A Fine Gotland Yarn

Elinor Gotland is back home for Christmas and a well earned break from the panto season.  Working morning, matinee and night is enough to exhaust even such a seasoned actor, or so she said to me.  After our presents had been unwrapped, my companion did stay uncharacteristically quiet while I was busy in the kitchen, . Though I thought she might be going online for another read of her five star pantomime reviews, it turned out she'd been using her new phone to keep tabs on me. 
"That blog of yours lacks adventure, Beaut."  she said, sitting down at the table, pouring a gin and tonic and helping herself to festive nibbles.  
"Oh no it doesn't." 
"Oh yes it does.  No suspense, no narrative drive, no dynamic tension.  You need to liven things up."
I decided peeling the sprouts took higher priority.
"You're the dramatist, Elinor.  While I do the veg, you can earn your Christmas Dinner. Go on, use that phone to sprinkle some fairy dust on this evening's blog."

                               ****************************************************

Is everyone sitting comfortably, wrapped up warm in their winter woolies?  We Gotland sheep have fleece lovely as storm clouds with silver linings and cosy as toast. As the wind howls outside, the rain beats down on your roof and the long night draws in, pull the curtains, turn up the thermostat and bang a couple of mince pies in the microwave. 
Let me tell you a tale, a great saga of Norse fibre.


Once upon a time, there lived a novice spinner.  Let us call her Tigerella, for like the tomato of that name, she was unusually green.  Despite her incompetence, her heart was set upon spinning fingering weight three ply yarn, just like the other spinners.  Now, Tigerella's skills only ran to hand carding rolags from the wool of primitive sheep breeds, so though she dreamed of spinning a smooth, silvery yarn from her special, Gotland fleece, she only ended up with balls of hairy grey string. 

One evening, as she sat sighing at her wheel, her Fairy Gotmother appeared.
"It's all in the preparation, Beaut."

“Good grief!”  cried Tigerella, quite forgetting her manners.

“I’m parched.  Is that tea you're drinking?”

“Gosh, you speak English!  I thought Gotland sheep came from Sweden.”

“Actually, my family have lived in Wales since the 1950s.  Grandma never got further than “Ych y fi!”, but the rest of us have no trouble with languages.  Of course, being an actress, I'm on the road so much, I’d call myself an international citizen.  It's dreadful thirsty work, travelling, you know.”  

At long last, a cup of tea was poured, though it wasn't quite what such a special occasion demanded.

“You wouldn’t have a drop of sloe gin to go with that?  It’s the thing I miss most when I’m on tour.”

“You don't miss your flock?  I’d heard sheep pine without company.”  Duw, that Tigerella was a slow hostess, still asking silly questions instead of fetching the bottle. 
“Never really fitted in on the farm, to be honest, Beaut.  Got a taste for the limelight when I was only a lamb; stole the show in the Nativity Play and went on to become world famous."  You could grow old waiting for Tigerella to refill an empty tea cup, so there was no point in hanging about much longer.  "I’ve come to lend a helping hoof with your spinning.  First things first." 
With a wave of her wand, that kindly Fairy Gotmother summoned up this educational illustration.

"Washing a Gotland fleece needs a long soak and no agitation."

A few days in a fermented suint bath cleaned the Gotland fleece beautifully.  It had barely dried out, before Tigerella was reaching for her hand carders.  Just in the nick of time, her Fairy Gotmother appeared again, all glamorous in huge sunglasses and a long, turquoise, chiffon scarf.

“Well, I won’t say I wouldn’t have rinsed it better myself, but that’s not a bad effort, Beaut.”  

“Off somewhere special?”

“Copenhagen.  We’ll be filming on location, tomorrow.  ‘The Girl with the Sheep Tattoo.’”

“Ooo, I think I’ve read the book.  Isn’t that the one about the cartel of rich spinners? They pay the Midnight Shearer to steal the best rare breed fleeces from all over Europe, then smuggle them out by sea.  But why are you going to Denmark?  Shouldn’t you be shorn in Sweden?”

The Fairy Gotmother lifted her shades and her glare was colder than the North Sea.

