Fair Isle…or not

What do you make when you have 1oz of 20 different colors? Fair Isle! The only problem is that Fair Isle is best used with a stretchy yarn that is forgiving of the long floats across the back. Silk is not stretchy at all. But I am willing to give it a try because what else can I do with 20 one oz skeins?

The other option would be to do a honeycomb stitch similar to these mittens my sister knitted for me a couple years ago.

I think I will have to make something that doesn’t need to be fitted or to stretch to wear. A simple tube would work best – maybe a hood tube or tube hood. I don’t know, I will do some sketching. 

Wood Dyes

My sister had Logwood and Brazilwood which are two ancient dyes that were discovered in America by the Europeans hundred of years ago. They were prized dyes and I can see why. Logwood is a deep rose and Brazilwood a deep purple. Both beautiful. I did a second bath with the Logwood to get a lighter rose as well.

I also had some Black Walnuts that I had lying around and got the deepest brown yet, very beautiful.

With my last two skeins I wanted to try something I had lying around the house so did Orange skins and cut grass. Both gave great colors. A very soft yellow from the oranges and another green that looks great.

All these colors are so beautiful but when I put them together, I am amazed. The way they all work together is so pretty that I don’t want to knit anything with them, just have them around so I can keep looking at them.

But, I will make something with them. I just hope I don’t screw it up. 

Vegetable Dyes

I have been dyeing a lot! Yellow onion skins gave me a great yellow (no surprise), but Red onion skins gave me a deep green (big surprise).

I then tried the cabbages. Red cabbage yielded a steely gray/blue but green cabbage was a dud – a creamy white that is the exact color that I had before I dyed.

Why stop at cabbage? I next did spinach and got a wonderful green, one of my favorites!

My sister dyed with some woods a few years ago so I am going to see if she still has any of the dye stuff and try dyeing with wood. Stay tuned!

Still More Dyeing

Now that I am on a roll, I am dyeing a lot. I have since tried Raspberries and Blackberries. The raspberries gave me a very faint purple and the blackberries gave me a dusty blue.

 

I then dyed with some sunflower heads since they are so prolific right now. The sunflowers gave me a drab green.

I then thought I would try sunflower seeds and they gave me another tan.

Next I did Green tea thinking I would get a more green color than Black tea but that was just silly talk. Another brown!

I then decided to try and get deeper browns instead of the all the light browns I have been getting so tried Coffee and was pleasantly surprised.

More experiments this week!

More Dyeing

I have been trying a variety of natural dyes in the past couple days and they are beautiful. My fears that everything would be brown is unfounded (although I do have a few beautiful tans and browns).

I first tried sage from my garden. I got the most wonderful light green.

Next I tried some flower buds from my prodigious Virginia Creeper and got one of the great browns.

I wanted more colors so next I tried Paprika. I got a very faint reddish brown color but wasn’t very impressed.

While I was in my spice cupboard, I dyed with some Turmeric and WOW! The yellow is vibrant and intense!

I am having fun experimenting with the different dyes and can’t wait to try something else from my kitchen.