Overdyeing Wool with Onion Skins

Yellow (and some red) onion skins afloat

If you're reading this, you likely have lots of yarn in your house ;o)

And sometimes the yarn isn't exactly the right color you want or need for your next project, agreed? There are lots of ways to remedy this -- but the easiest way, in my book, is to overdye the color. And one of the easiest ways to dye anything is to work with onion skins, right on the stovetop.

I had some wonderful 18/2 superfine merino from JaggerSpun in Maine. (If you don't know about this great company and its wonderful products, here's the link: www.jaggeryarn.com.) I knitted it up on my knitting machine and then felted it (more correctly, fulled it) so that it became more sturdy and funky. Still, it was soft pink. Sometimes that's a hard sell.

Love the fabric, but maybe not the color?

What to do next? Embellish? Shibori resist and dye in an indigo vat? Overdye? I had lots of onion skins in the cupboard, and I envisioned getting a rich peachy coral after immersing the fabric for an hour or so. I also added some machine-knitted fabric made of fine linen singles in white, just to see what would happen.

 

Soaked everything in lukewarm water for about an hour before dyeing, to open up the fibers and make them more receptive to the dye. No mordanting necessary (although it would likely make the dye more permanent). Throw the onion skins in the pot and bring them to a boil.

Great for dyeing: those big enamel pots that are used for canning

Strain the boiled onion skins out of the golden dye liquid (being careful not to overload the garbage disposal, as I did, which clogged it up, and being careful not to dye the white enamel sink, as I did, to a warm golden hue that had to be scoured away). Throw the fabric in the dye and again bring it close to a boil. Let everything cool to room temperature. The results were not quite as vivid as I had hoped, but I think that the color will work.

 Linen fabric on the left, wool underneath

I would call the color a light salmon, very gentle and spring-like. Much closer to what I liked. Thanks for reading!

Celebrating 12 Years of Fiber Artistry!

Sample from my workshop on weaving with hand-dyed 60/2 silk

Weaving and Fiber Arts Center

Open House

Saturday, January 4, 2014, 1-4 p.m.

Studio 1940, Piano Works Mall

349 West Commercial St.

East Rochester, NY 14445

585.377.2955

The public is invited to help mark the 12^th anniversary of the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center at an open house on Saturday, January 4, 2014, from 1 to 4 p.m. There's a lot to celebrate!

Since January 2002, the Center has offered courses in weaving and fiber arts for all ages and skill levels. Twelve years since its founding, the facility has become a valuable resource for the growing number of fiber artists throughout the Rochester region and western New York State.

Consider these statistics:

• The Center opened in January 2002 offering 22 classes to a roster of 129 students during its first class session. Today, for its current four-month session, the Center offers 57 classes to approximately 300 students!

• In weaving classes alone, 92 students are currently registered, with waiting lists in a number of classes. In knitting classes, 85 students are registered.

• The Weaving and Fiber Arts Center has helped boost membership in its parent organization, the Weavers' Guild of Rochester, by more than 50 percent. In 2002, the Guild had 121 members, while today membership stands at 184.

Visitors are invited to come and meet instructors, see demonstrations, and view sample work representing all the January to April 2014 classes. Demonstrations will include floor loom weaving as well as rigid heddle, inkle, table, and tapestry loom weaving – plus spinning and the use of Fiberworks (computer software for weavers). Instructors and students will be wearing garments, scarves, and other accessories they have made. Everyone is invited to bring their fiber friends – and even kids will have an opportunity to try weaving.

The Weaving and Fiber Arts Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is the primary outreach activity of the Weavers’ Guild of Rochester, Inc. Managed entirely by guild volunteers, it is supported by course tuition and tax-exempt gifts.

For photos, instructor biographies, details on classes and online registration, visit the website at www.weaversguildofrochester.org/courses

Tapestry by instructor Mary McMahon

Felted scarf by instructor Marie Brate

Knitted and beaded shawl by instructor Lynne Sherwood

Fabric dyed with cochineal using shibori-resist techniques, 

by instructor Evelyn Kitson

Collapse Weave with 60/2 Warp and Overtwist Wool Weft

Back to blogging! It's been 3 1/2 months since my last post. Sadly but not unexpectedly, we lost our Dad on October 5. He was laid to rest on a beautiful October morning, honored by a military bugler and flag ceremony, which he would have loved. I will always miss him greatly.