“Typecasting wrecks careers, Beaut.  What’s more, nude scenes are best left to the shearlings.  I’ll be playing the barmaid who charms the Danish Customs and Excise agents, while Captain Crovect ups anchor and escapes on the tide.”

The roar of a Bugatti Veyron is not often heard on such a small, suburban street.
“That’ll be for me.”  As she waved a hoof from the car window, the Fairy Gotmother's wand conjured up yet more guidance for poor foolish Tigerella.

  
"Gotland locks deserve to be carefully combed."

Tigerella asked for hand combs for her birthday and pored over instructional videos on YouTube. Then she combed and drafted the fleece as best she could, gave her wheel a good oiling and concentrated madly on spinning finely.  The carpet around her grew covered with fragments of broken singles, damp with sweat and tears.  One morning, when she dragged herself out to sit in the garden and cry into another cup of tea, there was her Fairy Gotmother, poised in the yoga asana ‘Standing Wool’.

Her calm control only exacerbated Tigerella's irritable and despondent frame of mind.  
In the end, she could bear it no longer.

“Are you using your tail to balance?”

Her Fairy Gotmother opened one eye.

“Gotta make the most of all your assets, Beaut.  Ascend to a higher level.  Relax.” 

Saying this, she disappeared with the morning dew.

Tigerella howled at the empty garden.  “I thought you said you would lend a helping hoof!”  The breeze blew a faint reply.

“Just spin the way I told you, you complete muppet.”

Moving up to the unfamiliar high ratio on the flyer wheel put in enough twist to hold a fine single together.  Clutching the combed wool less tightly let the fibres flow more evenly. Tigerella's Gotland singles were still fuzzy, but fine enough to make three ply laceweight yarn with all the lustre she had dreamed of.  She clasped the finished skein to her bosom, remembering her Fairy Gotmother in an agony of remorse.  How she regretted her unappreciative attitude!  Why, oh why, had she not been more liberal with the tea and sloe gin?   

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After dinner, I turned from the computer and paused before clicking the 'publish' button.
"You know, Elinor, I'm sure I've heard this story before."  

"Fairy tales deal with with universal themes, Beaut.  Core elements that resonate through time."

"How does it end, though?  Does Tigerella meet a handsome prince?"

"No, nor a wicked witch, she's a lot more fortunate than Rapunzel."

"But that story has a lovely ending."

"Hmmmpf.  'Happy ever after' is just code for 'Ask no questions and you'll be told no lies'."
"So, what did happen to Rapunzel?"

"If you must know, her Rodney of a prince used their castle as security on loans from at least three ogres. No surprise when all of them came out for blood."

"Oooooh, scarey ending."
Elinor scuffled about in the box, looking for the last mint chocolate.

"Well, Rapunzel was doing ok, last I heard .  After the bailiffs had been in, she set up a salon in her old Tower.  Very popular for haircuts and extensions and I think she's got a dragon doing blow drys. "

Driftwood Triloom Weaving

Last year, I made a triangular loom as the frame of a woven picture.  This off the wall impulse had an off the wall outcome. Being too big to hang up in the house, the thing lurked unseen, til six months ago, when my local Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers was called upon to produce pieces for a display called Yarn Matters in Cardiff at Craft in the Bay.  Having just joined the Guild, I wanted to show willing, though I wasn't sure this triloom would really fit the bill.  Well, it had involved spinning, weaving and dyeing, so I stuck it in the boot and brought it to the next Guild Meeting.  Cutting to the chase, not only did it get selected for the display, it sold on the first day and what is more, someone else who saw it commissioned another work.  You'll notice I say 'work' - I have found that making a commission really is hard work.  Nerve wracking and madly exciting.

Walking on the beach, picking up things of interest, will result in a cluttered garage.  Strange to tell, once I was planning to fulfil a commission, no driftwood at home or out on the estuary seemed to suit at all. The little dog and I got a lot of exercise and in the end, himself had to be lured down the beach to help me find and carry home enough choices to fit for a frame.  A washed up plank, with rusty stumps of nails, was a prize find. I had already been stewing on the idea of using old copper ship's nails, dug up from the mud of the Thames by a metal detectorist. Amazing what people offer to sell on eBay and even more unlikely that there are people like me who consider fifty bent verdigrised nails a total bargain at £1.99 and well worth keeping in a jam jar, always find some corner free in the garage.

