nemo ignorat

Of Light and Dark

I like the motto. And I think it will become the motto of the FKA Stardust Quilt, although the stardust theme did not completely leave me. I love the thought that we all are made of the stuff stars are made of. That it took a whole supernova to get the right heat and pressure to cook up the gold that's in my wedding band. Isn't this amazing? Anyways, right now, I'm IN BETWEEN and so I'm more into the question Of Light and Dark. Maybe my usualy mini jet lag from the switch to summer time and the suddenly darkness again in the mornings is a factor too.

At least, I'm slowly back on track again. Dog is behaving like he should, DH is back to work and even Mum is doing better. Which means, I had time to dye a bit yesterday. The 1-2-3 vat reached fermentation stadium. Which is totally normal. The 1-2-3 vat begins as a reduction vat (like any other chem vat) and after a while switches into fermentation mode because of the bacteriae that are acumulating. They take over and - voilá - fermentation happens. And about 3 weeks ago, when I had to move my old 1-2-3 vat, the handle of the pot broke and the whole vat spilled. So I began a new one, this time with henna as fructose source and 30g indigo on a 1 gal pot. When not in use, it sits in my kitchen in a corner and has a nice coppery skin on the surface. Before I use it, I re-heat it to about 50°C (about 120°F) and it develops some nice hana after a while.

This is a dye sample. Fine linen strips, 3 dips each, the left is from a rather strong PR vat and the right from the 1-2-3 vat. It is rather darkish and I should try some more dips. It might get stronger with continuing fermentation.

I mixed a strong PR vat because I wanted some gradiation for a new part Of Light and Dark:

This is still in its unbasted phase. I will do the stitching tonight. I used the same fine linen as in the sampler (I still have some strips left from a linen quilt project I sewed for a friend of mine some time ago) and some pillowcase cotton. I'm looking forward to seeing it stitched.

The next piece of fabric I dyed in a nice gradation was the cotton sheet I used to protect the silk brick from last dye session. It already had the darker center and the outward spread but I wanted the center a bit darker so I re-dipped it.

It looks really nice against the window, but I still haven't solved the problem of getting a half-curtain fixed to our insulated glass windows.

And then there was this sale of real silk velvet in a fabrics shop I frequent. It was a large piece of more than 3 metres with some spots and minor cuts for about half the price as usual and it is gorgeous and I couldn't resist. Here is a sampler in indigo:

And what happens when you wrap some linen voile around a plastic cone with holes in it and bind it with some mason's lacing cord?

This is only a section (almost the right half) and here is a detail from the other side:

Doesn't it look a bit like a feather?

And a whole string of moons jumped out of the vat as well:

with one gibbous moon in between:

The cotton sheet is this satin like cotton with woven in dots. I found it impossible to catch every dot during folding but one of them became perfect, don't you think?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a different note, my new background music* (new at least for me, their CD is from 2010) is  Gangstagrass.

I love fusion music. That's probably the reason why I like Abney Park, Les Negresses Verte and Les Ogres de Barback so much.  If someone here likes bluegrass and is open to fusion, I can only recommend to risk an ear. They play their music on their website. (I know, I know, I'm totally behind, they already got an Emmy for the opening theme of 'Justified' which I just discovered for me as well.)

*background music: I usually live in a rather quiet house (except for the occasional bark from my dogs). No TV no radio. But when I cut or lay out fabric, plan something, in short am in a kind of meditative state concerning sewing and stitching, I like to have some music accompanying me. Depending on the weather it usually is one of the above, sometimes film music, but I need some rhythm in it. I tried percussion only (Kodo, Ondekoza or even Steve Reich) but I can't concentrate with it, it goes right into my brain and all I want is to dance.

in between

"Granny Weatherwax had always wondered: what was supposed to be so special about a full moon? It was only a big circle of light. And the dark of the moon was only darkness.

But half-way between the two, when the moon was between the worlds of light and dark, when even the moon lived on the edge ... maybe then a witch could believe in the moon.

Now a half-moon*sailed above the mists of the swamp."

