This just in....SNOW!

Yesterday morning we awoke to this!

Everything in black and white! What I love about the new fallen snow is the way it reflects daylight brilliantly through our cottage windows, shining a glorious light on these dim and gray winter days. It's a short lived experience here in Oregon's Pacific Northwest, so it's cherished all the more for as long as it lasts.

I'm excited to share my results from the natural dyeing I did recently.

I experimented with Black Walnut, Rose hips & Hawthorn berries and dyed a wool skein, muslin, vintage lace and hankies. Also some cotton and linen thread. What to make with it I do not know. But I feel inspired just looking at the complimentary pieces.

Anyone out there ever force bulbs? This was my first time and I totally get why folks do this. With snow on the ground it feels so Springy and hopeful to see bulging bulbs throwing out spikes of green.

Narcissus I have learned can become quite tall and gangly. I've also learned that if you water your bulbs with 1part Gin (or your favorite) with 8 parts water you can stunt their growth habit by half and avoid the tipsy. No fun for you Narcissus!

This is where I've been.

And where have you been lately?

Stirred NOT Shakened

*Stirred, a sequel to my last post, Simmer, Stew & Soak. It's what I've been up to these past few weeks, at the stove in my warm cozy kitchen, brewing up concoctions from the things I've been gathering around our place. I'll be digging up other fabrics and things to dye besides wool. I have a goodly stash, doesn't everyone?

*NOT Shakened, a season of stressing family issues has come our way recently. Nevertheless, God has been good and faithful in working it all out for good and here we stand, maybe just a bit shakened. My spell checker is having a heyday with that word, shakened. But I'm ignoring spell checker for the love of a word. Plus it would totally ruin my stirred, not shakened attitude I got goin' on.

Hawthorn berries have grown especially large this year. The result of plentiful spring rains I imagine. They're harder than rose hips though, so I gave them a good chop before putting them on the stove.

Inside the thin hard husk suprisingly, were a lot of hard yellow beige seeds. And the resulting dye was the color I can only describe as soft and mellow.

I also harvested a small batch of rose hips from rosa rugosa that grows abundantly in hedgerows along Panther Creek Road for a dye color scheme that falls center of my black walnut and hawthorn creations.

Hawthorn berry, rose hips, and black walnut. I love that the colors from nature are always compatible. They just go together naturally!

And for other brews to warm the cockles of my heart; I discovered a spectacular cocktail recipe at my new found and soon to be favorite food blog Sassy Radish. The appeal was in using some Rosemary freshly harvested from the garden to infuse a simple syrup. This rosemary infused Gin Fizz turned out to be the perfect New Year's Day libation. One I'm sure I'll use often, well, at least as is required.

This sassy cocktail, try it and remember:

Stirred, definitely NOT Shakened.

Simmer, Stew & Soak

Simmering kettles of soup, stewing dye pots and hot soaks. Just a few simple things that make me go mmmmm..... Perhaps it's the slow contemplative process I'm drawn too. I just don't know, but I love it.

The dregs of my dye pot contain the lovely peeling bark of Madrone (Arbutus), a Northwest native tree. Bits of Douglas Fir needles are in there too. No need to mordant my soft merino handspun as the bark and needles are high in tannic acid.

A trio of natural organically dyed hand-spun wool waiting for inspiration. I created the carmel colored skein at the bottom from a dye pot of Black Walnuts. And the one on the upper left from the partially exhausted dye bath.

The trio was destined for a break up shortly after this photo was taken. Meilleuere Amie snatched the soft colored Madrone dyed skein and deftly knitted up these fingerless gloves.

I've indulged in not just a few long hot soaks in my hillbilly hot tub these last few days of the year. And reading Sara Dane by lamplight. Of her travail in the dank and dreary bulkhead of a sailing vessel en route to the Botany Bay penal colony. Soaking in the dark and watery surroundings of my green house getaway enlivens my imagination. A perfect hour of escape!

~Peace and God's richest blessings be yours in the New Year~