Glorious Weekend !

Can you believe the weather?!...it's roasting hot in April ! I'm not complaining, it's great to be able to get outside in the garden without the winter coat. So, yes, this weekend I have been mostly pottering about in the garden but also darting in and out the house to tend to my dyeing pots doing their thing! First on my list to get done was to dye some silk for a custom order I had received a couple of weeks ago. The custom order is for three 90cm x 20cm eucalytus printed silk scarves for a lady who wants them for her sisters wedding later in the year...... I emailed these photos to my customer and she is very pleased with the results so far and can't wait to see the finished results..... the next few nights will be spent sewing these up!

Also on the go was a new batch of silk hankies.

The first to be dyed revealed this cheery lemon shade, seen here drying on the line....

I then went on to do another two batches!!

The photos below show all three colours together (not sure this is the best light though).

Once labelled up, these will be sold in sets of three, one of each colour.

Lemon, Lilac & Dusky Pink...

Finally, with spare eucalytus and silk lying around I wrapped the two together and poped them in the steamer....

But now i'm stuck woth what to make from this???.... I was thinking for a change to make it as a Sarong, being summer and holiday time, or as a Curtain, as homeware is something I am looking into introducing this year too, or I could just make it an oversized shawl/wrap....

Help, i'd love to know your thoughts !

Multi task sunday

Don't weekends always seem to go so fast?!....infact faster than the other five days in the week I would say!

Ours has been busy.

On Saturday we drove over to Durham in the hope that Ste could speak to a jeweller about a possible job. He met and spoke briefly and was asked to ring and arrange to go back during the week as the poor guy was full of clients and customers waiting to be seen. So seen as this was not a straight no, we are a little hopeful about it.

On to Sunday. A day at home. I should have made a list as I know I haven't done half the things that were floating about in my head, but here's a few of the more interesting bits....

decided to gather some dyed silk and leave it to soak with the addition of some lovely rusted nails. I will seek the result next weekend so it can dwell all week in the shed.....

fought with the printer and forced it to print on silk as I have ran out of labels ....

cut some dyed silk ready for sewing over the coming nights (hopefully!)....

I also baked some cakes and cooked a hearty stew for tea, as well as all the other household chores that need to be kept in order !!

Below are a couple of new items, one of each as been added to my Folksy and Etsy shops.... and each shall be added to the other during the week....

And back to the 9-5 tomorrow ! Hope you all had a lovely weekend x

Purple Daze

The latest in my yarn dyeing has produced an array of bright purple daze!

Dyed using a natural plant based dye from Logwood, the yarns below show a varying gradient of purples.
The yarn is DK Merino 100grams per skein.

I have lots of yummy coloured yarn to list still - the reason it is taking so long is that I am having great difficulty taking good pictures with my camera lately. Very frustrating as I have tried two cameras that I have and they both are showing fuzzy and the wrong represenations of colour!! grrrrr...I am working on it and will hopefully have some good photos soon.

Below is a piece of silk that was also dyed in the Logwood dye pot. wrapped in a bundle and tied with elastic bands it was firstly soaked with heat added and left overnight. The following three nights I have rearranged the elastic bands and left it to soak in the cold dye bath which has created a striking pattern throughout...


Which type of scarves shall I make from this?....

Garden Life

The past weekend was mostly spent painting and decorating the house, and sprucing up the flower pots in the back garden.

The house is very slowly progressing - there is still no room completely finished and possibly a lot more dust to come but we'll get there. I really can't wait for the day when I can unpack some personal pocessions to make the house a home!!

Some potted pictures to brighten this post...

The eucalyptus tree was intended for the front garden but I can't see us digging the borders that are needed for it this side of spring unfortunately! I bought some pansies to replace all my weather beaten pertunias from the horrible amount of rain we had in August and now the wind has set in and made them look a little droopy...my poor plants are not having a good time of it!

I also decided that I would get my dyeing pans out at 4pm on Sunday, as you do when you have to go to work 15hours later, and cooked up some purple delights. I shall post the results in a couple of days as I still have a wrapped bundle of silk soaking in a pan and need the wind to die down so I can take a good picture for you all !

Kitten Gone Home

The cute kitten has returned to it's owner!
After being with us for a week and having no response to notices and enquiries we were starting to think we had now adopted her (much to Rosie's dismay!), but it was the other night when some kids passing my garden asked if i'd seen a missing dog so in return I asked about anyone missing a kitten, and they knew someone. It's amazing how many people kids can know! So off they went to fetch the owner and the little yappy cuteness was handed over.
'Tinkerbell' was her name.
Hopefully she'll watch where she wonders from now on.

Still no sign of my camera. Lost forever. I must start looking for another as product listings and experiments look really dull if you can't see them!

Oh, I thought I'd lost my mobile last night too. Well I did for five hours. It was later found in the shed?!

Kitchen has been demolished and is slowly being rebuilt. It was hard living without an oven and a freezer before, but now even harder without a washing machine and sink too!
It will be all in by the weekend hopefully, then there's the finishings to do......