Silk Project

Amber asked me to work on a big silk project for her. More on that to come as I work on it. But tonight I spent some time practicing dyeing smaller pieces of silk since I have never done it. The main piece will be dip dyed to fade, so I wound up the silk on a dowel and slowly lowered it into the dye.


I'm really happy with how this turned out:


I just love the sheen of silk. Ignore the ugly bedspread and junk in the background. We're purging okay? I tried something different on this piece, I rolled it on the diagonal and left the fabric in longer. This piece turned out lighter though, even though I left it in longer. My guess? Silk soaks up dye molecules like crazy, I think there were fewer dye molecules left available after the first silk was dyed. Good to know!


There are also some lines from the process, I will have to try and work on getting those more smooth. They don't really show in these pictures. Meanwhile I have also started working on the quilt I started thinking about like 3 years ago again. Maybe something will happen there!

Busy Busy!

There is no way it will "all" get done before Christmas, but we are going to have fun trying. I have had at least 3 projects going at any given time, so it has been pretty messy around here, I need a craft room! I've been batiking in the kitchen, and it's obviously not ideal for many reasons. But I've gotten quite a bit made including two shirts for me (gasp!), a shirt for my dad (in the works for a year), some onesies to sell and I've also been throwing in quilt squares with my dye baths.

Today Aaron is making Three Hearted Ale, I've popped out to help a few time, it smells like it's going to be good!


Adding the malt extract


Santa dropped this scale off early and I got my first experience as a hop dealer.


Aaron whipped together this wort chiller, the last time he made beer they lost a carboy because it was too hot. This shall happen no more.

My super awesome dye bath:


There must be 8 different colors in there, I could not get it quite right...but then I did and added a ton of stuff to it. There are some exciting things coming out soon!

I went out to check on my garden today (also in response to you Julie), I am astounded that just about everything survived that hard freeze we had for close to a week. I can not believe that my lettuce lived! The only things not looking so good are my snow peas...go figure! I need to unbury some other things, they don't like being covered in leaves with all the rain, but it has been so nice and warm the last week. It's nice.

I'm off to make cookies, boil batiks, clean house, finish up presents, help make beer and generally be merry!