Three pieces which interlocked well as a triangle were scrubbed down, dried out and drilled and screwed together from the back.

Setting the pegs took several sessions of fiddling about changing drill bits and sanding down the ends of small bits of driftwood til each was a snug fit in its hole, holding the position I wanted. Once they looked right, all the pegs had to come back out for a drop of wood glue to go down each hole.  The nails went in a lot quicker and I couldn't be more pleased with the effect.  
For the weaving, I ended up choosing the natural off white and soft fuzz of Ryeland fleece spun long draw about double knitting weight.  Though it's not a real weaver's choice, the warp has little need for tensile strength, being all about form rather than function.  While I struggled to get the appearance of the materials right, my usual critic and fleece advisor, Elinor Gotland, was mercifully unavailable for comment.  Best not to speculate on her views about this venture toward art, particularly given her recent crabbiness.  Amazing how she cheered up after a call to dash off and save the show, when the original Fairy Godmother pulled out of a panto at the eleventh hour.  You should have seen her trying on the costume.  Cinderella will find Elinor's appearance truly astonishing.  While I fear the new Fairy Godmother's remarks may be more bracing than anticipated, there is no doubt that she will get Cinders to that ball.  
All by myself, I tried and rejected a fair number of breeds of sheepswool to create little fish.  My final choice was needlefelted from Polwarth fleece dyed with woad in what must have been a weakening vat, giving almost translucent blues with a soft lustre.

Being hung on a yellow kitchen wall doesn't really show it off to best advantage, but you get the idea.  I have called my work 'Charybdis'.  It represents a sea whirlpool pulling at the nails in a ship's timber.  Avoiding Charybdis, Oddysseus took on Scylla, losing some of his crew being preferable to having the whole ship utterly sucked under.  Having chosen the lesser of two evils and taken a bit of damage myself, I've survived to aggrandise my own tiny life with reference to that of a Greek hero and to inhabit that unsettled zone, the beach that separates the land of craft from the sea of art.  I am an extraordinarily happy maker.  
Το απέφυγα Χάρυβδη

Doulton Hat Knitting Pattern with Size and Colour Variations

Here is the conclusion of my Wovember Hat Project, celebrating 100% wool and resulting in hats all round for my brother and his family this Christmas.  Don't worry, there will be chocolate for them all as well.

After a little sampling, I used the two shades of grey dk Doulton Flock Border Leicester Yarn for the large Doulton Hat, leaving my third, white skein pretty much intact.  Since the autumn storms began, I have had a dish of Evernia prunastri lichen fermenting on the underfloor heating in the bathroom.

Rescuing it from another near miss with himself at his morning ablutions, I decided to dry most of it to keep for later and test out a couple of tablespoons by dyeing the white skein and overdyeing the remainder of the pale grey.  The pink lichen dye turned the grey  a soft dove colour.  After making a small Doulton hat for my neice, who is six years old, I still had plenty of yarn left, so I put it back in the dye bath with another tablespoon of lichen to get deep pink and pinky brown shades.

Doulton Hat Pattern - Large, Medium and Small with Colour Variations

Sizes

                                                      Large              Medium                Small

Finished Hat Circumference        58cm                54cm                     50cm

Finished Hat Depth                       20cm                18.5cm                  17cm

Total Yardage                              170m                158m                     132m

Total Yarn Weight                         77g                      72g                        60g

Yarn = Doulton Flock Border Leicester 100g skeins of double knitting wool = 220m

The method shows the medium and small variations in brackets.

Colour Variations
If you make the hat like the large grey one - one main colour, with only the detail in contrast, you need about 20m of the contrast colour.  If you make the brim in one colour and the body of the hat in the other colour, like the small pale pink one, you need approximately equal amounts of each colour.  

To add a third colour to the lattice pattern, about 10m of yarn are needed to knit rows 5 and 6 of each lattice repeat in the third colour. 

Tension

Knit in stocking stitch on a 4mm circular needle, 20 stitches and 28 rows to 10x10cm.

