(cough, sneeze, hack) Oh, Hi! (cough, cough)

We've been having a craptacular week here. The Little Emperor came home from school on Tuesday with goopy eyes, which wasn't too surprising, because kids in his class have been sharing that lately. Over the weekend, I started coming down with a cold which has hit me hard. You know how some colds just kind of slow you down a bit, but really, you go right on with life and it's no big deal? And others? The expression "It's just a cold," was not meant to describe those germs. I started with a four day sore throat and have coughing and sneezing and stuffy sinuses. My temp has fluctuated a bit, but stayed under 100, so it's not influenza. It's just a really obnoxious rhinovirus. I've been sleeping an extra four hours a day when I can and just dragging through the waking hours. Mr. SABLE took some days off, so I could rest while he did kid duty.



Yesterday I was feeling a bit better in the afternoon and I realized it was time for dandelion dyeing! I had two 100 gram skeins of Knit Picks Bare, in fingering weight saved for this.



I got a paler yellow this year than last, but I used proportionately less alum and cream of tartar to mordant the yarn and probably a lower proportion of dandelions, and I probably didn't let everything cook as long this year, either.



Still, it's nice yellow yarn; enough to be a major component of a fair isle garment.

Mr. SABLE is itching to try rhubarb next. We have a lot of that, too.

Dandelion Dye!

I picked a mass of dandelions in my yard today: about half-filled a 12 qt pot. Covered with water and brought to a simmer for a while, stirring occasionally. I parked that pan outside on the patio to cool a bit.

Then found some ancient (1940's?) yarn in the stash to dye. Two 1 oz balls of white "Jumper Floss", a shetlandy-kind of wool, and a 2 oz hank of of some pinkish baby wool. One thing I remember hearing years ago was that mothproofing can interfere with natural dyes. These didn't say "mothproof" on the label. Also, I got them at thrift shops for small change, which is good when one is experimenting!

In my other dyepot, I prepared the mordant: I used about a Tbsp each of kitchen alum and cream of tartar. Brought the hanks of yarn to a gentle simmer and went off and forgot them. Came back later to a rolling boil. Oh well. The yarn seemed fine.

I poured off the mordant and rinsed the yarn in hot water and put it back in the pot. I went out and got my dandelion solution. Strained out the dandelions and put the liquid in with the yarn. I slowly simmered the yarn in the dye bath, then allowed to cool in the water outdoors for a couple hours more. Interestingly, the dandelion dyebath smelled like artichokes. The white turned a nice yellow and the pink turned a darker yellow. I'm pretty pleased with the way these turned out. I wasn't sure I would get an intense enough color saturation, but I think I did. Now I'm eager to try other natural dyes that take with non-toxic mordants. Next week, it's dandelion roots, which I'm told make purple!