Category: Textiles

A bit of cotton dyeing using home made tannin extract

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, creativity, dyeing, naturaldyeing, Textiles, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I posted recently about solar dying wool with mulberries and I thought I’d now have a go dying some commercially spun cotton that I have already, and conveniently, put up into hanks. There are six 50g hanks, so I am hoping for 300g of lovely coloured cotton to play with.

I don’t dye cotton often, but I do know that it requires tannin as a mordant. Well, being a bit disorganized, if I’ve got any commercial tannin mordant I can’t find, so it was a relief when after a quick look in Jenny Dean’s Colours from Nature, I found that bramble leaves and twigs contain tannin. A bit more research on the internet suggests that mulberry leaves also contain tannin. It looks like this is going to be a multi-day effort.

DAY 1

One thing we have in plenty in the garden and surrounding fields is brambles and of course we have a mulberry tree, so I went on a little foraging trip. I collected a basket full of mulberry leaves and brambles which I chopped up and boiled for an hour as instructed in the book.

DAY 2

I left these to soak overnight and have just strained the liquor off into a pan and slightly reheated this.

I’ve just submerged the damp cotton hanks in the tannin liquid, and will leave this for 24 hours for the cotton to absorb the tannin. According to Jenny Dean there is a likelihood this will stain my white cotton and is bleached white slightly yellow, so we will see.

Hanks of cotton soaking in the home made tannin solution

Hopefully the mulberry dye will accommodate this and give me a nice color.

DAY 3

The cotton yarn after being soaked in tannin solution, a slight cream cast

After the tannin soak the cotton had taken on a slight creamy colour, not too bad at all. Maybe it didn’t take the tannin?

Straining the cooked and soaked mulberries to release the dye colour

I had prepared 1.5kg of mushy mulberries that weren’t really edible by cooking them up in some water and leaving them to soak and give up their colour overnight. I thought I was ready to get in with the dyeing, but luckily at this point I went back to Jenny’s book. Only then did I  realised that the cotton needed to be soaked in an alum mordant after the tannin. How did I miss this before?

The recommended amount is 4 tsp alum and 1.5 tsp of washing soda per 100g of fibre. Dissolve the alum and soda in enough water to cover the fibre,  and bring to a simmer. Then leave it to soak and cool for 12-24 hours.

DAY 4

NOW I can put the hanks in the dye..

This afternoon I took the yarn out and rinsed it. Then strained the mulberry liqour and put it in the old slow cooker I use for dyeing. I added some salt (not sure why but seemed to remember it helps the dye take) and then added enough water so that the liquid would cover the fibre. After that I immersed the yarn in the dye.

Fingers crossed it will work.

First dipped hank… Now it needs to sit in the dye overnight…but we all know it’s probably going to wash out…

Well, the hanks came out looking lovely, but as predicted, the colour mostly washed out. It’s not a bad colour, it’s very a pale, lilacy grey, just not the pink I hoped for.

The final colour, a pale lilac grey.

Ready to spin

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, creativity, fibre, fibre preparation, hand spinning, hand spun, making, spinning, Textiles, WoolLeave a comment

An hour spent blending on the drum carder has got me set for some serious spinning.

The yellow and natural are broken Merino tops that I picked up at the John arbon Open Day last year.  I’ve blended these in equal parts with a very strong ultra marine blue which I won in my local Guild raffle.

I tested this first on hand carders and it produced a very nice yarn so now I’ve done it in bulk and taken rolags of a batt from the drumcard.

The singles so far.

I’m aiming for a 2 ply hand knit weight yarn, so spun the singles trying to let in a bit more fibre than I usually do. I read once that as you become more proficient at spinning you tend to spin finer, and that does seem to have been the case. Not that I’m claiming to be brilliant at it, just more practiced than I was.

This was spun the 1:8 whorl on my Louet S95 ‘Victoria’, which is the little folding portable wheel I take out to demonstrations. I aim to ply at the same ratio although I know it will probably work out a bit less. I am looking forward to spinning and plying this.

Final sample for my latest book about machine knitting

On By vikkihaffendenIn clothing, craft, Creative machine knitting, creativity, Flechage, Knitted textiles, knitting books, knitting machine, knitting patterns, knitwear, Machine knitting, Machine knitting; knitmaster;silver reed; knitting, making, Short-row shaping, Short-rows, TextilesLeave a comment

I think this might be the final sample for my latest book. The manuscript went into the publishers a week or so ago and I’m just working in a few outstanding samples and photos.

Of course machine knitters, well knitters in general, will know that ‘sorting out a sample’ is a shorthand for:

knitting several design swatches

knitting a tension swatch (or three)

working out the garment pattern

knitting it

finding you’ve made a mistake

knitting it again

steaming it

sewing it together

washing it

blocking it

etcetera, etcetera….

So I am just at the first steaming stage and getting ready to assemble the garment. And of course I’ve had to re-knit one piece because the dratted yarn got caught by the brushes irrevocably and it was easier to restart than try and sort that out. More haste, less speed is so very true in machine knitting. Nice and steady is always the best way.

I’m hoping this garment will be nice enough to go on the cover, but we will see.