- Terry Pratchett. Witches Abroad

*the picture shows yesterday's moon between Jupiter and Venus - just have a look at it. I can see the Jupiter-Venus in between constellation from my bedroom window when I go to bed

Last week was ... a challenge. Friday a week ago, Ramses (the younger dog, my fox coloured Podenco) had a planned surgery. Nothing special and, as I said, planned. Unusual for his accident prone majesty who had in his nearly 5 years of life already 5 surgeries. And this one was the first we could plan beforehand. So DH took his left-over vacation days from last year, we planned it with the vet and off we went and everything was fine. Except, male Spanish dogs are bad patients (as any Galgo and Podenco owner will tell you). This and that I live with another dog was the reason for DH's help offer. Till monday I was under-nourished (I tend to forget eating when I am a bit stressed out) and tired-out from my night watches with Ramses. Although DH was at home, he "used" his vacation days to catch a flu, thus not being able to help me much with the dogs and my mum thought it was a really good time to need some special attention as well. Monday's post-surgical control visit with the vet was very positive - except that I fainted from hypoglycaemia. After that, the week didn't get much better.  I strongly felt like stitching but I'm in between. I'm still mulling over the stardust quilt. You know, the one with the three older pieces. I thought, I needed some more blues for it. Well, Glennis' workshop provided me with the right opportunity to dye them. And then I stumbled across the above quotation. Between the worlds of light and dark. This is how I felt and I think this is the appropriate theme for the stardust quilt. In between. I think, the quotation was the impulse I needed to get going.

And then there was some more dyeing. Although I had my three patients to take care of, I found some time in between (hah!) to go to the dye pots.

some blue wool. On the left dyed in the PR vat and on the right from the 1-2-3 vat. Not much difference.

blue silk. I dyed a silk brick in the PR vat. It was still coiled up as a brick and I packed it into a cotton cloth while dipping. It worked *s*

and some blue sock yarn. On the left from the 1-2-3 vat and on the right in the PR vat. I was interested in the differences.

I dyed lots cotton and linen fabrics as well, and my fermentation vat is finally active, so I christened some cotton and linen in it as well. but I haven't taken pictures yet.

Just another thing, I'm working on right now:

inspired by DebG's sky scarf I began knitting on it at the begin of March. After some rows I was so excited about how it felt to the hand that I didn't want to stop working on it and I quit the sky scarf idea and now I just spin and knit as I go. The fibres are some skudde (the white yarn), some skudde indigo dyed, and some Gotland (the grey yarn) and mixes. It looks like nothing I would usually knit (or wear) but it feels just great. thick and soft and full of texture. I spin the yarn thick on a spindle and knit it right away. It will give me warmth and protection when it gets colder again.

blue

I was in a kind of dyeing frenzy last week. Since the vat is already up and running, I might as well use it.

Here is a small part of what I dyed during the week. Somehow the real life blue eludes me in my pictures. I really have to learn how to photograph indigo better. In real life the blues are slightly darker, esp the wool.

two caps for my sun sensitive red headed DH. Crocheted from several strands of very thin linen yarn and dyed in a pre-reduced vat.

The same multistranded linen yarn, knit with size 4.5 to 6.5 needles (I wanted to see which one knits up into the better handling). I used cable binders to tie dye the scarf. Again, the blue is darker.

some damask fabric (I think it comes from an old table cloth) resist dyed

 

 

 

 

and an old cotton nappy I want to use as a kerchief. The cotton is very soft and took up the dye rather well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

this one is fantastic. I love the way the dye distributed. Again some old damask from a table cloth.

wool georgette above. in real life it is a darkish aquatic blue. I dyed it first in 9 dips in the same vat as the linen fabric below. But I raised the pH from 9.5 to 10.5 for the linen.

Over the last week I learned some new things:

- I still fight with the 1-2-3 vat.

- the pre-reduced vat is really easy to use and to maintain. i will see for how long it takes up

- damask table cloth looks wonderful but i dyed cotton satin at the same time and although the hseen is great, it seems to hinder the take up of the dye

- i now have several yards of indigo dyed fabric and would like to sew ;o)

Happy International Women's Day

for the Right to our own bodies

for the Right to express ourselves

for the Right to live our lives without oppression, torture and imprisonment in our own homes

for the Right to have access to enough food and clean water

for the Right to equal access to training, education, science and technology

for the Right to self-determination

FOR US:
3 billion WOMEN on this PLANET

Happy International Women's Day

my first samples from the indigo workshop

this is a picture of my first indigo sample cards. The blues are a bit more lively in reality. Maybe I can get them better on picture tomorrow in case we get real sun then. Today was only grey in grey.

