nemo ignorat

Abney Park Concert

in times like these time off is hard to come by. BUT we managed. DH and I went to Eindhoven's Phantasium event to a concert of our favourite band Abney Park.

And it was wonderful. Abney Park is even better life. It was their first concert on the continent. They are from the Seattle area and up until now they were only performing in Britain. Driving nearly 1500 km only for a concert is a luxury we don't have. But 380 km is quite another thing. Our best friend watched the dogs for us (I do so much love him for that favour) and we stayed in a hotel for the night. My first stay in a hotel btw.

The way I travelled so far war either a rented holiday home (since we have the dogs) or youth hostels or some other weird way to spend the night, tents and rented caravans. (I think the weirdest lodging was a social project in London. Old houses were transformed into hostels and you were kind of shanghaied at Victoria Station. There were tough looking guys distributing flyers and they drove you off in small cars with too many passengers and the one next to the door had to actually hold it close. It proved quite safe and legit and really cheap. Not much comfort but 8 GBP for a night in London? I don't expect much and would never dream of complaining.)

Abney Park's musicians are whole-blood performers. And they brought so much fun to the stage, it was incredible. DH and I sang and danced the whole time. We had the time of our lives. Those two days were just as good as a fortnight holiday. Even without the sea ;o)

orange and green

When it comes to natural dyeing, it is always an experiment for me. You might say, natural dyeing is my field of constantly what iffing. So it happened quite naturally when I read a paragraph in an old book about Navajo weavers:

The author describes how he observed the spinners as they dyed one colour by using

“the large, fleshy root of a plant which, as I have never yet seen it in fruit or flower, I am unable to determine. The fresh root is crushed to a soft paste on the metate, and, for a mordant, the amolgen [naturally in a plant occuring alum] is added while the grinding is going on. The cold paste is then rubbed between the hand into the wool. If the wool does not seem to take the color readily a little water is dashed on the mixture of wool and paste, and the whole is very slightly warmed. The entire process does not occupy over an hour and the result is a color much like that now known as “old gold”.”

(Dr. Washington Matthews. Navajo Weavers. Smithonian Institution. Washington. 1884; available through Project Gutenberg p.4)

When I dyed my hair with henna a few days ago, I had some henna paste left. So I took some small handspun skeins (I keep around for dye experiments) and knead the henna paste into the skeins. The paste had the consistency of wasabi and was still warm. And there were some tea leaves in the paste as well to act as mordant on the hair. I left the skeins in a plastic bag for about 2 hours and when I showered to get the henna out of my hair, I washed the skeins under the shower as well.

Next time, I will try it with some fabric.And some more henna. It was only about 2 table spoons paste left.

The dye seems as fast as it can be. From what I know about Navajo and their surroundings, water is a rare commodity. So the technique itself was no great surprise to me. But it is the first time I've read about it somewhere. I have another book about Navajo weaving and some dyeing is described there as well but not this technique.

Over the last 2 weeks our internet and landline connection was more than unreliable. Our mayor is very fond of prestige projectsand so he was able to make us into a huge beta testing zone for fibre glass connection. Volunteering households (and yes, we volunteered, getting faster internet without extra cost was tempting enough) were connected to the new fibre glass backbone over the past year and 2 weeks ago the technicians came and connected our house. But as beta testing goes, what can go wrong goes wrong and so first the new router burned through and since we are the first in Germany to get the new connection new routers are only available through a central distributer and this took some time and then we lost our landline for a few days. In short, after the first 2 days without internet I was so fed up of not being able to get to my emails that I went and got myself a tablet. (To be honest, I was looking for a reason to get one a long time ago, so all this internet trouble just gave me what I was looking for anyways *g*)

Such a table is nice but it needs a cover and a cover is nothing you go out and buy when you can sew one yourself ;o)

a hole to see the night sky through

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getting a real nice green from natural dyes is still a hit and miss with me. But those two are really nice.

As always, it is not completely finished yet, more like a work in progress but functional already and that's what counts. The tablet is a Samsung Galaxy so I thought a 'Hole to see the Night Sky through' (with a nod to the great Yoko Ono) was appropriate. And - as always - I still ponder about the closure. It will come to me, I know that.

hope and necessity

hope

There they are, the early signs. I know it still will be a while but the roses are curiously experimenting with the first warmer days already. Always a good sign.

 

necessity

 

I already mentioned the new sweater which is now finished. The light was ugly (a dull gray), the true colours are leaning more to the brown than gray. The yarn is Blue Faced Leicester Humbug (which means a mix of different natural colours) with silk, spun about 3 years ago. The pattern is one of those generic top down raglans with 7/8 arms. Nothing fancy. It wears well, which is the most important thing. And this time, I even remembered to add a true round neck by adding some short rows to the back. This I learned from another top down raglan I knit about a year ago. Same style with the same turtleneck and it puckers a lot in front because I didn't add the short rows.

Its name comes from the actual necessity I had for a new sweater. My old one are beginning to fray around the edges. They are still well and warm for every day, outdoors and the woods but I wouldn't want to wear them anywhere else.

Like DebG I'm thinking about what a basic wardrobe should contain and how the single items should be made. Since I'm not really good at planning or sticking to a plan, I like top down patterns. I can try it on any time and I actually see how far the yarn will go and if I might add some other yarn for the bottom. Which usually looks better than adding some at the top.

I have no actual length but the yarn worked well in needle size 2.5 (which is about US 1 or UK 13) and I have to admit, I got a taste for it. Right now, I'm swatching for a tank top in size 2 (US 0 or UK 14). Up to now, my prefered needle size was around 3 or 3.5. 2.5 was reserved for socks. But I like the different drape of the thinner yarn very much.There is lots of potential.

 

an unexpected house guest

Since yesterday, this gentle giant is staying with us. His owner is a friend of mine and I had to take her to the hospital yesterday morning with a ruptured appendix. Thankfully, a few hours of emergency surgery later and she was (almost) fine again. But her DH is on business trip on the other side of the world so our already slightly cramped house became a bit more stuffed. As you can see, one of his favourite spots is the kitchen. Works well for me and the others so I don't complain. At least we only have this one hospital so I can visit her and mum in one go ;o)