Meanwhile let me tell you a little bit about the book. The title is still to be finalised, but it is all about short rows and partial knitting on a machine.  There is a lot in there for beginners, for example the first chapter is all about the principles of short rows and how you knit them and there is a whole basic techniques appendix at the back for additional support. Chapters 2 to 5 offer loads of information, samples, examples and exercises for more experienced knitters to really come to grips for short rows, and to understand how and when to use them for different results.

Chapter 6 has patterns that use short rows as they’ve been described in the earlier chapters, but applied to an item. So from these patterns you actually get to use short rows purposefully to create shape and form combined with colour and surface pattern.

So once it’s published I will obviously be shouting about it,  but keep an eye out and do pop back here for updates.

Enthusiasm is trumped by poor organisation

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, making, weaving, Woven textilesLeave a comment

When we moved house I had only the first few centimetres worked of a rather intricate (for my level of skill) pattern on my big Inkle loom. So I carefully tied it all down, added tape and made it secure on the loom. Wrapped it in bubble wrap etc etc. and it travelled fine.

The first 4cm of pattern before I had to pack the loom.

Sadly, whilst unwrapping it, I somehow managed to cut the warp! Idiot….

So the loom and dangling warp has languished in the conservatory for the best part of a year, unloved and testament to my incompetence. Today I decided, was the day to grapple with this and repair the warp. I refused to be beaten by it and started to analyse what needed to be tied to what. Luckily I had the written threading pattern to follow.

And I’ve done it! Only two mis ties hat to be undone and retied. I think that it will be OK. I’ve put in several pieces of card to re-tension and organise the warp and it looks good to go.

So I go to wind the shuttle, and realise I have no idea where the weft thread is! It’s somewhere in the loft in a box of unlabelled yarns, and believe me there must be about 20 of these… So do I want to go and search for it? Probably not today. That’s a job for later…

Somerset Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Skill Share day

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, creativity, fibre, fibre preparation, Textiles, Wool, WorkshopLeave a comment

Yesterday, Easter Saturday was the Guild Skill Share. There were many generous members who shared their knowledge and skills in weaving, knitting and spinning related sessions.

Kathy and I offered a Wool Fibre Preparation day so that members could have an induction on the Guild equipment or bring their own carders and combs etc. along to learn how to use them or just pick up some tips.

The morning was all about using swing or box pickers and hand and drum carders plus how to use these for blending. After lunch we tackled wool combing using a  pair of English Combs and smaller Valkyrie ones plus blending in a heckle.

We enjoyed running the session and everyone seemed happy. After my initial H&S talk it was me that pricked my finger on the combs!

Inkle loom warped up and ready to go

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, creativity, Textiles, weaving, Woven textilesLeave a comment

After almost a year I have got round to putting the warp on my Inkle loom to make the second curtain tie I started last April, (and ended up not finishing until July). The yarn is Drops 8/4 cotton.

I hope I’ve got the warp threaded according to the pattern, but my notes were a little sketchy but I hope it will approximate it. Fortunately the curtains are at different sides of the room so there won’t be much opportunity to compare.

Of course not only had I forgotten the pattern, I’d forgotten how to put the warp on. So to begin with I put everything over the top bar and had to re-thread the first four or five threads.  Luckily I had saved my heddles so I know I’ve got the right number of threads because I’ve got the right number of heddles.

The first band I made is in the photo. After a wash the cotton becomes soft but still holds it’s shape.

Or really sorted up the process of warping to leave a long tail attached to the first thread and to tie every new thread onto that tail as I worked across the warp. So you don’t have to cut your threads  until get to the end which I really like.

Getting going

Sock mending this evening

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, creativity, darning, fibre, hand spinning, hand spun, Knitted textiles, knitting, mending, WoolLeave a comment

It’s a howling gale outside tonight, so the place to be is by the fire doing a bit of mending. The subject is a pair of socks machine knitted from my hand spun yarn. These sticks are like , ‘Trigger’s broom’ from Only Fools and Horses.

I plied the yarn from singles of Alpaca and Texel fibre, but did not include any nylon. Consequently, but after a reasonable amount of wear they have begun to thin and finally the stitches have burst. First of all the big toes went, and now the heels.

I had a little of the yarn left, but now it’s onto improvised and colourful mending…

The toes that were mended a while ago
Todays heel mending

I used one of those little mending looms for the toe repair, but the heels have been done ‘freehand’ using a technique from a 1970s mending book. I bought this useful book secondhand when a penniless student in the 80s, well before ‘slow textiles’ and ‘visible mending’ became a thing. Since then, useful book has helped me extend the life of many items for reasons of economy and necessity rather than fashion. Now my mending is on trend and it’s good to see the skill encouraged by a plethora of modern books on the subject.

Cutting a warp off my inkle loom

On By vikkihaffendenIn craft, weavingLeave a comment

Cutting the warp off, is for me, a scarey, but exciting part of weaving. I started this inkle band during a workshop with the Somerset Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers several months ago. When I got home I did a bit, but it sat part done in the corner for all this time until I was fired up to finish a few projects off and wove the last fifty or so centimetres yesterday evening.

This morning I cut the warp and will now wash the band. It is in 4ply hand knit/crochet cotton and follows a simple pattern that was set for the workshop. The colours were chosen to suit the living room curtains and if I ever get around to it I will make this band into tie-backs for the curtains, (which was my original intent).

Cutting the warp threads on my inkle loom