Herbstfruchtfarbe

#CN Die ersten 2 Absätze handeln von Essen.

Neben Stricken mache ich noch eine Menge andere Sachen, darunter Marmelade bzw. Gelees einkochen. Vor ein paar Monaten hatte die Weinlese schon begonnen und mir war irgendwie nach Traubengelee. Eigentlich war mir nach einem bestimmten Traubengelee, aber das werde ich dann mit einer einfacheren Methode (nämlich nur mit dem Saft) nachholen. 

Jedenfalls kaufte ich beim Obstbauer meines Vertrauens Cabernet-Sauvignon-Trauben, aus denen feiner Rotwein gemacht wird. Dann habe ich die Trauben gekocht, gequetscht und durch ein Sieb tropfen lassen und den Saft zu Gelee verarbeitet. Aber in den Trauben selbst war noch jede Menge Farbe und die wollte ich noch rausholen. Also besann ich mich aufs Färben.

Ich habe vorher erst einmal Wolle mit Batikfarben gefärbt und sie wurde nicht ganz so, wie ich hoffte, aber trotzdem schön. Und es war mir auch recht egal, misslingen konnte das Experiment ja nicht wirklich, schließlich konnte ich die Wolle nochmals überfärben. 

Als Basismaterial nahm ich weiße Alpakawolle, die ich im Sommer direkt am Urbabergerhof gekauft habe, wo die Alpakas und wunderhübsche bretonische Zwergschafe wohnen. Zuerst schaute ich noch ein paar Blogposts an, denn ich wusste nicht, ob ich Salz oder Essig verwenden sollte.

Eigentlich dienen Salz und Essig dazu, die Fasern weich bzw. aufnahmebereit für Farbe zu machen. Viele Färber_innen verwenden dazu Alaun, also Aluminiumkaliumsulfat-Dodecahydrat oder Aluminiumsulfat, so ganz genau weiß ich das nicht. Nachdem es aber Sonntag war und ich nicht zur Apotheke wollte - und auch keinen meiner Töpfe opfern wollte, denn angeblich darf dann in dem Topf nichts mehr anderes zubereitet werden als Farbbäder für Textilien - nahm ich schnöden Apfelessig, weil sonst hatte ich nur Rotweinessig und was, wenn der dann den Farbton verdarb?

Jedenfalls habe ich mein Garn erst auf der Haspel zu einem Strang gewickelt, mit Spülmittel gewaschen und gut ausgespült und dann in einem warmen Essigwasserbad für eine Stunde versenkt. Derweil habe ich die Traubenreste ausgekocht und dann den Sud durch ein Sieb gegossen, denn ich wollte ungern Traubenreste aus dem Garn picken.

Dann habe ich meinen Strang gut in der Salatschleuder ausgeschleudert und im Farbbad versenkt. Wahrscheinlich hätte ich wirklich noch Salz dazutun sollen ... aber die Farbe hielt auch so. Dort lag das Garn dann über mehrere Stunden und siedete vor sich hin, dann packte mich die Neugier und ich beschloss, es doch ein wenig köcheln zu lassen.

Schließlich habe ich es ausgewaschen und danach nochmal für einige Zeit im Farbbad versenkt und dann nochmals in kaltem Wasser ausgewaschen - bis auf Essigwasserbad und Farbbad war alles verwendete Wasser kalt.

Auf den Fotos ist es etwas rötlicher bzw. war der Himmel beim Fotografieren ziemlich grau, ich weiß also nicht, wie es z.B. in direktem Sonnenlicht aussieht. Ich würde sagen, es ist ein müdes Weinrosa, mit bräunlichen Untertönen, sehr kuschelig irgendwie. Leider harmoniert es so gut mit dem karamellfarbenen Garn, dass der Unterschied zwischen den Garnen stark verwischt werden würde, also kann ich sie nicht zusammen verwenden.

