Friday, February 6, 2009

A Productive Week

It's been a good week here! Wish I could say that more often. Both tapestries are showing progress, even if it is very slight!

























My biggest thrill this week was dyeing without anyone holding my hand, and being pleased with
the outcome! This is quite a hurdle for me.

So, first is the green: I took two skeins of my weld-dyed handspun (a romney that I spun for tapestry) and overdyed it with my indigo. I made the indigo vat with a friend over two years ago. We dyed one day and the vat has sat 'idle' ever since. I re-constituted it with soda ash and thio-urea. The weld skeins were dipped twice for 10 minutes with a 30 minute rest in between.

The lovely blue silk was dipped three times for 10 minutes each, with a 30 minute rest between. I thought I would have gotten a deeper blue, but I'm pleased because this shade will be lovely for enhancing the edge of the pink shawl which has lain dormant since about Sept....because I needed to come up with something to finish the edging!

I've made great progess on knitting the 'Cardi for Arwen,' but I feel that needs its own post, so I'll save that for now.

The days are definitely longer! I'm waking earlier and feeling more energy! The sun is higher in the sky, and in spite of another bitterly cold week, I can tell the sun is stronger.

3 comments:

Life Looms Large said...

The tapestry progress looks great! Thanks for putting the pictures in viewing position instead of weaving position - if that makes sense.

I'm a summer-only dyer....so I need a lot more sun and a lot less snow before that starts!

Leigh said...

Hi Brenda,

I didn't realize you had a blog! Of course, I'm so far behind on OLG messages that everyone could have a blog now and I wouldn't know it. :)

The tapestry looks fantastic. I admire anyone with the patience to do this kind of weaving. They dyeing is lovely too. Good colors.

OzWeaver said...

Leigh,

I'm always behind on reading the posts from groups, and yet there is so much to learn....just never enough time for everything!

Thanks for your comments!

Brenda