http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/renaissance-dyeing/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:10:48 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/gallery_socks/ Voila! Socks knitted by Polly Van Bremmel using the bluefaced Leicester -Iris, here is what she has to say about the pattern she used and the yarn. The pattern I used as reference is by Cookie A. called "Monkeys." I say referenced, because I made quite a few modifications: toe up (vs. cuff down), no purls (knitted these sts), no yo's (unique left and right leaning increases so pattern "swirls" better, without any yo holes). I knitted them with a size 2.25 mm/100 cm circular (for 2 at a time). Also, when I make socks, I make the gusset increases on the bottom of the foot, so the gusset area looks a liittle different than a standard gusset... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:10:48 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/gallery_socks/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_kal/ Renaissance Dyeing is a sponsor for this months Cookie A, Sock Innovation, Knit-a-long (Kal) For the month of December (2009) We will be offering a 10% discount for anyone in the Ravelry, Sock Innovation Group. The prize we are offering for the winner of the Kal is NOT a hank of our naturally plant dyed BFL sock wool but a Natural Dyed Sock Kit. The winner will receive full instructions on how to use it, which is the equivalent of spending a day here in one of my workshops, without the French bit, unfortunately... Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:16:32 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_kal/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_madder-compost/ The sock yarn below was dyed not exactly on a compost heap but in buckets of left over dye stuffs that were left in the sun for a few weeks. It was a continuation of the use of the home-grown madder written about in the previous article Madder and Madder. The madder in question had already been used to dye over one and a half times it weight, however because the madder was quite coursely chopped I could see both from the wool dyed and the madder that was left over that the red pigments had not yet been fully released from the roots... Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:50:01 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_madder-compost/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_madder/ Lots of you have asked how I would process the madder harvested last year. Well, it has dried very well, hanging in my neighbours' barn and was only brought inside just as the cyclone arrived last January. I wasn't going to risk my madder being blown away! It had dried so well that it was possible to snap it into smaller pieces, but not small enough. I have saved this home grown madder for this Autumn's sock collection not only because I have heard that madder needs to mature for a year but also I thought that Jan Kees deserves a pair of madder dyed handed knitted socks after all the hard digging and washing he did last year... Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:28:19 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_madder/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_cochineal/ The Exhausting Pursuit of Pale Pink Exhaust is the name given in dyeing to the leftover dye baths. So once you have dyed a batch of wool what you have left over in the vat is called first exhaust. Once you have dyed something in this you have the 2nd exhaust left. With this in mind I set out to dye pale pink! I needed quite a lot of dark crimson pink Cherry Coloured Twist sock weight yarn for the new pattern by Ysolda Teague being launched in the next issue of Twist Collective , so I started with a strong cochineal dye bath. As I need a lot of the dark pink I wanted my first exhaust to be as dark as the original dye bath... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:53:20 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_cochineal/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_purses/ Vivi alias Suis Le Fil of the Champagne region of France has been very busy over the summer combining her love of all things medieval and her knitting skills. The Medieval drawstring bags below have been created using Renaissance Dyeing Sock-weight 4-ply wool. Fortunately we don't have to attend the French Madieval Faires to buy one as Vivi also has an Etsy Shop. You can also view her blog and follow the stories behind her creations... Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:22:10 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_purses/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest_news_fordgreen/ The Threaders of Ford Green Hall are a small group of dedicated and enthusiastic embroiderers who meet every Monday at Ford Green Hall, Stoke-on-Trent. They spend many busy hours embroidering replica bed hangings, door hangings, pillows, bed spreads and more to be displayed in this charming 17th century farmhouse. {p} The project leader is Pauline Mountain, she explains how the long curtain took six years to finish, starting with eight people around the big frame but falling to five due to three of the older members dying. The original design is in the V & A and is shown on the cover of one of their books on design... Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:41:49 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest_news_fordgreen/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_onions/ The humble onion skin can be very versitile when it comes to natural dyeing, producing with a good alum mordant and modifiers a wide range of yellows, oranges and browns. Living in France, it is easy to collect onion skins with the help of my neighbours, I have a good supply of organic onion skins to keep me going all year round. I just keep them in a paper sack in a dry place until needed. I have heard it said that if the onion skins are kept too long they don't dye so well, but I haven't noticed that much even when using old onion skins... Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:46:25 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_onions/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_bag/ Here is a little project using just two natural dye extracts: Logwood and Persian Berries and the 100g of Australian pre-mordanted merino wool, from the Felters and Spinners Kit . Purple and yellow are complimentary colours so you can't go much wrong really and the different tones and shades naturally produced by natural dyes bring variety and originality. The bag was first felted and washed, a little local mica and silk gauze were incorporated into the felt to give texture. The bag was then printed with a pattern using the two dyes mixed with a little gum tragacanth. At the same time the remaining pre-mordanted tops and a little silk thread were painted with different variations of the two dyes and all were fixed by steaming. The tops were spun into embroidery thread and plyed to give strength and many different variations of shade. Some was Navajo plyed which later lead to interesting stitch form and texture... Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:48:44 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_bag/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_sale-yarn/ After a couple of long dyeing sessions there are always the inevitable shades that don't match up to the colours on the range. Sometimes these can be re-dyed but often the colours are so nice it seems a pity not to offer them to you at a reduced price. There are now a few new shades up on the sales page, some of which are a result of the reaction between the ph of the local water and the logwood dye. Logwood has a very narrow ph window in which it gives a good blue purple, shift the ph too far one way and the blue disappears. Shift it even further and all the dye spectrum disappears! I've learned not to do that but it was fun experimenting. The Aubergine shade below is just a little too red... Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:21:10 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_sale-yarn/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_juliets-garden/ Juliet Sargeant , the award winning garden designer has been visiting Renaissance Dyeing with a camera crew from the BBC's Gardener's World. After visiting my non-award winning garden and looking at the madder and woad plants there, Juliet had a go at naturally dyeing with woad, one of the plants that will be growing in her natural dye garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show. Producer Richard Holmes and researcher Simon Rice are zooming around the garden exhibitors filming for their special Hampton Court Flower Show edition of Gardener's World which will be broadcast on Friday July 10th.. Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:34:28 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_juliets-garden/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_sock-yarn_extract-workshop/ Yet another Natural Dye Extract Workshop has been and gone, with a whirl of colour and deluge of enthusiasm. One of the first things we explored was colour modification that resulted in 27 colours emerging from one dye vat, the image below shows the nine shades of alum mordanted yarn with persian berries extract. The immersion dyeing with the natural dye extracts created several rainbows of color a few of which can be seen on the knitted, woven and felted samples below. These silk tops dyed by an up and coming designer were dyed with logwood extract and techniques learned earlier on the colour modification day... Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:55:58 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_sock-yarn_extract-workshop/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest_news_feuille/ A perfect pleasure to view in many ways. Feuille's blog is a delight to browse, its wonderful colours and forms are so pleasant to behold. Thank you Feuille for sharing this with us.. Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:17:42 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest_news_feuille/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest_news_canevas-folies/ Laurence Liebliech of Canevas Follies will shortly have her new design available on her e-shop. The design combines Renaissance Dyeing fine crewel wool together and shiny silk threads with very striking results. The image is a peep preview of the forthcoming design... Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:10:26 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest_news_canevas-folies/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest_news_spinningtops/ Naturally dyeing merino tops before spinning or felting can be a scary undertaking because of the wonderful ability of merino to felt at the slightest provocation. After simmering for an hour in the mordant and then once more in the dye liquor, even with the most gentle care the delicate fibres have often felted, which is after all why you bought it in the first place, if you are felter. Our popular spinners and felters kit, does away with the angst attached to producing your own naturally dyed fibres and leaves you free to abandon yourself to Creative Coloration with capital Cs... Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:58:02 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest_news_spinningtops/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_sock-yarn_update/ Our naturally dyed sock collection is gathering pace with the addition of two new colours Linden and Rosé. You can see our new sock range here. Both are in the Rêve range, a blend of merino, silk, bamboo and nylon. The yarn is first wound into 100 gm hanks. Then it is washed and mordanted with alum. Before it is dry it is shibori tied and then dyed in cochineal. During the dyeing process new ties were added to vary the cochineal colour. On emerging from the dye vat each hank already had its own distinctive colouring... Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:47:32 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_sock-yarn_update/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_calendar/ A must for every serious yarnie, for 2009 The 2009 calendar from the French based Atelier a leading French member of the European Wool Group Each month there is a picture of a step in the processing of wool. Starting with three modern shepherds watching their flock, and continuing through shearing, washing, carding, combing and spinning. Then for the second half of the year you will be able feast you eyes on the uses to which we put wool. Knitting, weaving, felting, mattresses, dyeing and art... Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:13:35 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_calendar/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_your-gallery_victory-shawl/ Dodile of Aux Dentelles Dodile has posted a free pattern on Ravelry of her Victory Shawl designed for Tricotin, where you can also find it as a free pattern. On Ravelry you can find the pattern in French and English here. Dodile has designed and knitted the Victory Shawl in Dark Peach (shade 1201) a shade dyed with madder root. Dark Peach just happens to be one of the shades we are offering in our sales at the moment! But you can make it in any colour you like!.. Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:18:03 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_your-gallery_victory-shawl/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_natural-dye-plants_madder/ After four years of tending and weeding, the time has finally arrived to harvest the first madder root from the dye garden. Due to the wet autumn it has been difficult to judge the right time to harvest, as the foliage is still green and there are new root shoots. However the arrival of my brother-in-law on 'holiday' heralded that the time was ripe, and with his help we harvested the madder patch. Each day we dug out a few kilos of madder roots and he washed them before drying. As the week went on he perfected a washing method which involved rotating his hand like an old-fashioned washing machine. Finally all was out of the earth, washed and hanging to dry in the barn. Thank you Jan Kees!.. Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:10:40 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_natural-dye-plants_madder/ http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_sock-yarn/ In case anyone thought that Renaissance Dyeing was dragging its feet regarding Sock Yarn, tis not so! You can see our new sock range here. It is in the pipe line or should I say in the vats. Here is a sneak preview of the De Nimes shades airing after just coming out of the Indigo vat. Our Naturally Dyed Sock Collection will feature:.. Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:11:58 +0000 http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/latest-news_sock-yarn/