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Author Archives: Margaret Ford
Marled Magic Shawl by Stephen West
I like Stephen West’s designs (https://www.westknits.com). I have made them before. He backs the sale of his written patterns with videos which elaborate and demonstrate some details of his designs. Buying the pattern for Marled Magic Shawl, I was attracted … Continue reading
Posted in Clothing, Knitting, Stash-busting yarn
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Brown Onion Dip
A new blog is well overdue but I’m not very productive or innovative at the moment so I am sharing something I did two nights ago after seeing a new you tube video from “Rebecca from Chemknits“: The first … Continue reading
Posted in brown onion as dye, Natural dyeing, Scarf
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Three-dimensional armatures
Recently I demonstrated simple techniques for wrapping a wire armature at my contemporary quilt group. This is a summary: Requirements Figure 1 Machine weight thread and decorative threads Figure 2 Wires, wire cutters and pliers for bending Method Select … Continue reading
Dyeing wool yarn in a slow cooker with food colouring
In her book The Modern Natural Dyer (1), Kristine Vejar emphasises the importance of keeping baths for scouring, mordanting and dyeing at steady temperatures suited to the dye material and the fibres being dyed. I have often ignored this … Continue reading
Posted in food colours as dye, slow cooker dyeing, WAFTA
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Oh, What a Feeling!!
No, not Toyota***, but related. I’m watching the first day of the Brisbane Test match Australia vs Sri Lanka. As I start this blog the score is Sri Lanka 7/105, which partly accounts for my happiness. In parallel, as one … Continue reading
Posted in Bag, Crochet basket, Stash-busting yarn
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Mulberries: maximising their impact
My next door neighbour knows I like to use natural dyes. Still, coming home in early summer to find a couple of containers of fresh mulberries on my porch was a real surprise. I knew, however, that she didn’t intend … Continue reading
Avocado pips and soy milk on cotton damask
I have previously used avocado pips in a high pH bath to produce pinkish colour on cotton. This time I wanted to explore the effect of variations in dyeing conditions. The conditions that we know affect colour are, inter alia, … Continue reading
Natural dyeing : a tongue in cheek look at the vicissitudes of a cotton sheet’s life
Life as a cotton sheet can be fraught. Not always of course. The lucky ones get bought by people who use them on their beds for years. They get to serve a very passive but important role. They mature and … Continue reading
Is soy milk a mordant?
Jenny Dean (1) doesn’t think so. She says…”I am rather puzzled by the many references I have seen recently to soya milk/soymilk “mordant”, as I would not describe soya milk as a mordant, rather as an assistant in certain dyeing and … Continue reading
Stash scrap helmet [or a beanie cover]
The brief: “Mum, I’d like a sort of hat that goes over the other hats. Neutral colours please.” For fishing and camping in the Snowy Mountains. The design points: *keep it simple *use stuff from the stash and choose thick yarns … Continue reading
Posted in Beanie, Clothing, Design, freeform crocheting
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