So I have not been posting, but I have been working. (My Dad, for one, would be pleased, since he was a painter and a woodworker and very, very handy -- and very happy when he was making or fixing things!) My main focus: a 42" wide warp in aqua and brown stripes of 60/2 silk.

 

Above: some yardage just off the loom. It measured about 42" wide and 58" long. I hand-dyed the 60/2 silk warp stripes, which were 1) shades of brown and 2) shades of light blue and aqua. The weft is a black wool overtwist from the Handweavers Studio and Gallery in London. And finally, the structure: alternating blocks of 3/1 and 1/3 twill. Both the structure and the weft make the fabric collapse after washing -- which you will see in the upcoming photos!

To achieve the collapse effect, you have to wash the fabric in hot water (that is, up to maybe 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which is just about as hot as you can get it straight from the tap). Some agitation is needed, too, to loosen up the overtwist and let it relax. For soap, I prefer using just a bit of Orvus Paste, which has a neutral pH and is great for fine fiber.

What I love about the washing process: First, I do NOT baby the fabric. For some reason, it feels good to know that this fabric -- as beautiful as it is -- is also quite sturdy and responds well to washing. And as for the response to washing: You can see the stripes collapse almost immediately. It's great fun, after spending all that time weaving, to have the instant gratification of creating texture within a matter of seconds.

Rinse it out, wring it out, stretch it out lengthwise to dry, and here's what you get!

Closeup. Unfortunately, some of the color is a bit off. (Seems the photographer had a problem.)

Above, the fabric from a distance. It had shrunk from 42" by 58" to maybe 14" by 48". Just the effect I had intended. For garments, this fabric is light, with a great drape, and it shapes itself gently over the body because of its elasticity.

Much more weaving to go, as I hope to weave another three panels using this collapse effect and then weave more yardage using 60/2 silk as weft, for a balanced weave structure.

Thanks for reading! And here's a photo I love, for everyone who has fond memories of loved ones:

Dad with Mom and his beloved Lab, Bear, at our old house in Penfield, NY, circa 1980. Love you, Dad! (And I hear him answering, as he always did, "Ditto.")

More Shibori with Natural Dyes

 

Above, cochineal and indigo on cotton voile

Summer's here and the time is right for... indigo dyeing! Actually, any time is right for indigo dyeing, but in summer you can hang your pieces outside to dry. They always look more beautiful in the sunlight.

My theory on dyeing is simple: There are virtually no mistakes. I mean this. If you create a color or a pattern that doesn't appeal to you -- or, let's face it, that you can't STAND -- then you simply overdye it, or discharge it, or make it into a garment that maximizes its seemingly limited potential. I have dyed fabric that I really thought was unsuccessful, only to sew it into a garment and have it turn out to be really appealing!

Now, having said this, I have had my share of flops, particularly with natural dyes. I find dyeing with natural dyes a far greater challenge than dyeing with chemical dyes. You have a harder time getting saturated colors, for one. It takes more work. Also, it's much, much harder to get the full range of colors that you can achieve with chemical dyes. Turquoise, for one, is an elusive color to achieve with natural dyes.

However, I do love the feeling, concept, ethos, whatever, of using dyes that come straight from nature. No detours, no factories, no threats to our threatened environment. 

OK, enough lecturing!

Today, my friend Joan Rusitzky and I got our hands (and her floor) blue in an indigo vat. Joan is a wonderful dyer and shibori artist who sells her work at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY, among others.

Here are some of the results:

This, above, is a full view of the cotton voile yardage that I dyed in cochineal and indigo. I first immersed this piece in cochineal, not minding irregularities or blotchiness. Then I immersed it in an indigo discharge vat. (Someday I will make a fermentation vat, but that's another blog post.)

Finally, today, I rolled the fabric up lengthwise, tied it with rubber bands and string, and dipped it about five times in an indigo vat. The fabric you see is still oxidizing; it hasn't been washed yet and certainly hasn't been ironed. I'm not at all sure what I will make of it or what embellishments it needs -- but isn't that part of the fun? Discovering what something "wants" to become?

This is a scarf blank that I purchased from Thai Silks. It's a wool/silk blend, which gives it a nice hand and an interesting texture. Initially, I dyed this with onion skins and then walnut, to give it a golden-brown base color. Then I folded it, placed two wooden blocks on either side, clamped it, and immersed it about three times in the indigo vat. The darker color is a deep teal, which I really like.

