Monday, September 24, 2012

Some birdies


This is the Asian Glossy Starling. Not a view you normally get unless you happen to spot one on a tree branch above you or like this one, on a lightning conductor above you. This one is a juvenile as evidenced by his pale underside and nice speckley pattern on his throat. Hanging onto the lightening conductor looked tricky and he didn't stay for long.


Every evening on the block next to mine the birds gather to say goodnight. I like to see how many can fit on the aerials. Latecomers have to go on the next block as the early birds get the good seats!


This Brahminy Kite likes to hang around near my place circling around and around. He is quite magnificent to watch though I always worry for all the other birds around!

Pretty Colours


These are all the colours I've developed over the last few months.

Left to Right: 
Tumeric/Tea/Red Cabbage
Portobello Mushroom
Red Cabbage (acidic)
Red Cabbage (neutral)
Red Cabbage (alkaline)
Black Beans (neutral)
Black Beans (alkaline)
Copper (diluted)
Copper (strong)
Copper (very strong with vinegar)

Now I have the colour and they seem to be relatively stable over several months its onto whole skeins! Then I take over the world!

Ignore Everything and Look at Pretty Yarn


Isn't this the most lovely thing you have seen?

I finally made a 'natural' green dye for yarn.

Its magnificent.

Its a celery green colour. Quite vegetal.

I made it from copper, vinegar and lots of time (about 3 months). I'm not sure what the chemical name is for this but I think its Copper Acetate. Not sure if its poisonous, so I wore gloves and rinsed the yarn very well.

The dye is actually a blue green colour but this skein is under-dyed with black tea and so was yellowish. Thus mixing blueish and yellowish I made green.


This is the copper wire soaking in vinegar about 2 months in. You can see the bright blue colour of the vinegar below and the crystals forming on the wire.


This is the copper wire after I took it out after 3 months. After this stage I soaked the wire in a little water to remove the blue from the wire. Worked really nicely.


On the left is yarn that was not under-dyed with anything, its just a natural wool colour. The finished yarn colour is much closer to blue than green.


This was my first experiment with wool in a tiny amount of the blue liquid that showed me that the colour would stick and might produce greens or blues. 

Happiness.