Method
In Brim Colour, cast on 108 (102, 96) stitches using longtail cast on for elasticity and a neat edge. Leave an extra metre of wool on the long tail for sewing round the brim at the end. Place marker and join to work in the round.
Honeycomb Brim - all stitches are slipped with the yarn in front.

Round 1  Knit
Round 2  *Purl 1, slip 1 purlwise* repeat to end.
Round 3  Knit
Round 4  *slip 1 purlwise, purl 1* repeat to end.

Repeat rounds 1-4 nine (eight, six) times, using Contrast Colour for rounds 3 & 4 of the second set.

If you want to make the brim all stripey, change colours at the start of any knit row.

This stage forms the brim, which will be folded up on itself with the wrong side of the knitting concealed inside.

To start the body of the hat, arrange the knitting so that the wrong side is facing outwards. The last stitch that was knitted will be the first stitch of the next section as you work back in the opposite direction.  If you are using the contrast colour from the brim as the main colour for the body of the hat, remember this is now the yarn to use when Main Colour (MC) is specified.

Set Up Round
In Contrast Colour (CC), purl all the way round back to the marker.

Two Tone Lattice Body - all stitches are slipped with the yarn at the back
Round 1 MC *knit 4, slip 2 purlwise* repeat to end
Round 2 MC as Round 1
Round 3 CC as Round 1
Round 4 CC *Purl 4, slip 2 purlwise* repeat to end.
Round 5 MC Knit 1 *slip 2 purlwise, knit 4* repeat to last three stitches, knit 3.
Round 6 MC as Round 5
Round 7 CC as Round 5
Round 8 CC Purl 1 *slip 2 purlwise, purl 4* repeat to last three stitches, purl 3.

Repeat these 8 rounds three times.  On the fourth set, work rounds 1-6 as given, then carry on using Main Colour to repeat rounds 5 and 6, then finish the patterned section by knitting one plain round.

NB If you have been using a third colour for rounds 5 and 6 within the lattice, on the fourth set, rounds 5 and 6 must be knitted in the Main Colour for the body of the hat.  I found this out the hard way while making the medium hat and had to bodge the reductions into more lattice pattern, which looks alright, but it's not advised, I promise.

Shaping the Crown - all in Main Colour
Decrease Rounds reduce the stitch count by eight stitches as follows
Knit 1, knit 2 together ( knit to 3 stitches before marker, slip 2 stitches knitwise then knit them together, knit 1, slip marker, knit 1, knit 2 together) three times, knit to last 3 stitches, slip 2 stitches knitwise then knit them together.

Large size only

Knit the next round placing a marker every 27 stitches (108). 

Decrease Round, then knit 3 rounds (100)

Decrease Round, then knit 3 rounds (92)
Decrease Round, then knit 3 rounds (84)

Medium size only

Next round knit 1, knit 2 together, place marker when you have 25 stitches on the needle, knit 25 stitches and place next marker, knit 1, knit 2 together place marker when you have 25 stitches from the last marker, knit 25 to round marker. (100)

Decrease Round, then knit 2 rounds (92)
Decrease Round, then knit 2 rounds (84)

Small size only

Knit the next round placing a marker every 24 stitches (96). 

Next round, *knit 1, knit 2 together, knit to marker, slip marker* repeat four times (92)

Knit round.
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (84)

All sizes

Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (76)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (68)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (60)

Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (52)

Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (44)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (36)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (28)
Decrease Round, removing markers except the first (20)
Knit 2 together 10 times, break yarn and thread it on a needle, pass it through the remaining 10 stitches, pull tight and fasten off.

Use the long tail of yarn at the begining of the work to sew, very loosely, the back of the contrast colour row in the brim to the set up row of the lattice pattern, which secures the turn up of the brim.

Machine wash at 30 degrees on a wool cycle with a wool washing liquid and block lightly while drying.

I bought 300g of yarn, I've knitted three hats for my brother, sister-in-law and niece, so by my calculations, there should be plenty left to make another for my nephew.  Only it will probably have a lot of dark grey stripes and maybe I should overdye the pink to a more acceptable bloke's colour.  No good being right on and gender neutral if he never wears it.

Do you think four year olds take notice of such things?

Afterword

Here is Robin's hat, with the original greys used on the brim and the pink shades overdyed with dyers' chamomile.  I think it came out best of all. Four hats from three skeins of wool - what a bargain.

