cabbage dyeing & gaywool dyes

These 'softy softy' colours are the results of a natural red cabbage dye...they were modified with lemon juice to give the pink and salt to give the grey-blue shades (with no mordants.) 

I wouldn't expect these colours to be very light fast but red cabbage dyes are nice gentle dyes suitable for children or folk with chemical sensitivity to play with. 

The red on the right in the image up above is a commercial product, a 'gaywool dye', I have just started using some of their products to broaden my colour range and really am having fun getting into colour mixing, reminds me of my uni days of mixing up paints!
I'll be back at Northey street this Sunday with yarns, some small crochet items, etc, I'll be sharing a stall with lovely Michaela who sells Steiner toys and art supplies, we'd love to see  you there :o)

painting yarns...

Dabbling about with inky rich colours, rusty red leaves and barks, transforming cottons and wools. 

Lovely times :o) 

xKate

wordless wednesday

colours

As more storm clouds roll in outside I am indoors gathering some inspiration from old photos. I have some 8 ply raw cotton(un-dyed) which I will be colouring this week.


This is some angora, mohair, merino yarn I dyed last year.  

I adore playing with colour, the colour theme in the yarn above was inspired by reflections on water...

I wonder what will come out inspired by these colours? :o) 

dyeing yarns

I had a lovely day today, coffee drinking and book shopping with my lads this morning(they got 'floods' fiction series, dinosaur non-fiction and the flanimals pop-up book with their christmas and birthday money.) Following this we've had a quiet afternoon of hand rolling dyed skeins into balls ready for the market (with Sitaras help) while they read their new books...simple pleasures!

Finished!!

This is my first ever 'proper' crochet piece of clothing, I am very excited to have created something substantial-and almost all of this piece was created from yarns Sitara found on her travels. The pattern for this 'capelet' (sorta like a snug poncho) came from here-scroll down to find the pattern in english is required!

I love the simplicity of the pattern but this is so special to me because it has such a lovely selection of raw(un-dyed) yarns!

 I absolutely love how it contains all kinds of kooky animals yarns, including some Australian alpaca(so frickin' cute, eh) and some Scottish highland cows yarn! 
I will be back at Village life this weekend so feel free to bring along your crochet hook and we can have a chat and do some hookin'
xKate

villagers

Out on the Village green we are starting to set up shop at the market again.
We have a diverse range of community members who hold stalls, perform services such as massage and provide workshops. As a long time Northey street city farm friend I am always stunned by locals who have never heard of Northey street in Windsor. It is only a couple of blocks away from one of the biggest hospitals in our city and is an absolute gem of a garden and market place. It is here!

 This Sunday from 8-11 a.m I will be helping lovely artist Lesa Hepburn run a free childrens demonstration of paper making.  We went out to Stradbroke Island last year together to enjoy the inspiration and richness of the place.

We also went out to the Caboolture historical village yesterday to see some old letter press printers. They are soooo beautiful.

She used the letterpress to create these beautiful book marks.. these peace printing blocks were over a hundred years old, wonderful timeless message :o)
cheerio Kate