Sep08
Apples
We were over at my Mom’s over the weekend. Martin helped her prune her apple tree, and this is what I got out of the deal:
Two batches of natural dye material! The left is what I got after simmering the crumbled leaves (it’s been HOT! and dry around here, and the leaves dried to a crisp in less than 24 hours) and twigs for a couple of hours. The right is a bucket of cool water with peeled bark from limbs. I left most of the pruning behind, because I just wanted a little batch.
All the instructions I had on extracting dye from apple leaves and bark say to leave it soaking for several days/weeks. Simmering at the end is optional. Well, I couldn’t wait, so I simmered the leaves/twigs batch. I’ll let the bark soak for as long as I can stand it. The same instructions also state that mordants are not necessary for protein fibers. Does anyone have experience with apple dye extract out there?
Here’s a vest that I’ve been wrestling with.
I mentioned earlier that I didn’t like the way the shoulders turned out, so I took paper and pencil and calculated what I really wanted in the armhole and neck shaping, triple and quadruple checked my math, and did it all again. I think it turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, I’m not thrilled with my cast on (not stretchy enough). So, I may take a pair of scissors and snip off the ribbing at the waist and do something different.
So much work for for such a simple vest. But I’m loving the result thus far! Unfortunately, I could only leave it on for less than 30 seconds when I tried it on last night. It’s been hitting the 100 mark for the past several days, and we have another day of it before the heat breaks.
Shameless plug: Tomorrow is the first meeting of the year for . This year the meetings will be held at Woodside Village Church. It’s on the second Thursday of the month, starting at 7:30 PM. Our speaker this month is .
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