Doulton Hat Knitting Pattern

Ah, sigh, Wovember is over - well, not quite, there are still a few last posts going up on the website.  My personal project was a Wovember Hat Pattern and though I haven't finished work on the medium and small sizes and colour variations, here we are in December already and it is definitely woolly hat weather in Wales.  I'm happy with the large size, now I've made it twice, so time to write up the core pattern. 
Joining in with the general celebration of wool, I bought these three 100g skeins of Border Leicester Sheepswool yarn direct from the Doulton Flock, or use this link to Etsy shop.  Compared to the superwash merino I had been working with earlier in the month, my first

impressions of this yarn made me wonder if it was actually a good choice to use for refining the hat pattern. Border Leicester wool yarn felt firm and crisp and though smooth, I wondered how comfortable it was going to be, worn against the forehead.  A pleasant surprise was in store.  Just wait til you have washed the finished knitting - the slip stitch fabric stays very much the same dimensions as before washing, it keeps its body and elasticity, yet gains significantly in softness and flexibility. Doulton Flock yarn has turned out lovely to wear against the skin, plus I bet this hat will last a lot longer than my first, squashy merino one, which already shows signs of pilling.

The Doulton Hat Pattern

Size

These instructions are only for the large size, which measures 58cm in circumference and 20cm in depth. Medium and Small sizes and colour variations are now here.

Tension

Knit in stocking stitch on a 4mm circular needle, after washing and laying flat to dry, my gauge came up the same as stated on the yarn information - 20 stitches and 28 rows to 10x10cm.

Notes
This pattern uses two kinds of slip stitch, both taken from Margaret Radcliffe's Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques and converted for working in the round.  How I love that book, slip stitches are considerably easier than Fair Isle knitting and though the fabric grows more slowly in length, it comes up thicker, which is ideal for warmth.n  All rounds are knitted in one colour only, so you never need to carry strands of yarn along at the back of the work.  Honeycomb Stitch is used doubled over to make a full brim, Two Tone Lattice decorates the body, then the crown is completed in a standard stocking stitch shaped by reduction in quarters.  The slip stitch sections do not shrink in length the way that stocking stitch does when washed.  I would suggest knitting a stocking stitch gauge and changing needle size if it measures up differently to the stated yarn standard.

Materials
Two Skeins of Border Leicester Double Knitting Yarn from the Doulton Flock.
70g - about 150m of Main Colour (MC) in photo, dark grey
10g - about 20m of Contrast Colour (CC) in photo, light grey
4mm circular needle or Double Pointed Needles
Darning needle for finishing.

Method
In Main Colour, cast on 108 stitches using longtail cast on for elasticity and a neat edge. Leave an extra metre of wool on the long tail for sewing round the brim at the end. Place marker and join to work in the round.
Honeycomb Brim - all stitches are slipped with the yarn in front.

Round 1  Knit
Round 2  *Purl 1, slip 1 purlwise* repeat to end.
Round 3  Knit
Round 4  *slip 1 purlwise, purl 1* repeat to end.

Repeat rounds 1-4 nine times, using Contrast Colour for rounds 3 & 4 of the second set.
This section forms the brim, which will be folded up on itself with the wrong side of the knitting concealed inside.

To start the body of the hat, arrange the knitting so that the wrong side is facing outwards. The last stitch that was knitted will be the first stitch of the next section as you work back in the opposite direction.

Set Up Round
In Contrast Colour, purl all the way round back to the marker.



Two Tone Lattice Body - all stitches are slipped with the yarn at the back
Round 1 MC *knit 4, slip 2 purlwise* repeat to end
Round 2 MC as Round 1
Round 3 CC as Round 1
Round 4 CC *Purl 4, slip 2 purlwise* repeat to end.
Round 5 MC Knit 1 *slip 2 purlwise, knit 4* repeat to last three stitches, knit 3.
Round 6 MC as Round 5
Round 7 CC as Round 5
Round 8 CC Purl 1 *slip 2 purlwise, purl 4* repeat to last three stitches, purl 3.

