Implementing

I've happily agreed to dye some yarn for an encouraging friend. The colourway will be hot-pink-purple. I've obviously had fun in the past with these colours, but it's been a little while and I'm keen to re-acquaint myself with the available options. In particular I have two very similar dyes: landscape grevillea and galah. I figure the best way to check them out is to put them near each other and see if I can tell the difference in real life. I think I'll dye this batch of yarns in the microwave. So I picked up a stray skein of undyed handspun. It weighs in at 25 grams. Here it is soaked and ready to go with the two colours in question separated by the purpley cyclamin.

I can just see a difference between the two pinks in real life and maybe also on my monitor. Meanwhile I have another two different purples and that's before I start mixing colours from first principles, so there will be no shortage of variety.

While I've been uploading the photo and typing, the yarn has been heated in the microwave. Now I just need to wait for it to  react and then rinse it out before I can see the result. 

Early Results

My microwave dyed skein is dry.

This first experiment was really just to check my basic technique as it's a while since I did any dyeing in the microwave. By the time it had cooled down all the dye was exhausted. I was overdyeing some blue yarn with landscape grevillea. I'm happy with the berry colour that resulted from the colour combination. As you can see there are patches of undyed yarn visible. For my next test I will use a bit more dye and try to move the skein around in the dyepot a bit more to avoid that. I really like a variegated result for most of my dyeing, but not so much for colour wheel samples. And of course the yarn for my samples will start off white.  Meanwhile I have a useful skein of yarn in a colour I like.

More Grevillea Exploration

After sketching the grevillea leaf yesterday afternoon I decided to have a go at the flower. The tension for me is between simplifying it and maintaining the appealing complexity. I found that when I selected or separated out a particular element--such as one of the scroll-shaped petals--it didn't grab me in the same way as the challengingly tangled whole. Here's where I got up to before I had to head out to my quilting class.

I photographed my sketch and then set the colour to black and white on my computer--I don't have photoshop skills . . . My next thought was to wonder what would happen if I made a negative of it--reversing the black and white. That's where I left it.

Meanwhile I have been spinning and knitting. And there are three new beginners in my quilt class, so life is never dull.

Feasability

This leaf belongs to the grevillea I've been hankering after printing recently. I think it might be a more realistic starting point than the flower itself.

I'm trying to be realistic about the fact that a linocut will be black and white only--or whatever coloured ink I use. And I'm going to have to carve any fiddly little bits without spoiling the rest, so starting slowly sounds like a good idea. Just looking at the picture now, I think I might make the lines a bit thicker. It's only a quick sketch,  but I like to play with it and see how I go. Or maybe I'll try another sketch. Or maybe another cup of coffee first . . .

Take 2

I did my regular walk again this morning. It's not just physical exercise, but time to think; get perspective and observe. I generally take the same route, so there's a pattern of repetition and change. So, I walked past the same grevillea bush as last week. I picked another flower

I'm really taken by the little loops formed by the opening buds. Don't know what I'll do with it, but there it is . . .

Printable?

My small experience of printing from my linocut the other day has warmed my creative juices and fired up my imagination. As usual I'm generating a thousand ideas and will struggle to implement a few, but the energy of all those possibilities is a good thing. So I picked this grevillea flower on my way home from my walk today and kept getting closer to it with my macro lens, trying to see elements which I could use for a design. 

I didn't pick--but looked with interest at--lots of other leaves and flowers which might also become designs. Probably I should start with something simpler, but it's good to dream.

Looking Again

Despite the craziness of this week I did get to my new drawing class on Tuesday evening. I figure that maintaining a routine of good things is a helpful way to cope when life is rocky. We had been asked to bring in something to draw. On my way out the front door I picked a grevillea flower. It proved to be a worthy subject for our scaling exercises: draw it normally; draw a tiny bit in detail; draw it really big!

Here's one leaf that I saved for later.

In the class I concentrated on the flower. Now I'd like to really think about the shapes of the leaf. I continue to be amazed at how different things appear when I start to really look at them.

Better

Here's yesterday's fabric overdyed in Landscape "grevillea" and "galah". This is more like the sorts of colours I was looking for. The landscape dyes are named for Australian flora and fauna, but in my mind this is very much a fruity-berry colouring. Now to do some measuring to see if there's enough fabric there to follow through on my plan. It wouldn't have been worth doing the measuring before the dyeing--even though that would seem logical--because I had no way of knowing how much shrinkage I'd get. Even though the jumper was already "felted" in the washing machine, it's now had three sessions in the dye pot and two more spin cycles in my front-loader. And, yes, I do realise I haven't mentioned what project I have in mind . . . I'll wait until I've measured it before I commit myself.

Reward

This grevillea is growing outside my front window.The bushes have been there for many years. I originally inherited them from a friend who was moving overseas. They were in small pots. I didn't know how they would cope with being planted out, since many Australian natives don't like having their roots disturbed. They coped fine. Since then I've done very little for them, and they've survived and flowered a little. They received some more attention just over a month ago when I started the great garden clean up. I thoroughly weeded their garden bed and then covered it with mulch--free mulch from the Council depot. I've had my reward many times over: they are flowering abundantly and putting out new shoots! I'm enjoying their progress every time I glance out the window and the native birds are visiting often.

Hat Magic

Earlier this week I began to tell the tale of "Three Hats" One was too big, one was too small and there I was wildly waving my magic wand to conjure up one that's just right. Well, failing the magic wand, I reverted to my more usual techniques. I mixed up a dye pot of Landscape Grevillea for a skein I'd spun many moons ago. There's a fair bit of yarn there, so once it had gobbled up all the Grevillea colour, I gave it a bit of Kangaroo Paw for afters. Here's the result: I rinsed it; spun it out in my salad spinner and hung it out to dry before bed last night. It's not quite dry yet. That's OK, I'm still without a car and so I'm anticipating several hours of public transport over the weekend. I'll have the makings of a hat to keep me company.