(Top) One of my favorite yard sale finds ever. I'd love to know how this concrete toadstool was made. And here's our sweet old dog, Grizman, who will be 11 sometime in the next couple of weeks (She was Cinnamon when C got her, but he wanted to change it to something that sounded similar, so came up with a mix of Griz and Grisman, as in David Grisman, the mandolin player.) She's a Chow/Irish Setter mix and an wonderful, very gentle dog. She was our baby until we had one of our own and she felt so betrayed...she's never really forgiven me for it.
(2nd row) Light orange and brown hand dyed self-striping yarn, Knit Picks Color Your Own, 1 skein. Details below.
(3rd row) This Hopi Dye Amaranth is one of 5 varieties that a friend of mine grew in her garden this year. I thought I'd give dyeing with it a try. I couldn't find it listed in my Hopi Dyes book, but found a few references online to using it to color cornbreads. After initially soaking it, the water turned a bright fushia. Then, when I heated it, it turned yellow. Not sure what to do with it, I let it sit for a few days, and again, the water turned fushia. This time I strained it and entered the yarn then heated it to a simmer. The picture on the right is the light yellow I got on the half of the yarn that was immersed in the dyebath.
(4th row) Next, I overdyed the whole skein in a leftover Coreopsis flower dyebath that had been stored in the fridge for almost two months, which turned the whole skein a warm, peachy orange color. One part of the skein came out slightly duller than the other, although I forgot to pay attention to which part, so my guess is that the previously yellow part was the brighter part. The duller half was immersed in a walnut hull dyebath to get the brown color. The black walnuts were from this tree out behind the Catholic church in town.
The amaranth and black walnut hull dyebaths are pictured in yesterday's post.
Finally, it's done and I'm happy with it!
