I finally took some pix of Kate. Here is the detail of the inside. As I might have mentioned, I knit the whole thing in one seamless piece. The neckline is short-rowed. I used 84 stitches for the neckline, 30(front)+15(L sleeve)+24(back)+15(R sleeve). Why does the front have 6 more stitches than the back? Because I stair-stepped the front neckline in 3 short row segments on each side (2*3 rows) which means the front has 3 fewer sets of double decreases than the back. Is this clear as mud? It just worked like magic. It was much clearer to me than the French instructions I downloaded.
Month: September 2004 Page 2 of 3
Martin and I were lucky to spend an hour or so in the company of Jimmy Carter this afternoon. The former president came by our office to talk to us about The Carter Center and just plain chat. What an amazing person. And he shared a bit of his humor, his take on the current election, and a little bit about this letter that he wrote to Zell Miller, and how we as individuals can make a difference. I repeat, what an amazing person!
Oh yes, you came here to read about fibers. The new batch of cutch dyed lincoln-corriedale is darker than the first batch. But stupid me changed two variables instead of just one at a time, so I don’t know which had the most impact. First, I re-scoured the wool in one hot soapy bath, followed by one hot rinse. Second, I premordanted the wool for about 36 hours in alum. So, I don’t know if it was the residual grease on the wool that was prohibiting the dye from taking, or whether premordant made the difference. But I will say that there’s still some grease in the wool, and a LOT of dye came out in the first rinse.
I played with some natural dyes this weekend.
I dyed some wool in that dye bath made with apple leaves and twigs. Then I overdyed a small portion of that with an indigo bath that’s been sitting around. It was a really, really short dip (less than 2 minutes total), but the blue really took, and it’s a blue-green, and I was hoping for more green. But, I started out with a light brown to start with, so it’s probably not too surprising. I did this dye sample without mordants, since I read that it was not necessary, but I will try another batch with an alum mordant. Stay tuned.
Here’s a handful of wool that I let sit in the indigo bath for about 30 minutes after an initial dip of 5 minutes (aired out for 10 minutes in between). I did this batch to make sure that the indigo bath could be revived and still usable, since it’s been sitting out on the back deck for 9 months or so. Yikes! But with a little Rit dye remover, it was good as new. And as you can see from the apple sample, still pretty dang potent! There are a few small white patches because I didn’t really let the wool soak long enough (a 5-10 minute presoak because I was so darned impatient to see what was happening with the indigo).
I have some lincoln-corriedale locks that are soaking in alum right now. I want to try the cutch again, with the fiber pre-mordanted, instead of the alum in the dye bath to see what the difference is.
It’s slow going, changing only one variable at a time. But once I get what I want, then I’ll do a full dye batch.
What am I looking for, you ask? I want a reddish brown and a light green. Anyone know of a sure fire recipe?