Street Art Scarf

I've been busy. Getting to know my new flat, starting my new job, buying furniture, finding a rhythm. During this time I recognized that my bf did not have a decent scarf. And winter was coming along. So I made him one.

Since he is a dedicated mountain biker and thus always repairing (pardon me, "upgrading" ;-))his bike, I thought it would be fun to include some shiny metal parts that resemble shiny bike parts. While walking through the street I would pick up stuff, that was just left there. And the result is amazing!

I carded a mixture of white merino, brown Irish, and grey Shetland and spun an even yarn. I used the checkerboard scarf pattern and knitted in the metal parts. It is warm and cozy and he is oh so good looking with it :-). Check it out for yourself.

Things you should not do...

* go to work when it's a holiday in your home country, while the stupid country you live in does not think so
* slide on the stairs and partially break a vertebra
* try to stop your sliding with your foot, because you could break a toe
* stop breathing

And: DON'T PANIC!

I just came back from one week of hospital, a bit shorter than before and with back aches when I do the wrong movements. Thank you very much. I am afraid, it will take a while to heal. Knitting is fine, but I don't know about spinning yet, and carding probably won't be so good. I have some other things to do, though, like designing new business cards, writing some blog posts, especially that one on the pumpkin soup, sewing a baby quilt for my little niece-to-be and knitting Julekuler and of corse do some home office. *sigh*

Settling down

After a few years of unrest (I'd like to call it "finding myself" ;-)) I have come to tearms with the fact, that a woman needs a proper job with some proper money if she wants to induldge in luxuries (like having some sushi on a regular basis...). So I decided to leave London, move back to my mom's and search for a job.

Well, I can say that I have achieved most of my goals (still haven't won the lottery though...). I found a boyfriend( :-) ), found a job ( :-) ) and found a beautiful nice not so little flat here in the city of Koblenz which is a b*** to furnish, but hey this means I can go shopping!! ;-)

One of my top priorities will be a drum carder (oh yeah baby...) and a brilliant camera to take some brilliant pics of brilliant yarn for brilliant people.

So there is hope that I will lead a normal ordinary regular life. Peace out. Amen. Namaste.

Giveaway: Pumpkin Soup

I thought it is time to liven things up a bit here just in time for the cold but cozy season with plenty of knitting. Well, I myself knit all year round, but anyways... we have a great giveaway! You can win this nice, bright, colorful and very soft yarn:



I named it Pumpkin Soup, because I was cooking pumpin soup the other day and I was thinking about how nice a yarn in these colors would be: orange of pumkins and carrots, yellow of potatoes and a bit of green. While my veggies were boiling I rushed down to the carder and came up with a well cooked batt of fine merino fiber. I spun it and plied it with a thin cotton thread in orange, and in the end it was 105 g and 113m.
One lucky winner will be the new owner of this beautiful yarn. If you want to participate, you just have to send us your favorite pumpkin recipe. We will evaluate them and choose the one we like best. It should be a full recipe you tried yourself (we would not appreciate it much if you just copy & paste something from the internet), or some really super secret or traditional or innovative thing you do to your pumpkins. Oh and it can be salty and also sweet (including baking).
Please send the recipe by email to info(at)authenticfiction.net (replacing the (at)). A ravelry message to cheshire-cat or impronerd is also fine. You have time to do so until October 22nd and we will then decide the days after who is the lucky winner.

Blue?

I owe you some pictures of the indigo-dyeing! So I followed the instructions in "A Dyer's Garden" by Rita Buchanan, but I just had about half the indigo leaves that I should have for the amount of fibers I used.


It was a lengthly process, I think I managed to keep everything at the right temperature and the pot-in-a-pot waterbath system worked quite well. In the end the soup was quite smelly, so I thought I could have used urine after all, because that spectralite stuff can't be anything much different. I put in two portions of wool and wool/silk fibers and awed at the magic of color changing after airing the dipped fibers. The second portion was already much paler than the first one, so I decided to give them a second dip. And I am not completely sure, because it was already late in the evening after the first dip and I could not see the colors very good, but I think after the first dip the colors were deeper and not so pale. Anyways, I will try on it further if my plants ever grow back sufficiently. Here is my result:


The second portion has hardly any color and it looks more greyish. I think after the first dip it still had some ice blue, but if it faded because of the second dip or because of drying and washing I can't tell. Oh and the silk did not seem to take up the dye as much as the wool.

True Blue

Just a note: though Tini is going to move, my humble self is still in the business. Though I am quite occupied, but whenever there is an order coming up, I surely will fulfill your wishes and ship any yarn your heart desires.

Now back to the topic! Since I have a small garden now (and own the book "A Dyer's Garden" by Rita Buchanan for even a while longer), I finally could go and grow indigo and dye with it. The indigo dyeing can be a smelly and lengthly process, using a fermented soup which includes urine, but Buchanan describes a fast method with fresh leaves, and using spectralite and no urine. I had to order the spectralite in Britan, which took a strangely long time to arrive. I did not use "real" indigo, but polygonium tinctorium (japanese indigo or dyer's knotweed) but that has the same color pigment as indigofera tinctoria. I had started the seeds in spring in a small greenhouse, and later I planted them to a sunny garden patch and crossed my fingers that they will grow readily. To my delight, they did so! Now they even start to flower which makes me hope to harvest some seeds later that year. Here they are in their green beauty:



I just cut off around 90% of it, I just left the stems with the most evolved flowers. It is said that it will regrow readily so I maybe can dye with it again later that year. I picked all the leaves from the stems and started the extraction process. Until now it looks good, I have a liquid which seems to be of a dark green, but there are several more steps to follow. I will keep you posted on the results!

Times they are a-changing

A lot of changes has happend in the last couple of months. next to some personal changes am I starting a new job in the middle of September and will move to the beautiful city of Koblenz in Germany. but before then I will go on my long awaited holiday (I know, unemployment is hard..;-)) so I will not be able to reply to requests or send out orders till Aug 29th.

Wish you all a wonderful summer or winter!
So long, Tini