Woad Dye - Happy Blues

 I had a very small crop of home grown woad to harvest. This Summer in my garden it has been very hot and sunny so I was unsure if I would be able to get any colour from the dye pot, but as you can see in the following photos I'm absolutely thrilled as I managed to achieve such a beautiful blue dye with the first dip! My woad plants have soaked in those sun rays!
 
The process is done using the vat dyeing method.
 Pure magic -woad blue from simple green leaves.

 In this photo you can observe the wool beginning to change colour as I remove it from the dye bath.

 My Hand Spun Art Yarn looks really gorgeous, the soft twists and coils of yarn soaks up lots of colour giving me a wonderful deep shade of blue.

 I continued to dip and dye some more skeins of various hand spun wool, each skein becoming a lighter shade as the dye bath became exhausted. Four in total.

Happy Blues!

And some more happy blues:

August here on the Isle Of Wight means Cowes Week with plenty of sailing going on, lots to see and do, enjoying the beaches and Island life with our family coming over to stay. Getting out and about under all these lovely blue skies.

Now I do need to update you on my post of April this year when I told you about our dear old Mirror dinghy being in need of some serious attention and repairs. As she was unseaworthy in her present state we decided to let her go.
 Don't be sad- She was very keenly snapped up just as she was, taken to be decorated and dressed for a very important role as part of the Shanklin Float Procession full of happy smiling children. See photo below.
A glory few days looking rather splendid. 

So yes I'm a little blue and miss her (someone else will enjoy getting her back on the water ).
 We still have Peewit and of course there are always new adventures awaiting and our blue sailing holidays in Greece to look forward.

 Blue Solent.

From Warping Frame To Loom

In this post I wanted to show you what I did with that lovely blue mix warp I made on my new warping frame. Here you can see the warp being threaded on my Saori loom.

I'm really enjoying using this loom and will be showing you lots of other makes in the coming weeks. The yarn used in this warp is DK to Aran weight wool of various colours and flecks. The heddles and reed managed this thickness ok. Once I was warped up I then decided on the weft yarn- I love the way my creativity can be expanded and allowed to flow naturally, I selected from my stash colours and yarns that felt good and I decided to beat the cloth firmly and tight to give a lovely soft finish. 

I had wound enough warp to make two scarves. The first scarf was woven in blues, creams and navy wools and the  second  had the same base tones with contrasting zingy pink sections!  

I'm really pleased with both. It is always fun to see that even with the same warp threads the skies the limit with your weaving choices. These scarves are super soft making them comfortable to wear and will keep you lovely and warm too. 

Just had to post a couple of Cowes Week photos. Today the XOD's were fantastic to watch coming in from the West on a sunny, windy afternoon, rolling and flapping in the waves and spray!