Madder the Inexhaustible Root–Part Two: Pink

If you read my last post, you may be wondering why I wasn’t totally content with my orange linen, as bright and cheery as it was. Basically it’s because I wanted pink. Light pink, to be exact. Light pink 40/2 linen, to be exact, and lots of it. Why? Well…!

A fortunate side-effect of my successful show with Amanda Quinby at the Shelburne Arts Co-op in Shelburne Falls in October was that I sold all of my usual inventory of naturally dyed linen bookmarks and hand-bound books with hand-woven cloth covers. Hence, I need to weave more! My main objective with this madder exhaust project was to create light pink 40/2 linen yarn for weaving heart-motif bookmarks in Huck Lace. I must confess that all the other lovely colors I obtained were just happy by-products in my quest for pink. Continue reading “Madder the Inexhaustible Root–Part Two: Pink” →

Madder the Inexhaustible Root–Part One: Orange

Earlier in November, another teacher at school wanted to dye some cloth to create kid-sized monarch butterfly wings as part of her classroom study of butterflies. Her initial dyebaths, composed largely of marigolds combined with some orange cosmos and wild bedstraw roots, had not yielded the color she wanted. I suggested over-dyeing the cloth with madder roots, even though they weren’t from our garden at school. She decided to use some chopped roots that I had bought from Aurora Silk a few years ago, and was pleased with her results.

I asked her to save me the exhausted dyebath and the roots, which she very kindly did. I spent every spare moment of the next two weeks happily creating various shades of pink and orange on linen and cotton-linen blend yarns. I was well-satisfied with my efforts! Here they are:

drying rack madder yarns Continue reading “Madder the Inexhaustible Root–Part One: Orange” →

Rinsing and Drying Madder Roots

Today was a very productive day. I had the day off. It was mostly sunny and warm. And, despite weeks of frosts, the ground was still workable. We’re supposed to get lows in the teens and highs only in the 30s later this week, so I was very motivated to take care of some outdoor tasks before the really cold weather rolls in.

I already wrote about digging up approximately one third of my madder bed a couple weeks ago. I already rinsed some of the madder roots I dug up, and they are already dried. I didn’t document that earlier batch. This morning I rinsed the rest of what I had dug up the other day.

Here is a brown paper grocery bag full of dried but still dirt-covered roots. I hadn’t planned to dry them first, it’s just that I didn’t manage to rinse them off before they dried. Fortunately I didn’t have any issues with mold.

dirt-covered madder roots

Continue reading “Rinsing and Drying Madder Roots” →

Digging up Madder Roots

After a glorious and fairly mild autumn, the colder weather arrived about a week and a half or two weeks ago. We have had at- or below-freezing temperatures every night since then. Fortunately it’s been warm and sunny in the day times, so the ground isn’t frozen. It has also been very dry, so the soil isn’t wet or heavy. Perfect weather for digging up the madder bed in my fiber and dye plant garden at Bramble Hill Farm. So, on Saturday I headed over there in the morning… a bright but cold and windy day. Continue reading “Digging up Madder Roots” →

Smitten The Pippi Pie

Smitten, our beautiful and sweet Pippi, died last Monday, October 21st, 2013. Our hearts are sad and heavy, and we miss her in a million ways. Looking back through our photos of her, I found so many images that demonstrate how much her life with us was shaped by my fiber-related pursuits, and by the book-binding experiments of both Matthew and myself.

She fit into our lives so perfectly. She loved to be near us while we were working, and always seemed to find a way to make a project into a comfy bed or an exciting game. Since I started this blog, I have included many cute photos of her. In this post I tried to avoid duplicates and to dig back a little further into our lives together (there are a couple repeats, though, that I couldn’t resist). Here is a glimpse of the life of the Pippi as fiber-cat:

This one is from 2000 or 2001. It’s one of our oldest photos of her, when she was a tiny kitten. She is stretching in front of my spinning wheel (a recent gift from my mother and my Aunt Peggy).smitten kitten

Another early one of Smitten excited by the possibilities of milkweed bast fiber.

smitten and milkweed

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Hemming and Hanging

Over the past week or two I tied half-damascus knots to secure the warp ends on my ryas and hemmed them all. It took a long time, and even though I was very careful, they’re more on the “organic” side of a straight line than the “geometric” side. But they are still awesome.

Our cat Smitten, also known as Pippi or The Pippi, has been very unwell lately and not at all up to her usual high jinks. So, it was a pleasant surprise when she jumped up on the desk to “help” me hem this rya. Pippi likes to help, even when she’s feeling poorly. Here she is looking comfy and not wanting to be moved. Continue reading “Hemming and Hanging” →

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

The time is drawing near! Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Work by Michelle Parrish and Amanda Quinby will go up on Tuesday at the Shelburne Arts Co-op, and will be open to the public from Wednesday October 2nd until Monday October 28th. Fall hours at the co-op are Sunday, Monday and Wednesday 11-5; Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11-8. The co-op is closed on Tuesdays. Here is a sneak peek of the ryas that will compose my portion of the show. The other portion of the show will be Amanda’s enchanting gilded panels, which have been on display at KW Home in Easthampton this month. Continue reading “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” →

Small Woad Vat

This summer I have spent most of my time and energy on weaving, but I didn’t want to let the summer end without at least a little bit of dyeing. So, last Friday I ran a woad vat, following my usual routine based on Rita Buchanan’s directions in A Dyer’s Garden and A Weaver’s Garden. The woad plants in the bed that self-sowed, and the transplants from that bed, were still pretty small. I lost about half of the plants in the bed affected by club root, which left one short bed with decent-sized (though a bit moth-eaten) leaves. I picked from all the beds, and collected two and a half pounds of leaves. I was worried that there wouldn’t be much color in the leaves yet because they were still small, but you can see the “breaking blue” as it oxidizes here on the cut stems:

cut woad stems

This is always a good sign. Here I am rinsing off the leaves.

rinsing woad leaves

Continue reading “Small Woad Vat” →

Deciding on Colors for a New Rya

The other day I was trying to decide on colors for my next rya. My show at the Shelburne Arts Co-op goes up on October 1st, so the time is growing short. Plus, school is starting soon, which means much less time for weaving. I felt the need to get a sense of the work that I’d made thus far, so I spread the ryas out on the bed. Then I stood on a chair to get a good look. And here they are!

ryas on the bed more ryas on the bed

Then of course I had to dump a ton of yarns onto the bed and see what resonated with the collection as a whole. I ended up choosing another combination of oranges with greens at the center, this time, rather than the brown and blue combo I did before. Continue reading “Deciding on Colors for a New Rya” →