Rosemary in the Loo; slubs and noils in a yarn - Pools Among The Rushes

What to do with the toilet when it's been replaced by a newer model?
Plant a low-growing Rosemary bush in it :).



The multicolor batt, made from drum carding blue, green and yellow-green short fibers with noild sandwitched between un-dyed white fleece  was spun into singles using supported long-draw at 12:1 using 8 out, 1 in over about 28 inches. It was plied with different solid color fleece spun at 12:1 over 1 inch using  twist-assist short-draw . The batt sigles were spun with different solid colors making a bouncy 2-ply at 9 wpi except for one which was plied with brown and light green making a n 8 wpi 3-ply.

A day o remember, a day to forget

Not much from me on this blog recently, perhaps because I've been preoccupied with Oisin, my beautiful collie. Diagnosed with cardimyopathy 9 months ago, he had 6 good months on treatment - including a visit to Scotland, two so-so months and this past month, failing daily until last night he reached a crisis. I called our vet, Triona first thing (I'm not too sure what time confused enough without the hour change) and very soon two lovely young women, veterinary nurses, came to the house and helped Oisin to rest. They were skilled and gentle and he put up no fight.
This day shows no sympathy, with it's magnificent clear, bright sun and the birds mock me with their chatter. But I am glad to have had the means to end his distress and lay him to rest.
My past twelve years seem to be lying covered in a blanket outside and close by, two singles, one set of twins and one set of triplets gambol about nearby. At least he saw the first of the lambs born and spent his last few days lying by their paddock.
So melancholy am I right now, I'm not sure I should be foisting this on anyone who might happen across it.
Huddie, his adopted brother, seemed bewildered by the change in circumstances. He has a hard act to follow.
The spinning wheel is a good friend at these times. I've plans to spin up these rolags, made from noily batts and ply with another green fiber. That and the lambs should keep me busy.

Shetland Shortie, Cabbage Rose, Unblocked

Unblocked - I don't mean I've finally been able to write again, rather I've not wet or dampened the last two wollie things I've made and ironed or pinned them into shape.
The Shetland Shortie. Gudrun Johnston pattern uses Bird’s Eye Lace Pattern from Barbara Walker’s “A Treasury Of Knitting Patterns" to make a very useful little front-tie bolero and it suits my purpose well.



My "eyes" are a bit unruly as is the nature of the yarn I spun for it so perhaps I should block it to even things out.
I should have blocked the individual parts (5 of them) which comprise this lapel pin thing:

but, I made it mainly just to see how the thing worked. Based on Loretta's Starburst Pattern for a hotplate, and seen on Rosknit's Ravelry project page. Used my low-twist space dyed single hand spun wool and a 4 mm crochet hook. Unblocked, it comes out all floppy and like a cabbage rose. I needs support of a little card or plastic disc behind and a pin to wear as a lapel pin.
I'll probably relent and block the first on - but perhaps not the second one.

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Sage hand spun

A friend gave me dried flower heads labeld Rittersporn Buuten (thanks Lindy) - about 6 ounces. These are Larkspur and I found a site that lists the colors you can expect from different plants : http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html. It indicates I should get a green if using the Alum mordant.

I mordanted 8 oz of fleece with Alum and simmered the Larkspur for 2 hours in water then cooled overnight.
I thought 6 oz dry weight would have coe from about 12- 18 oz of fresh flowers but I didn't know how much fiber it would dye. I gave a very dark liquid which when tested on white kitchen paper showed a faint light green.
I decided to add 4 oz of the fiber, simmered for an hour after which it seemed virtually unchanged :(. I left ot overnight and next day the fleece seemed barely dyed with a very light green hue.
After it dried it appeared a more definite green. When spun it looks like this:

A Sage green. At first I was disappointed as I thought I would get a dark green, then I was annoyed that I had put so much fiber in (perhaps 2 oz would have been better) but now it's growing on me, so to speak - and I've come to really like it's subtle gentle green.

Helebors and Woad Extra color yarn

The four Heleborus plants are up and the 2 older ones are giving a good display while the new ones (from last year) seem to be coming on.



They like being under deciduous trees.
The "Fondant" fleece (dyed with the Woad leaves left over from Indigo dying) spun up into fairly interesting colored yarn:

Winter woad

That woad "weed" is amazingly resilient. It has withstood the coldest days and nights here (-12 deg C at times) and continued to slowly grow.
It's not expected to give up any indigo dye from it's leaves past the end of summer so I thought to compost it. However, as I have several fleece lying about, I thought it worth having a bash at dying some if it with theses leaves - mainly to see what colors come from them other than indigo.


There was indeed some faint powdery blue left in the leaves, a creamy color and a sort of peachy-orange. It looks very light now but probably will e a bit more distinct when concentrated in the yarn. Planning on combining then some way. Not sure yet.

Some left-over "spring hedgerow" yarn made a reasonable pair of fingerless "Evangeline" gloves and a Waffle beanie:


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A hank of twist assist and Rufus presents

Finished 568 yards of 2-ply twist assist yarn, 24 - 26 wraps per inch, depending on how tightly it is wrapped on the inch measure. It is smoother and does not have the "drafting jag" that I'm inclined to produce when using either regular or over-twisted short draw.
It measured 583 yards before washing so shrank 2.6% - which would have to be taken into account if trying to spin a certain amount. I'm not keen on dying it as it feels so soft and has a dull luster which I was aiming for and dyes can have such harsh effects.
Attempt at photo on the mobile phone as the camera is on strike:


Red feline Rufus did his murderous job last night.
A mouse was found sitting on the dogs leash as it hung from a hook in the porch. It must have scampered up there to escape the predators living here. It jumped down into a basket of holly branches below and OH placed that outside so it wouldn't invade the house and giving it a chance of escape. But Rufus must have clocked this and next morning:

Poor little thing - but that's Rufus's job - and he does it so well without poisoning the whole place and shares it with us too.