we interrupt annotations

 

interrupting the annotation series to announce that spring is here. don't want to be pesada, but at last temperatures are milder and days are longer. my cervicals are better, thank you. three friends are going to be visiting, i have 2 skeins dyeing and i've finally mapped out how to integrate all those knitted samples into stitch work.there's no question i'm a spring person!

a piece of medium heavy  cream colored indian silk wrapped in plants and let alone until the stains took. liked the resulting texture so the stitching is trying to highlight the texture by creating some narrative, frayed edges and all.

the knitted linen was hunted from a pile of tension samples and i think it works here  with its kind of here but not quite presence. the stitching started in autumnal colors but took a life of its own developing into springy colors.
it was delightful to take the materials and let them all flow into one piece of work without really doing too much thinking.

neki desu

while on dyeing

gork seeds

can someone please tell what these are? they were given to me by my ex- hairdresser before moving to another town. she was into natural hair coloring so i'm sure these will yield color. but i'd like to know what they are before processing them. any lead will be welcomed.one thing i know, they're not annatto

neki desu

amonia, lichens and mahogany

a few weeks ago in one of the dyeing lists deb mcclintock published her doings with lichens.

i remembered i had some survivors from my throwing away rampages that could easily qualify as antiques. locating them was not too hard, but their state was doubtful. they were still attached to pieces of wood and rocks( ok in the early days we were young and not environmentally aware, remember?) the clumps dry and brittle and to the touch some disintegrated into dust. 

half the job done as they would not need to pass the mortar pestle routine! cleaned all the dirt and foreign matter and put them in a plastic jar with ammonia. 

a month later i needed 100 ends to complete the summer top warp and threw them in a pot with warm distilled water and some of the lichen liquid.the liquid as you can see in the photo is reddish brown sort of mahogany color. i was expecting more red or at least less brown , but after this soak  i'll try and shift the color towards red  with some lime juice. if worse comes to worst i'll make do with the color as is. don't think it will look totally bad with the rest of the warp.
 

neki desu