This is another piece that needs more work. I may add another layer to this scarf, maybe a lace layer using fine wool/stainless steel yarn from Habu Textiles, knitted up on my knitting machine. 

As every textile artist knows, the ideas come a lot faster than the final product. You have to love the journey.

To all my fellow fiber travelers out there: All those who wander are not lost, that's for sure. We create a lot of beauty as we wander!

New Free Pattern on Ravelry: Asymmetrical Vest in Handspun

Last year I came upon a wonderful and inexpensive fiber for handspinning: Potluck Roving in granite, available from  Ferndale Fiber at a whole lot of stores nationwide. It's soft and dense -- just right for the warm winter vest I spun and knitted above.

How to spin a yarn? I was getting tired of my simple handspinning technique, which worked fine for most of what I wanted to knit but had no "pizzazz," if you know what I mean! A friend of mine -- a wonderful spinner and knitter named Judith Trolley -- introduced me to the work of Jacey Boggs in her book, Spin Art: Mastering the Craft of Spinning Textured Yarn. I loved what I could do with my Potluck Roving.

Since I was hoping to create something simple, I found a pattern online that I reworked to my own specifications: an irregular hexagonal shape, knitted sideways, no seams, no buttons, and all you have to do is cast off and cast on again to make the armholes. Because it's knitted and has an adjustable closure (shawl pin in photo above), it can adapt to many shapes and sizes. Exactly my kind of garment!

The vest is available in my Etsy shop and the pattern is available for free from Denise Kovnat Designs on Ravelry. I know it's mid-summer, but this vest will make a warm and much-needed garment when winter comes!

Weaving with 60/2 Silk: Pictures from a Workshop

Last weekend at a conference in Scranton, Pennsylvania, I taught a 2 1/2-day workshop titled "Three Fabrics, One Warp: Weaving with 60/2 Silk." The idea was to take the fear out of weaving with such a fine yarn -- and to learn how to weave three very different fabrics with one very colorful warp.

In the photo above, you see the first fabric we worked on: a 3/1 and 1/3 twill on 8 shafts, in a balanced weave sett at 48 ends per inch. Students had already warped their looms with warps that I had handpainted, alternating in black and multi-colored stripes. The weft yarns for the balanced-weave fabric were also 60/2 silk in an array of colors.

Here's another beautiful twill fabric woven by one student.

At the top of the photo you see a crinkle-woven sample -- this from the same warp. It was the second fabric we were weaving in the course. On the second day, students wove a 4-treadle twill using a 52/2 overtwist wool weft. (The weft was purchased from the Handweavers Studio and Gallery in London, by the way -- a wonderful place to buy supplies, despite the shipping charges!)

More collapse-weave fabric, with the top of the piece using a higher-twist black weft and the bottom of the piece using a lower-twist white weft:

On the last day we created a sort of rag-rug fabric, using silk ribbon as weft. The texture was enhanced when we alternated with another yarn -- for example, a woolen handspun -- in a similar color. This fabric would work well for a jacket or a coat. The colors were gorgeous.

So many advanced weavers in this class -- and so much design talent! I feel as though I learned even more than they did.

At the top of the photo above, you see a collapse-weave fabric which then ruffles and opens up into the twill weave. This could work beautifully in shaping a garment on the loom -- say, a dress or top that goes from a body-hugging bodice to a loose ruffle below the waist.

Below is another design that wasn't even part of the course -- created when a student used a cotton-chenille yarn as weft. Note the black "shadow" on the left side of six of the twill blocks in the row of lavender and olive stripes: It was a counting error that created a wonderful pattern and some new design possibilities. The color changes and structure make for a striking design.

Many, many thanks to my students -- Janeen Bates, Elaine Campise, Meridith Entingh, Peggy Howell, Hedy Lyles, Sandra Petty, Sherry Powell, Elyse Rogers, Anne Sanderoff-Walker, Josephine Su, Colleen Tanzy, and Uarda Taylor -- for taking my class and for making it such a wonderful, colorful experience! Thanks also to the MAFA (short for Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association) committee who put together such a fun conference.

Sculptures by Janet Echelman: Fish Nets and Wide Hips

In my recent web ramblings, I came across a TED talk by fiber artist Janet Echelman, who is the keynote speaker this weekend at the Surface Design Association conference in San Antonio.

Her work is exhilirating! I had to share the video. Her topic is "Taking Imagination Seriously."

For more on Echelman, here's her website: http://www.echelman.com