Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Safflower and Cochineal Shibori

I may not get things done in a timely fashion, but it seems to me that I’m always juggling too many diverse things.  In the midst of my shibori ideas, I went sailing with my husband for five days over the Columbus holiday down in the Chesapeake.  I also got quite a bad cold which slowed me down…

So…back to shibori!

Oct.09Shirbori workshop 1

  My safflower dyed sock blank pleated and bound with four rubber bands, ready for the cochineal bath!

 

 

Oct.09Shibori workshop 3

The safflower dyed silk scarf ‘scrunched and wrapped around a soda bottle, ready for the cochineal bath…

 

 

 

 

Oct.09Shibori workshop 5

sock blank and wool/mohair skein after the cochineal bath.

 

 

 

Oct.09Shibori workshop 7

The finished items.  The silk scarf did not take the cochineal well.  It was not mordanted, which did not matter for the safflower, but certain must have for the cochineal. 

 Oct. shibori 003

Sock blank wound onto niddy-noddy, with silk scarf in background.

 

 

 

Oct. shibori 005

skein of doubled sock blank yarn!  I can’t wait to knit with this, but it might have to wait ‘til the near year, after all the holiday knitting is done!

 

Next step (someday!) will be to mordant the scarf, then stitch some designs, and re-dye it!  I don’t think I’ll hold my breath waiting to get it done!

2 comments:

Life Looms Large said...

That's a great idea to use a soda bottle for Shibori! I've only seen that technique on PVC pipe, but a soda bottle makes a lot of sense.

The cochineal is a really beautiful color.

Timely? What is this timely of which you speak? I'm struggling mightily to consider a finished project a good thing, whether it goes fast or takes years!!

Sue

OzWeaver said...

Always love to hear from you, Sue! I think there's a terrible tendency in this area to be overly driven...gotta get it done in a NY minute. I'm easily duped into feeling that I can never work fast enough...

Is it like this everywhere?