I've been missing dyeing

since the time I had dyed with eucalyptus globulus (two months ago), I hadn't had the opportunity to dye with anything else. Life'd been getting busy & I had nothing to dye with or to experiment. But last week, I decided to try to dye with cornflower petals (centaurea cyanus), and here were the results, not really ... er, dark, isn't it ?

left : linen (used to be white)
right & top : silk
middle : cotton crochet lace (white before dyeing) & silk yarn

I'll blog about it later in the dyeing blog (which, btw, still needs the blog post about my 2nd experiment with eucalyptus ! ugh)

and on Sunday, we did another dye, with something I fully expected a good result, but not the one I got ! I dyed with (yellow) onion skins (allium cepa). Like for the previous dye (with cornflower), I had mordanted my fabrics & fibers with alum. Now, this is the result of the dye with onion skins.

lovely, isn't it ?
1st photo
left : silk
top : linen
middle : cotton crochet lace & silk yarn

and as if it wasn't enough, I also started a solar dyeing (not boiling the petals, this time, but using the energy of sun) with cornflower (full heads). Don't be afraid, it looks a bit ... er, gross, or macabre, but you know it's only silk + linen + cornflowers + water .... right ... you know that, right ? (trying desperatly not to sound like a mad woman)

this morning I found a lovely & interesting color in the bottom of the jar (which water's getting blurry, btw), so I thought I'd share too. Beware, I think it's even grosser than the 1st photo (I warned you)

basically, I mordanted a piece of silk & a piece of linen with alum, then laid the fabrics in the bathtube, and put cornflower heads face down on the fabrics, rolled them, tied them tight, and add warm water on top, and added a stone too so that they wouldn't float.

like this

in other news, I made new jam jar covers (a set of 12 red gingham ones, and a set of 6 black gingham ones), which are already in the shop.

other than that, we're getting ready for the hot season. And for the bl**dy mosquitoes (sorry mosquitoes, but I hate you) that go with it. We do live in the heart of the town, but there are two ponds very nearby, and they lay their eggs there, and our building is one of the very first that they meet after coming to the world. Last year we moved & there were just so many things to think about. I remember the day we moved, it was 36°C, and I am SO NOT looking forward to such high temps. The sun's back this week, and the temps are really getting up up up. Last week we had winter jackets & turtle necks. Today I wore flip flops & a tank top inside.

I hope we'll find something big enough for our bed. We found one for each of the boys' bed, but they are clearly not big enough for ours. (and mosquitoes loooooooove me & my juicy flesh, so I better find something soon)

ok, I think this is long enough for you, girls. I hope you had a good start to your week, which is soon halfway already, oh my ! Please you all take good care.

xoxo

Sonia