Repeat these 8 rounds three times.  On the fourth set, work rounds 1-6 then knit the next round in the Main Colour, placing a marker every 27 stitches.

Shaping the Crown
Decrease Rounds reduce the stitch count by eight stitches as follows
Knit 1, knit 2 together ( knit to 3 stitches before marker, slip 2 stitches knitwise then knit them together, knit 1, slip marker, knit 1, knit 2 together) three times, knit to last 3 stitches, slip 2 stitches knitwise then knit them together.

Decrease Round, then knit 3 rounds (100)
Decrease Round, then knit 3 rounds (92)
Decrease Round, then knit 3 rounds (84)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (76)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (68)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (60)

Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (52)

Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (44)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (36)
Decrease Round, then knit 1 round (28)
Decrease Round, removing markers except the first (20)
Knit 2 together 10 times, break yarn and thread it on a needle, pass it through the remaining 10 stitches, pull tight and fasten off.

Use the long tail of yarn at the begining of the work to sew, very loosely, the back of the contrast colour row in the brim to the set up row of the lattice pattern, which secures the turn up of the brim.

Machine wash at 30 degrees on a wool cycle with a wool washing liquid and block lightly while drying.

Making Christmas Fairies with Wool Roving

"I believe in fairies!"
"That doesn't surprise me at all, Beaut.  I've seen your CND badge."  Unwilling to be drawn back into the nuclear deterrent debate, I carried on.
"No, I believe in their fantastic fiscal powers.  I put some in the shop at £7.50 each and I've got a commission to make four more. Commercial magic."

My companion finished her tea.
"So you've joined in the festive exploitation with a fairy production line."
"Oh, don't be rotten, I'm really thrilled to have a product that sells.  I can drum card mixed batts of all the leftover wool scraps, so the costs are pretty low."
Elinor swept aside a fairy skirt and climbed down from the dresser.
"Much as I'd like to revel in the anticipation of an extravagant Christmas shopping trip, I just wonder.  Given your craft track record.  How long do these take to make?"
"OK, the first one did take all afternoon, but I've got the knack now and can knock one up in less than an hour."
"We won't be shopping in Harrods then."

I found the instructions for making fairies out of wool roving on this blog, Echoes of a Dream, for which, many thanks.  The only innovation I really added was an extra length of pipe cleaner going down from the head, which means you can adjust and hold the flight shape of the final fairy body, rather than having them just hang straight down.  Of course, they can be made to come out fatter or thinner, depending on the bulk of wool roving you use for the body, taller or tiny, according to the length you tear off the bump and brown if you use naturally coloured wool.  For the dress, I think blended fibres have a better effect than solid colours, a nice bit of silk looks pretty in the skirt. 

These fairies are fun to do , just lightly needlefelted and it is easy to add on embellishments.

Wensleydale wool locks make lustrous hair, though it's a fiddle and you need a firm ball inside the head to to needlefelt them into. 


"Whoopdedoo, Elinor, I took five fairies to the Christmas Fayre and sold them all, people said they were lovely!  Look at tiny Tinkerbell, in her solar light glass jar."

"Conforming to societal norms of prepubertal beauty just adds to the pressures on the young and the older woman, Beaut.  Say hello to my Fairy Godmother, then wave your magic menopausal wand at the pot and pour some tea into these cups." 

  

A Second Try at Dyeing Wool with Hopi Sunflower Seeds

Ah, Wovember.  I had such plans, well vague ones, definitely totally sheepy, though.  This year, there is a secret prize of the utmost woolly kind for one participant in the WOOL-ALONG.  With so many kinds of raw fleece in my stash, (Speckled Face Beulah from my friend Mary's flock surely would have impressed the judges) how on earth have I ended up spinning and knitting superwash merino tops?  This sad tale really began last year, with the terrible theft of my  Hopi Sunflower seeds.

This summer, the flowers were planted centre stage, well away from any walls. 
"Squirrels will never get at the Hopi sunflower seeds there, hey, Elinor?"
"Don't get too cocky, that dog has already chewed up one plant. And there's the birds, they love the seeds."  My baleful companion never was enthused by garden dye projects.  "For all you know, the garden will be visited by a troupe of acrobatic hamsters."  While Elinor still hadn't quite forgiven my refusal to cough up for a teak steamer sunlounger, an improvised cushion of wool tops was proving tolerable.  Madam has a soft spot for merino.  It reminds her of her old flame, Bruce.

