Crafty Herbal Knitter

There is a large open area up the road from where I live that has quite a large amount of goldenrod in it. The goldenrod has been in bloom for several weeks now and I kept wanting to go get some of the flowers and try them out as a dye. From what I have read you need to use them fresh so I kept waiting for the right time when I would be able to get the dye bath made up immediately after picking them. I was finally able to recently and I am very pleased with the results. For the dye, I needed to gather an equal amount in weight of goldenrod flowers to the amount of yarn to be dyed. I was able to gather enough flowers to dye 8 ounces worth of yarn.

To use the goldenrod as a dye, I started out by first putting just the flowers in a pot of water and heating the water to just below a simmer. I had read that if you keep the temperature below a simmer the final color would be brighter and clearer. I kept the water just below a simmer for about one hour. Then I allowed it to “steep” overnight. The next day I added my wool yarn that I had already mordanted with alum to the strained dye bath. I slowly brought this to a simmer and held it there for about 45 minutes. Then once again, I allowed it to sit overnight. I was actually surprised by the result. The yarn turned out so pretty! It is a soft lemon yellow color. Makes me think of lemon meringue! Now I need to figure out what to make out of it! I’m trying to get a good picture of it that really shows how nice the color is. When I do I will post it.

I wrote last week about dyeing some yarn with acorns. I was able to finish it this past Saturday. It ended up being a 6 day process. The results were worth it though.

To begin, I had to first crush the acorns and then soak them in water for several days. After that I simmered them for 2 hours. Once they were finished simmering I allowed them to cool completley before I strained them out of the liquid. I now had my dye bath. To the cooled dye bath I added my skein of yarn that I mordanted with alum. I brought this up to a very slow simmer and kept it there for one hour. The result? A very rich tan color that makes me think of cafe au lait.

The photo shows specs of yarn that were not dyed. I did this on purpose to add interest when I knit with it. I achieved the specs of no dye by tying off the yarn in several places before I dyed it. Just like tie-dyeing. This skein is now destined to be a pair of socks for my husband.

Yesterday I crushed the acorns my boys found for me and I now have them happily soaking away. I plan on letting them soak for the remainder of the week. When I added water to them they immediately turned the water a tan brown color so I am very curious to see how this batch of yarn will turn out.

I have a huge list going right now of knitting projects I want to start. And I just realized not one on there is for me….I need to do something about that. I need to knit everyone some hats, mitten/gloves, socks, a scarf or two, on top of all the cute little things I have in mind for Princess A. I have some soft undyed merino yarn that I am wanting to dye and knit into some long diaper soakers and maybe even add some feet to them. I am wanting to get those going soon before cold weather starts to creep it’s way in. That is ontop of all the sewing I have to do. I never have enough hours in the day to do all that I would like…..

Here are the three skeins I dyed. The top one is the skein that was dyed with yellow dock. The middle skein was dyed with comfrey and the bottom one was dyed using tansy. The camera doesn’t show just how rich the colors really are.

I mentioned yesterday I would post about my lastest obsession on here. As I already said in an earlier post, the knitting bug bit me again several weeks back. Well, it wasn’t just the knitting bug that bit. I also started feeling the urge to try dyeing my own yarn again. I toyed with just that about a year or so ago but never really got too far with it. I went the kool-aid route and had some fairly decent results and then I left it alone. For some reason though I got the urge to try it again. This time around I used food coloring. Wilton icing paste to be exact. I did some kettle dyeing and some in the dip dye method using the food coloring. I was pretty happy with the results. And that is what led me to where I am at now.

I’ve always wanted to try dyeing yarn with plant material. Herbs in particular. But I’ve always been rather intimidated by it for some reason or another. This month something clicked and I decided to just go for it (kinda like starting this blog!). I’ve had this book called Wild Color by Jenny Dean for a while now and would eye it and think “some day” but never really tried it out until now! I decided to start with some pretty simple and inexpensive yarn so if the results were awful I wouldn’t be too sad. So, for my first attempts I have used Patons Classic Wool. My first skein was dyed using an herb called yellow dock. (It is actually an herb even though some may consider it a weed). It didn’t turn out exactly as I had envisioned but I am still very pleased with the results. It is quite a long process using plant material as dye. To dye the first skein took me two days. I was so impressed with the results though that I immediatley got started on my next two skeins. My second skein was dyed with tansy. It produced a really nice bronzy-gold color. My last (but it will certainly not be my least!) skein that I dyed this month was dyed with an herb called comfrey. That one got me really excited because it came out of my garden. It produced a nice soft sage green color. So, I’m on a roll now and I can not wait to get my next bit of yarn dyed. I’m thinking of using acorns or blackberry leaves and canes next. Or maybe even some cherry bark. I plan on knitting the 3 skeins I just dyed into a hat for my hubby.
This has just got me so excited because I can combine 3 of my passions into one. Gardening, herbs, and knitting. To me, it doesn’t get much better than that!

This summer I had a bit of a slump in knitting but that has definately ended. A few weeks back I picked up a kntting book at my local library and I quickly knitted up a couple of simple bibs for my baby. That was when the knitting bug bit me again and bit hard! I’ve been on a knitting frenzy now. I’m in various stages of several projects and getting ready to plan even more. Perfect timing too since fall is only days away now. I’ve since gone back to the library and checked out more books on knitting. One of these books has my kids all excited. It is a book called  World of Knitted Toys by Kath Dalmeny. This book is chock-full of little toy animals and dolls you can knit. The theme of the book is all about animals and people from around the world. For example, in the jungle, down on the farm, and the deep blue sea. All of the knitted toys are so cute and the patterns are fairly simple and straight forward. I’m pretty excited because my baby’s first birthday is this month and I started work on knitting her the baby spider monkey pattern that is in this book. My baby girl, Princess A as I shall call her, loves Curious George so I think she will get a kick out of this little monkey I’m making for her. I’m about 2/3 of the way through the pattern. Her birthday is rapidly approaching so it is almost time for a knitting marathon weekend so I can complete it in time. All my other projects are on hold so I can finish this one.

Tomorrow I plan to post about my lastest obsession….. Until next time

 I’m discovering that the first post on a blog is the hardest. So, let’s get this ball rolling. Now where do I start?

How about I start with the name of this blog. Crafty Herbal Knitter. Kinda sorta self explainitory really. But here’s a little bit of an explaination.

Crafty: I like to make things homemade. Be it cooking a yummy loaf of bread to a bar of soap to cloth diapers for my baby girl. All around pretty crafty kinda gal.

Herbal: I have a serious love for herbs. Growing herbs, using herbs in coooking, using them for medicinal purposes, etc. You name it. I’ve been growing them for many, many years now and am always learning and always searching out new uses for them.

Knitter: A few years back I taught myself how to knit and have been obsessed with it every since. As my skills improved I grew more and more addicted.