Farewell Fabric

My friend J from the Neighbourhood House is moving interstate. She came over for a visit yesterday afternoon. We decided to dye a shibori silk cloth together for J to take as a farewell gift. There's always an element of the unexpected with these cloths. Here's how J's turned out. Two sets of dyes, each in a rough "fan-fold" pattern; all in different tones of blues-purples. That was J's choice of colours by the way. We had a cuppa and a chat while the colour did its thing. In fact it's the biggest chat we've had in all our years of association at the Neighbourhood House. We'd never sat down together for more than a few minutes in all the bustle of what goes on there.

Wedding Pretties

I've just had my friend D on the phone. Her eldest daughter is getting married in January. She's at the wonderful stage of imagining and exploring all the exciting possibilities for frills and fripperies in, would you believe, Baby Pink! Thankfully for me, the stage of imagining that I could make the wedding dress--since I made several gorgeous dress up items in her growing up--is well past. The wedding dress has been purchased and if anyone makes the bridesmaids' dresses it won't be me. That just leaves the fun parts. D is planning an embroidered ring cushion. Together we just imagined the silk dupion, ribbons and emboidery floss into one of my dye-pots. Then I added matching silk hankies for the men. And ooh! what about little wrist purses for the bridal party.

Confession time--I'm not known for my frilly pink tendencies, but these three pieces of fabric were in the top of my "silk box". I don't expect any of them will actually be used, but here they are in their pretty inspiration. Now I just have to wait for some colour swatches--apparently a paint swatch from Bunnings is the thing! Then I can start playing with colour. Nine months out from the wedding, it all sounds like a lot of fun. And if all goes smoothly and there aren't too many last minute changes, it could continue to be lots of fun. Though I've experienced enough wedding preparations to know that somewhere along the line will be some complications and even tears.

Now as for today's realities--putting pretty baby pink aside. I have spinning and knitting to work on and a quilting class tonight. Oh, and no car. In non-textile news: my car was involved in an accident on the weekend--thankfully only the car was damaged, and the people are all ok. But it will be a few days before I know whether it will be fixed or written off.

Citrus Gradation

I can see a pattern developing here.

I've just finished another skein of silk ribbon for my friend D: This one is gradations of "citrus" orange, with a touch of "rust" at one end.

I'd done a batch of dyeing with skeins of wool and there was "just a bit of colour left in the pot". I couldn't let that bit of colour go to waste, so I skeined off a dozen or so metres of silk ribbon. The silk is so greedy for colour that it grabs anything that's left in the water--perfect. I dangled about 2/3 of the skein in the pot and hooked the end over one of the pot's handles; heat, add vinegar and leave it overnight. Now I had scarcely any colour in the pot and a short white section of ribbon. Still relying on the silk's capacity to absorb colour, I dropped the rest of the skein in the pot, reheated and again left it overnight. The result was a subtle gradation of orange across the skein: good, but I thought I could do better; so I rearranged the skein--using a metal S-hook this time to control the length--added a bit of the "rust" colour and went through the routine again. You can see the result in the pic. I'm pleased with it, but guess what? Yep, I've now got " just a bit of colour left in the pot"! Is it time to skein off some more silk ribbon?