I finally had an image to share on Northwest Frame of Minds project “1 day 1 world”. Unfortunately today’s post is from a device that doesn’t like “linking”, otherwise I would share her project here.
From 5-6 pm we were walking on the beach and collecting beach glass while watching the ferries go by at Bridges Road beach on Pender Island.
I’ve been wanting to do some indigo dyeing for quite some time. I was always waiting for the perfect time and the perfect project. As the months (or maybe more than a year!) passed I realized that the perfect time or project was never going to happen. Instead of simply shelving the idea I chose to tackle indigo dyeing on the busiest possible week ever.
In between shooting, editing, knitting, volunteering and school field trips (including swimming with three different classes in the span of two days) this is what happened……..
yarn waiting to dye
I prepped some wool yarn, cotton yarn, cotton threads of various thicknesses and some cotton fabrics. Some of the yarn was dyed previously in tansy to create a yellow to over-dye with hopes of achieving green.
into the indigo dye vat
Into the vat all the materials went. The tansy wool yarn was immersed for about 10 minutes, while everything else stayed in for about 30 minutes.
And then the fun began…..
yarn just pulled out of the dye bath
The yarn only starts to truly change color as it emerges from the dye bath and is exposed to the air. It starts out green…..
then turns an aqua color………
and finally blue.
Luckily Mark came home from work just in time to take these pictures as the yarn was being pulled out of the dye bath.
I ended up with quite a variety of blue items which will be a lot of fun to work with over the coming weeks. It is nice to add a new range of colors into my knitting and stitching.
dyed wool yarn
This is wool yarn. The yarn on the left entered the dye bath as natural white, while the yarn on the right had been dyed previously in tansy.
This is cotton yarn dyed in segments to get color variations. What a disaster this was to get untangled after dyeing and washing. I had preplanned the segments, rather than just a random dyeing, perhaps I need to figure out a better game plan for next time.
indigo scarf detail
Just for fun I dyed a gauze scarf that I had hemmed up earlier. This is a detail. It looks beautiful when it is worn. I think this one will remain “mine”. A perfect scarf to wear while walking a rocky beach lined with driftwood.
Saturday afternoon along the banks of the Pembina River.
View from Hoffman Beach.
View from the bridge near Baybridge.
View from Hoffman Beach.
View from Hoffman Beach.
I was glancing through a few images this afternoon looking for some painting inspiration. These pictures are from last weekend when we were up at the cabin and stormy clouds hung over Lake Isle all afternoon. The cool weather this spring has meant few cottagers have been out to their cabins and has made for a very quiet lake. The quiet has been very nice.
Venturing down a dusty gravel road a few days ago we came across this skull. An interesting way to decorate a fence with some true western flavor.
There is always something interesting down a back road in the middle of no-where, always something to see, something to discover, and sometimes you find a little inspiration.
Inspiration may just be what I have found in this skull. I am imagining the next fibre art piece with a skull surrounded with stitching and beading. Sounds like a project to consider.
Art & Photography by Debra Hunter
www.thehuntergroup.ca
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You never know where geocaching will take you. This time it was through a ton of rose bushes and then under a rural bridge.
Lake Isle, Alberta, Canada
……… even in the rain.
A day of dyeing cotton yarn and fulled wool pieces. A nice small stash of yarn to take to the cabin for the weekend!
Cotton yarn dyed in logwood, lac, cutch and tansy.
Cotton yarn (still wet) dyed in tansy, madder and cutch.
Fulled wool squares dyed in tansy and madder (still wet).
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