discovery mode

this is a tannin bath .this kind of tannin is food grade the one used in winemaking and other edibles. it's a blend of quebracho,chesnut and tara and it's soluble in water.of course the crafty dyer knows that this is prime material for dyeing, albeit the shopkeeper's weird look.

and now the discovery. i/we were under the assumption that silk needed to be scoured in order to remove the sericin so that it could dye. not what i found.the top silk sample boiled to a glaring matted mess, glossy though,dyed much lighter after an overnight soak.the bottom one albeit still stiff is much darker.looked around for a proof of concept and ana lisa hedstorm has been dyeing without removing the sericin for quite a while.

the quid  pro quo would be gloss,softness and a lighter color or stiffness and a greater color intake. cast your votes.

doing a test this week  with mordanted threads to see what happens.

neki desu 

 

for those of you with the abilities

it looks straightforward and fun. as for me i'll sit and watch  ⋋__⋌ 

have a good weekend

neki desu

 

also in knitting

this one was nicely executed, but can't put my head through the neck. left it to age and mellow as in wines. think that after a year i came up with a solution. open the neck and shoulder seam and use snap tape.

the dress i made this summer is still there in  a limbo still working on the grading of the top part. evidently fashion is not my friend.maybe it's the mirror which reflects a slimmer that real me and i tend to go with that flattering image.  ( ¨¨ ω¨¨ )    

neki desu