C'mon you blues

It's been blue skies for weeks now and I love the colour blue and what better blue is there than indigo ? So I have made an indigo vat which I am hoping to keep going for a few weeks until Kath can come over to play with it.

Tony had never seen indigo dyeing before and as he said its a bit of alchemy in the mixing of it and the way it turns colour when it oxidizes.

A job for outdoors and the perfect spot just outside the kitchen



The end results in all their blues and the vat is still going strong so I am going to mordant more yarns and do some cochineal ,weld and onion skins this week and then over dye with the indigo.
Carrying on with the blue theme I have two blue FO's to show you. The first is a weaving I have just finished in hemp ,handspun silk and few beads here and there.

I quite like the finished effect but boy do I hate hemp now !! I still have to show you the beaded hemp waistcoat but I need DH to take pics of me wearing it and another two cardis I have done too!! Going back the hemp and the reason I hate ? It has no life, its like knitting with string and as for weaving it, it kinks but also limp and is hard on the hands. never again , my love affair with hemp is defo over . I have to say it does hang well and I am told it softens with wear but I ain't doing nothing else in the darned stuff, no sireeee, hate hate it !!! There do you get it ? No hemp for me again .

The next bluey, is a shawlette in some of the suri alapaca fleece I bought at Wonderwool and I love this quick little knit and its so warm too.




Technically its not all blue as I dyed the spun yarn with some purple too.



Talking of alpaca, I am spinning some I bought at Woolfest I was going to wait until Tour de Fleece (on Ravelry!! ) started but I couldn't wait ,so started this on Tuesday . I had two bobbins by yesterday and then today ,as I have been up from 3.30am I have done another bobbin and started the fourth. I guess this will be finished tonight and I will ply the lot when all the singles are done.
Its uber soft and I have done it DK weight and have just the jumper pattern lined up for it .

I was going to stick strictly to fleece for TdF but I haven't had any time to card the one I wanted to . Still it might be just the incentive I need to either finish last years Katmoget or carry on with the yummy Polwarth . I really should finish the Katmoget as there isn't much of it left !!
We had a good time at Woolfest but unfortunately I didn't see much of the show itself due to a migraine , it was oh so hot too but then I didn't need much and they are pretty much the same stalls as in Wonderwool .The highlight was meeting up with friends old and new and the impromptu evening gatherings were such fun too. I did succumb to the wonderful Oliver Twists again and of course picked up my fleece and ended up with another two unexpected ones . I really will show you samples of our fleece mountain next post plus more on weaving and Tony's new loom. Plus some more FO's maybe ;)