Where is the Tin Man?

last weekend, on friday to be precise, i went to the public library to poke around and check out their fiber arts books. i Love the library, especially the downtown branch here in seattle, it is just so nice and open, and the librarians were very friendly and helpful. one mission i had was that i wanted to find books on dyeing so that i could better educate myself and hopefully get some better reds out of my dyes. i think i may be on the trail to a solution, quite literally. one book i found talked about using both copper and iron as a way to cause color shifts in your dyeing, i had hear about this before but always had the impression you had to use some fairly nasty chemicals to do so. this book said to just soak copper or iron in a mixture of equal parts vinegar and water, until the liquid changed color. that was a process i was much more comfortable with. then i came across a book that is called "The Red Dyes" and it says in regards to using both madder and cochineal, that a tin solution was added to make it dye scarlet. the tin solution that i read about though was tin dissolved in hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. neither of which sound like i really want them in my kitchen. so i decided to try soaking tin in the vinegar mix for an experiment. i ran to Value Village to paw through the kitchen wares. i picked out two pie pans that i thought might be tin, but that was when i realized i didn't really know how to tell tin from aluminum from steel even. i think tin is less porous, and is magnetic, and is light weight, and i'm not sure about if it rusts or oxidizes in some other way. if anyone knows anything about the identification of tin, please let me know.!

The Blue

i only had one skein left to spin to finish off this project, the lone blue. even though it was only one skein to spin, i was dying six. the three variegated, the green, the purple, and the blue. to get the blue color i used indigo which is a fun dye to use because of the procedures needed to dye with it, and you have to dip and re-dip the skeins to darken the color. but after, WHEW!, it felt good to have it all done.

The Reds

i struggle for reds, but still they elude me. red seems to be one of the most precocious colors in the spectrum, and i have yet to get a good solid true red. i have been using Madder root and Cochineal, and have got a wide variety of pinks, fuscia, even a dark garnet, but nothing that is like brick red, or blood red. one book i have talks about what used to be called Turkish Red which it says is the red used in gingham, but it only vaguely describes a forty day process of dying and mordanting to obtain the fugitive color. so although the red i got was not what i had envisioned, i settled for it, because hey, it's pretty anyway. so i had spun up three more skeins, so for my dyepot of madder and cochineal combined, i had one skein for 'red' that turned out more of a mauve, one for a purple that turned out a great plum, one for a blue/purple, then one solid yellow for an 'orange' that turned out more of a rose, and the 1/3'd yellow dyed for the blue/green/purple.

The Yellows

the way i had it orginized in my mind was like this. I'll start with the yellows, one for solid yellow, one for solid green, one for solid orange, half of one for blue/green, and a third of one for blue/green/purple. (don't forget you can click the picture for a closer view)
thats five total. each skein was two full bobbins worth of spinning. i mordanted them all first with alum and prepared a dyepot with Osage Orange, which looks like yellow saw dust when you get it and gives a great golden yellow. i had a little trouble with the orange but that was no fault of the yellow, the blame lays with my talent with the red.

Spun-out on Dye-versity

thanks to Aunt S for adding fuel to my crafting mania. she gave me this lovely book on dying yarn called Dyeing to Knit. after perusing it i decided to try making a variegated skein, originally i thought i would do a lovely green and blue combo by first dying half the skein yellow and then putting the whole thing in a blue bath. i started spinning. then i started thinking: if i'm going to have a yellow dyepot and a blue dyepot, i should just make a solid yellow and a solid blue also. and if i'm doing those two solids i might as well spin up one to make a solid green right? and now you can see the slippery slope of crafting insanity...as you can see i didn't stop there. i figured, if i'm going to do it i might as well just go with primary and secondary solids and variegated combinations of all three. right? each ball of yarn is Navajo plyed, which is a plying technique where you take a single yarn and you make it into a triple ply yarn by kind of making big crochet loops with your hands while you ply-spin it. they are all approximately sixty yards, wound into a center pull ball.

The New Digs

So on April Fools day i moved into my new apartment. it is a studio, but has a bedroom area, and best of all has All Utilities Included! YAY!
after a few failed fiasco's i finally picked up this folding papa-san type chair at chez Target. it is filling the place that i one day hope to have a couch or loveseat, but i haven't figured out how people without trucks that also don't want to pay new price get furniture to their domiciles.

you can't really see the rabbit ears on my tv but can i just say i LOVE them, i think they look totally cool, and for a one time payment of about ten dollars you too can have up to nine channels with all your favorite shows and news! my favorite part of my new place is the kitchen. it is really big with these cool cabinets and is all very sleek and clean looking. if you couldn't tell i am in a totally 'blue' phase of decorating. various shades of electric blue on white is pretty much my theme. i have always loved that color combination, and i started finding really great blue glass dishes at Value Village and Goodwill, so when i saw this place all painted white i knew it would be a great combination.







and you can see my hanging/folding dishrack that i picked up at Ikea. the walls here are lathe? and plaster, so i was pretty nervous about hanging it, since i haven't used screw anchors much, but it has held for a few months now with some pretty heavy pots and pans on it. the bedroom is off the living room. i have a good sized closet in there also. i got those blue glass tea-light lanterns at Urban Outfitters on sale, the candles go in little holders that come out of the bottom, really clever.









i also have my computer desk in the bedroom and the bathroom is off the little entry way behind the white dresser. thats where i keep my MONKEYS!

Horned Hats Hooray!

And here she is, the lovely Aunt S. modeling the curled horn hat i made for her, B-E-A-utiful, if i do say so myself. and with her handsome hubby in their matching Horned Hats! thanks to the General G for the inspiration. horns on hats, why didn't i think of that !?!

A Bag for Aunt Sassy

so this is a cute little round bag that i made and now belongs to the infamous blogger Aunt Sassy (http://nothingwittyleft.blogspot.com/) i dyed all of this one also, with plant dyes. more of Sassy to come...

ok ok ok i know i've been a blogslacker

so i know i've been a total slacker about updating my blog, and i apologize, but if it's any consulation i'm about to post three or four all at once, so hold on. oh, and i just figured out how to read the comments that people have left, thanks you guys!