Ich weiß auch nicht, wie farbecht das Garn dann tatsächlich wird, ich habe es ausgewaschen, bis das Wasser klar war, aber nicht hunderttausendmal. Nachdem ich eigentlich Fäustlinge daraus stricken will und ich meine Fäustlinge so ca. einmal im Jahr wasche, wird es schon kein Drama werden und sonst - werden sie halt überfärbt.

So als erstes richtiges Experiment mit Färben und pflanzlichen Färbemitteln ist es ziemlich gut gelungen - Zeit, die Stränge wieder aufzuwickeln und mit Stricken zu beginnen!

stars and flowers

I'm at 39 pages and need to convince myself to get to 40 today. It's the last week before I start an internship at a library, which I'm looking forward to, but there are lots of things that I have to do this week, because next week I'll be on standard work time for the first time in a few years (2006 actually) and there are some things that can only be done in the mornings in Vienna, such as visits to the university offices to straighten out all the red tape hoops - or would that be red tape skipping ropes? - that I need to jump through to get my thesis on the official tracks. I hate red tape. Thank goodness my mental directions finally reached the history department and they put together something of a checklist, which looks fierce and dreary. So tomorrow I shall gather alllllllll my university papers and on Wednesday I'll go visit the hopefully nice people at the student service office to ask them what papers, signatures and whatnots I'll still need.

Gee, that was a lot of text! Would that my thesis would grow whilst I blog. But let's talk about flowers. I love flowers. I love taking pictures of flowers. And if my dinky little camera from 2004 was a little better at taking pictures of particularly vibrant flowers, I'd be overjoyed. It still takes pretty good pictures of roses, though. To wit:

That's my favorite rose in the whole garden. New Dawn. A climbing rose with a wonderful, not too overpowering smell and it blooms from May to September. Then there's Constance (Constance Spry), who after a few years of growing without any blossoms is now always full of them:

It's no wonder that roses would also inspire my knitting. I made up this Rose Mitten pattern on the go with a chart I found somewhere, the curlicues are part of a fairisle design. The yarn is Lana Grossa Mood Print, which is soft and squishy with a little silk to make it extra-nice. I finished these in September 2009 and haven't even woven in the ends yet ... tsk. Maybe in September 2010 so I can wear them.

Here's the palm ...

The thumbs are a bit of a weak point, design-wise, but overall, I'm pleased. Apart from the roses there are plenty of other flowers in that garden. Like peonies, which I also love very, very much. The light pink ones actually have a bit of a minty smell.

And an intriguing visitor ...

Here's the darker variety of peonies. Funnily, when I was searching for project pictures, I came across pictures of these same peonies and roses that I had taken in May 2008. I'm really glad these flowers decide to delight us again every spring. To be honest, I'd love to plant even more roses and peonies and all kinds of beautiful flowers, since they mostly take care of themselves, unlike vegetables.

Strangely, even though I love flowers so much, I don't actually have many knitted items that use an explicit flower design. I have a few with leaf lace, but flowers, not so much. This is one of the few items, the Plum Blossom mittens - frogged, sadly, because the yarn needs smaller needles. But I have the yarn still and will remake them at some point. I love the design of these so much and there are so many things you can do with the idea. The yarn is Lana Grossa Baby Alpaca, soft and lovely, but not very stretchy, hence the need for smaller needles.

In that garden, there's also a tree that my mother calls Japanese Lilac. I have no idea. It's from the botanical garden in Frankfurt, planted probably a hundred or so years ago, since it's rather large. This year the spring was so cold that it's blooming only now and the bees are all over it and making a lot of noise.

Funnily, the bees entirely avoided the following plant, I have no idea what it's called in English, we call it jasmine, but it isn't jasmine (I know, I have real jasmine here in Vienna).

I made a yellow spot on the kitty's forehead with that pollen. I like doing that, since all cats are yogis and he looks cute like that. Too bad I didn't take his picture. Overall, this blog really does lack cat pictures, I must say. Like the bees, I have avoided the following project. It's crocheted and actually very simple to make. I only made it because it looks like a flower. And I made it in those colors, because they were available, I have no excuse, really. Never wore it. Still love it. Just don't know what to do with it. The Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl by Doris Chan has been redesigned by her into a skirt as well, so maybe I'll try my hand at that at some point in a different color.

