Friday, June 25, 2010

Fine weather, garden, hens and blue yarn

Warm - hot even- weather for the last 3 weeks and practically no rain- has plants flowering and reaching out to grow but getting very thirsty so a lot of watering had to be done. The bit of rain promised did not really hit us at all while near by areas got a fair share of moisture.
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Glad to say the red hen has healed up after her assault bu Atilla the hen and grown a new comb. They are now buddies and seem inseparable. Atilla laid down some rules on the last introduction - she immediately went into the red's house and laid her white egg in the hay there - couldn't be a clearer signal than that :). Red hen continues to be submissive but there have been no attacks in the past 2 weeks - just a brown and a white egg side by side in the nest. Huddie ASBO dog has taken to sleeping in the garden all night so hopefully the fox won't remove my now harmonious pair.
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Seeds for woad, madder and Japanese Indigo grew to a greater or lesser extent. Might get some of the woad for dying in mid July.
WOAD
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JAPANESE INDIGO
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THERE'S MADDER IN THERE SOMEWHERE
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After the constraints of spinning even stable singles, it was nice to do some blue woolen and even nicer to spin up some colored noiley stuff for a textured yarn - all fuzzy lumps and bumps. This little lot will probably be woven together - plans are made - maths is done, balls are wound - warp tomorrow - then I'll find out what went wrong with the maths.
Blue mix wool
Blue mix wool

6 comments:

Bionic Laura said...

Love the gardening! I'll be interested to see what you do with the plants. Love the blue yarn too.

Catherine said...

Thanks Laura.
I'm hoping to harvest them for dyes in July - but who knows how that'll turn out!

Christine Raab-Heine said...

Great to see the lovely pictures, and your actions to grow these dye plants. I had thought of trying it, but it never happened.

I'm interested to see what colours you get.

Also: How woad and indigo plants look when fully grown. I have no idea.

I was often wondering how much space they need.

Catherine said...

Well now I have to do some boring spinning to have yarn ready for harvesting the plants and dying with them.
According to Rita Buchanan "A Dyer's Garden" :
Woad - 2 - 3 ft, 1 per sq ft, 24 plants to 4 oz wool;
Japanese Indigo 2 - 3 ft, 1 per 2 sq ft, 2 - 4 plants to 4 oz wool;
Madder 2 ft, 1 per 4 sq ft,2 plants to 4 oz wool.

SpinMeAYarn said...

Hi, just found your blog this week, i must say that I love the photos of the hens and the garden, i particularly like the colours of the blue yarn, that is my favourite blue, so rich and deep.
regards
liz

Catherine said...

Hello Liz,
Just saw your comment - have been off-line a lot doing all sorts so missed it 'till now. Saw your blog too - all the best for the new teaching year!
Catherine