The upper card is from a pre-reduced vat with 1 teaspoon indigo crystals (about 10g). But the crystals were already a bit packed in their box, so I had to add some soda and 1/2 teaspoon sodium dithionite (in form of colour run remover) to 2 gal. It began to reduce within 10 min. Had a relativ constant pH of 9.8 and I began adding the indigo at a temperature of 45°C (about 110°F). Each dip lasted about 2 min.

The card below is from my first ever working lime-fructose vat. 1 teaspoon indigo (about 10g) to 2 teaspoons calcium hydroxide and 3 teaspoons fructose on 2gal water. Beginning temperature of the water was at 75°C (that's 167°F) and it took about 20 min to reduce. As with the pre-reduced vat, each dip took about 2 min. The pH was at 11 and after 45 min the temperature had dropped to 45°C (110°F) and a coppery sheen began forming.

The cotton strips didn't show the typical green as with the pre-reduced vat. And the blue is clearly weaker. When I dipped a sample strip (not the larger sample) in it, to see if the reduction was going on, it looked like nothing happened. After a few minutes at the air showed a faint blue.

Although the lime-fructose vat has a higher pH, the pre-reduced vat felt soapier. Probably because of the soda, I think. The pre-reduced vat was clearly greenish under the surface whereas the lime-fructose vat was more yellowish-green. It looks and feels more like a slow fermentation vat than a reduction vat.

I will try a stronger lime-fructose vat tomorrow to see if I can get some deeper blues from it. At least it worked and I am very satisfied that it did this time. But the blue still has a greyish tint. Any ideas why that is? The cotton sample came from the same pillow case.

My fermentation vat is outside on a small fireplace and the bacteria still have a lot of work to do. It seems to be working fine, but the temperature is too low, so that it might take more time than usual, even with external heating.

and now for something completely different

After yesterday's slightly depressing entry, I feel much better now, thankyouverymuch for listening.

I got the fireplace in my garage going for the fermentation vat. Not that I'm really happy about it. The fog is everywhere and it is so wet that my wood smokes a lot. Which won't make my neighbours very happy in the long run. Maybe I have to think about something else. At least I got it and the vat started. Most probably, I will start another fermentation vat in my crock pot. I'm not absolutely happy about that  either, because it needs electricity. But as long as it isn't about 20° C outside, the vat will need some external heating.

On a more stitchy note, I wanted to show some cloth I started working on during the last week.

As I noted yesterday, while sorting through my fabrics, I found some old quilt beginnings. One of them was this here:

My original plan was to use this as the centerpiece of the back of my indigo coat (back then thought of as sun coat becuase of the centerpiece). It was too large, my back is not that wide. I still love the arrangement and had it already batted, lined and begun quilting. In any case, it didn't work out, and so it wandered into the stash, waiting for better times. When I picked it up last week, I decided to be honest and brutal, removed the stitching, batting and back and tacked the top to some other cloth.

added some scissor work and cloth weaving and it begins to look much more interesting.There is a sun in the center of everything. Matter begins when a sun dies. We are all made up of stardust so why not let the sun be in the center again.

Then there was this:

Unfortunately, there is no picture of the cloth as it was before I used my scissors and some other fabric on it. Just imagine it without the blue strips.

I think, my reasoning behind this bland arrangement was something like "sewing a quick top with some circles applied and stitched to it and then make a quick quilt from it". That's just how it looked. Stitched together with no thought in it at all.

And then there was the sun and planet-like circles and I think with the coordinating indigo fabrics, they could work together. And an idea formed. Resulting in another fragment, using up some other quilt beginnings:

It is still a bit of a mystery for me, hence the naming of the pictures. A mystery cosmos perhaps. Who knows what kind of beings made of stardust can live there?