexican sunset

it's funny how things get started, where ideas come from. Margie posted this photo taken on her mexican holiday a few weeks back. i thought it was beautiful, but didn't think that much more about it. but then Sonia chimed in, suggesting she could picture such a scene stitched up by me. hmmm...that got me to thinking. after i finished my little crab friend, i was in the mood for a change of pace, a detour of some sort. that photo was so different from my own main source of inspiration, and yet in common by celebrating the beauty of the world around us. and so this little piece came together, a mexican sunset.

it is fairly small, about 7"x5", and besides the base canvas stitched entirely in naturally dyed fabrics. the rich colours seemed to suit the mood. i picked fabrics based on colour, not material, so there is a mix of cottons, linens and silks. some are dyed by me, and some are from the little stash from Margie.

a very simple scene, but effective, i hope. a quick meditation on a high desert landscape so different from my own wet coast, where the rain is falling heavily outside my door today and the world is mossy and green with new growth. and since this idea was 'given' to me, in a way, i think it's only fitting to give it again. please leave a comment here before friday morning, if you like, and i will pick a winner to send this off to.

ETA: Thanks for all the kind words! Comments are now closed and a winner will be announced Saturday.

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i'm stuck in a funk today, a bitchy, grouchy mood, so i'm keeping this short. trying to repeat the mantra learned so long ago from miss Erykah....let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go...

recently...

...a collection of instagram photos from the last few days.
>>> some antlers in progress for a custom order.
>>> my patches need patches. time to do some more stitching on my patched jeans.
>>> a wobbly little lamb. yesterday afternoon was spent at my folks' homestead, checking out the new lambs (including one born while we there!). i have a bunch more photos to share in the next couple days.
>>> a sea turtle in progress.
>>> a dye jar a-brewing. i rinsed it out today and am waiting for the fabric to dry so it can see if it turned out like i hoped.
>>> strawberry amaranth muffins made this morning, based on the millet muffins from super natural everyday. basically i didn't have millet so i used amaranth. i didn't have plain yogurt so i used strawberry. and then i threw in some chopped frozen strawberries. a total success.

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our big plans for today had been to go clamming with some friends. A decided to spoil the fun by double-checking the shellfish openings and discovered the whole area got closed on friday for red  tide. i kid - obviously we definitely don't want to be harvesting clams if there is a risk of shellfish poisoning. but it's still disappointing, and a bit surprising in how early in the season it is. without getting into a discussion about global warming, i do wonder if our mild winter had something to do with it, the water warming up earlier in the year and encouraging the algae to bloom.

so instead we are at home right now, waiting for a quick visit from my sister and kids on their back home on the south tip of the island. it's a beautiful day again, so i'm sure i'll drag A out to the beach this afternoon when the tide is low, just to wander, not to pick clams. hope you are enjoying some sunshine this weekend too.

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a few more things:
• i know i shared a wrap recipe earlier this week, but i also made these roasted chickpea fajitas  and they are so so good. they will be made again very soon.
• did you see Abby's shark? so awesome.
• if you have half an hour to spare, i encourage you to watch stand up for great bear, a beautiful film about a stand-up paddler travelling the proposed oil tanker route through the great bear rainforest.

flotsam & jetsam...

>>> as promised, the final pieces of the sketchbook - a fairly quiet cover, just a bit of stitching in shimmery thread to add some texture. my original idea for the centre spread involved a bit more dexterity than i think i have right now. instead, i decided i would include a bit of myself, a little insight into the sketcher. plus a silly little poem. the book is now in the hands of canada post and on it's way to brooklyn. now what should i draw?

>>> i haven't done any dyeing in quite some time, but i've had some pomegranate peels in the freezer since christmas and it seemed a about time to try them out. i simmer the peels for an hour, and then strained the dye liquid into a jar with the fabrics. i let them sit for about five days. i love the buttery silk the most, but the two linens have their charms as well (the one on the left was beige to start). wild colour said pomegranate can be a mordant too, so i didn't pretreat the fabrics before dyeing.