Their canes bent over one windy night and had to be tied back up with string guy ropes, but the squirrels didn't get the Hopi seedheads and nor did any other garden wildlfe.  I popped out all the seeds from the first head to ripen and saved them in a paper bag. The others were left to dry out in the greenhouse, same as last year.  I expected them to be fine stored like that, ready for further experiments this winter, when there won't be much fun to be had with fresh dye materials.  

It has been a damp autumn.  Imagine my horror, right at the beginning of November, when I found most of the seedheads had gone mouldy.  It was now or never, ditch or dye. What wool did I have already scoured and mordanted?  Only the last of the merino tops.

I simmered well over 300g of seeds, damp weight, keeping the temperature low, about 60 degrees centigrade, for half an hour.  This time, I remembered to put them all in a net bag, pulling it out of the pot next day to leave a deep magenta dye bath.  The pH was already slightly acid, possibly in consequence of a little mouldy fermentation.  A small portion went into a pan with dissolved soda ash, just to double check

what an alkaline environment would do.  The rest was divided into two big pots, one with added vinegar to bring the pH down to 4. Although the wool in the alkaline bath looked grey, when I took it out, there was no colour in the fibres at all.  After two goes at this, I think I can conclude that Hopi sunflower seed dye molecules need an acid environment to become fixed on wool. The merino in the two more and

less acid baths took up a deep maroon red after a short simmer.  However, as I rinsed it in plain water, diluting the acid, the colour shifted to grey.  This photo shows reddish grey persisting from the more acid bath on the left, grey from the less acid bath in the middle, and on the right, dark red on the wool I dyed with last year's seeds, which, now I think about it, never did get a proper rinse. Soaking a bit of grey wool in vinegar changed it back to red. Magic. On the up side, while highly pH sensitive, I think Hopi red is quite lightfast, as the dark red merino hasn't changed noticeably since it was dyed last spring. 

Now the Hopi Indian recipe book says they got blues and purples from sunflower seeds, using native alum as a mordant.  Just to see if that native alum might have included some iron or copper, I tried adding some of each to the leftover dye baths.  Putting in a bit more merino, iron deepened the grey, copper gave an unexpected gold. It was now a whole week into November and Elinor had planted herself very firmly on my last nest of merino.  Time to call the experiments to a halt.  Drum carding a mixture of all the Hopi dye results looked fab to me. Spinning the little batt up into a two ply sample,  I expected the colours would all shift to grey as soon as the yarn was soaked with water. It actually kept a reasonable red variegation,  I had to card the whole lot anyway and

making a gradient added interest, however impermanent. This is how things looked before and after carding...

and after spinning, washing and fulling.  OK, I cheated a bit and added a splash of vinegar to the water soaking the redder skein.  

"I shan't be snooty about superwash merino any more, now I can see what you like about it. Mmm, it was a dream to card and makes wonderfully soft and squashy yarn."

"Not evenly spun though, is it, Beaut?  Bet you don't show that off on Ravelry."

"I have added character to the wool, Elinor, the irregularity won't show much when it's knitted into a lovely cabled beanie.  A hat that won't itch. Himself will be surprised."

"Good job your yarn is too dark and not round bodied enough for these cables to show up.  You've got the pattern wrong already."

After a couple of false starts, I made up my own pattern, using the honeycomb and mock honeycomb stitches shown in Margaret Radcliffe's Color Knitting Guide.  

I haven't dared wash and block this hat for fear of losing the variegated red.  I console myself that grey is a beautiful colour, always been one of my favourites.  The pattern needs a bit of tweaking.  If you scroll down the Wovember website, you can read an article I saw on November 16th about the Doulton Flock.  Something new every day, I have my name down for a fleece next summer and I do visit the Doulton Ravelry forum, yet I never noticed you can now get millspun Border Leicester yarn.  In this month celebrating wool, I felt it only natural and appropriate to buy a few skeins.   I'll be spending the rest of Wovember knitting an improved version of this hat pattern in 100% Doulton wool, 100% grey.