>>> a cold wind is blowing today, and i slipped out to a new beach this morning, trying to beat the rain. as soon as i hit the shore i was numbed, and it took all my effort not to retreat back to the car. but i stumbled along on the uneven rocks, searching for shells and other treasures as the building swell stomped up the strait. surf scoters rode the breaking waves, unperturbed by the chill. i watched a clever gull hover in the air, dropping a shell to the ground. it repeated this action until the clam was broken and it could get at the meal inside, then did it again with another one. even though it was far across the strait, i could see a tug boat heel up and then smash into each wave trough, sending spray over its bow as it made its way south with heavy barge behind. the energy of the storm filled me up, renewed me. but i am glad to be tucked in at home again, sheltered from its frozen blast. tonight is a good soup night - white bean, tomato and bacon via jamie oliver's recipe app (sorry, no recipe link online). maybe another movie (last night we watched 50/50 - good), or maybe we'll just be wowed by the skilled athletes of the x-games. what are you up to?

plum...

some plums from the tree...and plum colours inside too. the stack of fabrics and the swatches on the right of my dye journal were dyed with salal berries. the colour varied quite a bit on the different fabrics (wool, silk gauze, silk satin & merino yarn), but all are nice plummy shades. exactly what i'm looking for in the fall. now what to make with them... details on the other sets of swatches are here. most fabrics i mordant with alum, some are thrown in on a whim, unmordanted.

i'm feeling quiet today.

early evening sun...

we have a lot of tall trees in our yard. i like tall trees, but for many reasons i wish they weren't in our yard. it makes gardening almost impossible, as no area gets more than a couple hours of sun each day. the inside of our basement suite gets very little natural light. and at this time of year the yard is cloaked in shade before i get home from work. but sometimes too, as the sun creeps lower in the sky these days, it peeks below the trees and shines in areas that never see sun in high summer, with that warm glow of an autumn evening. i feel the need to soak up these little spots of light, revel in them as the days grow quickly shorter.

in one of these patches of golden sun and long shadows, i caught some new sea urchins. the setting seemed to suit their natural dyed colours. all three are hand dyed linen - the green from dandelion leaves, the middle pink from avocado skins, and the palest pink from beets. they are sitting with me for a bit, although if one catches your eye please let me know and i'm sure i can be persuaded to part with it.

hope your week is going well!

dyeing and foraging...

happy weekend all! we are settling in for another scorcher day, so i am hiding out in our basement suite which stays nice and cool for the most part. i may try and find myself a shady patch outside to sit and stitch in a moment, but first i wanted to share some recent natural dye results with you. my mom had given me a beautiful bouquet of red dahlias from her garden a while back, but after they were enjoyed and the flowers shrivelled up, i saved the heads. after soaking for a few days in water, i had a murky brown liquid to work with - that is what you see on the left with some fabrics dyeing away. i also mentioned a couple weeks ago that i had gathered a bunch of oregon grape berries on a forest walk. after simmering in a pot for a hour or so, i strained the liquid and used that for my second dye batch (on the right).



i think i ended up with some lovely autumnal colours, an almost dusty rose from the berries and a nice golden tone from the dahlias. with the berries i dyed silk, wool and washing linen, and the dahlias just the wool and linen. i need to mordant some more fabrics soon so i can try dyeing with mushrooms (if it ever rains again so we can get some 'shrooms). you may have seen in my friday flickr faves some gorgeous fungi dyeing from Lisa that i am in awe of.



and to some other berries that i definitely am not dyeing with - blackberries! this heat is making the berries quite happy and they are ripening all over the place. i hope to get out and pick some more this afternoon. i am filling up the freezer (okay, and also filling up my belly) for winter baking and smoothies, but a couple friends and i have also hatched a plan to take a large crop over to the local u-brew place and make some blackberry wine. yum.

okay, best get back to my stitching - this piece is taking too much time and i am feeling the deadline crunch! must finish this weekend so i can send my pieces of to Schmancy for Plush You!

solar dyeing (now with less solar)

well okay, not no solar. but i have probably mentioned once or twice (and feel free to tell me to shut up) that our summer has been kind of lacking in the sun and heat department. so while i started this dye bundle in the sunshine, and finished it there too, much of in between was grey days and rain. and yet...







on impulse after reading margie's article in the newest issue of b.a.h. magazine, i decided to start my own dye bundle with assorted plant materials from the yard, mainly dandelion heads and those purple bellflowers. laid out on white linen and wrapped up into a tidy bundle with some wool yarn, i plunked it into a jar full of water (with a bit of alum in) and set it on the bench outside. and let it sit for about nine days. what came out was a mainly greenish fabric with pleasing splotches of saturated yellow, bright green and a bit of blue here and there.



have you done any dyeing like this?