Now I'm definitely more in the mood to write. The star that I mentioned in the title is the evening star. I've been watching it every evening since the weather has cleared up. I know it's actually a planet, Venus to be correct, but it's still my favorite.

it's not like I stopped knitting

Only stopped taking pictures and blogging about it. Also had some troubles with motivation, for a while there I went back to socks, which is usually a sign that I've kind of run out of ideas and all projects in progress need involved work to be finished. Eh. At least I have managed to cross two sock patterns off my queue that were on there for a long time and one birthday present for a friend is also already done (keeping just one pair of those socks).

But then, all of a sudden, my mojo came back. As usual, it was because I had promised to make something for somebody - a pair of fingerless gloves. Also as usual, the inspiration came in the yarn shop and also as usual, the gloves I created turned out so prettily that I didn't want to give them away. So on Tuesday it's back to the yarn store to pick up more yarn so I can make some for myself (which will happen in ... 2 or 3 years I'm sure).

Very medievally inspired. They're called Heathered Brocade, yarn is as usual for gloves, Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000, 100% superwash merino. It's slightly heathered and looks even more gorgeous in person.

Sadly here my camera decided to suck and I think I forgot to turn on the macro function. I really need a new one. Patterns are from the Scottish pattern book I studied in Edinburgh. I copied those I liked by hand ...

Amazingly detailed for gloves that are not for me!

On their intended wearer. And on it goes. I wonder what kind of project I should start to see me through my thesis. In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with a dreamy picture of the Alpenglühen in the South of Switzerland.

i think the sun has gone forever

There's a reason why there hasn't been a post in almost a week. The sun has completely disappeared and taking pictures has been nearly impossible for a while. On Wednesday I had a glimpse of something resembling sunshine, but then it went away just as fast. Another reason is that I've finally been able to find Elizabeth George's "Careless in Red" at the public library - I've been waiting for this for quite a while. Now that I've read it, I must say, I felt a little flat about this one, especially after "What Came Before He Shot Her". The solution was a tad too obvious for my taste, but I won't spoil it here.

Then I came across "Hue & Cry" (1947) which caused me no end of pleasure, because I have come to love British films, especially the late 1930s, war-time and post-war films, so I had to watch it. It's a most adventurous story about a gang of boys finding out that crooks pass messages through a boys' newspaper - there's a definite touch of Kästner's Emil and the Detectives, but the film is more brutal and very British. Through it I have finally made the acquaintance of Alistair Sim, who was once the rector of Edinburgh University and who will never leave my memory again. (There's *na-hemm* gin in mine.) Add to all that some manga read online and well - knitting time got converted into reading time.

So now I can't do much but wait for the sun to come out so I can take a picture of my 200th project, which has been finished for a while, it just needs a big button and all the ends need to be hidden. Then there are my beautiful Plum Blossoms in the Snow mittens which need plum blossoms and snow flakes, even though they're nice enough as they are now:

And of course while waiting for the sun I can knit even more - I've started my fingerless gloves inspired by the coloring of the Sweet Elfin Baby cap and am up to the thumb on the first, but wrestling with how many stitches to use for the thumb ...

Guess if this sunless thing goes on, I'll have to do a post "from the archives". Maybe one about my sad attempts at berets or about my fleeting affair with socks or about my true love for all things mittenish ...

P.S.:

out in the snow

The mittens for Finland are finished, all ends are tucked away and right now they're blocking. I took them for a little outing to get a more interesting background than my windowsill and they fit right in with the weather.

For Finland!

Mittens are my true love. I love mittens. I wear them more often than the socks I've knitted, that's for sure. Mittens to me are like tiny canvases on which to try things I'd never try in a sweater. Also, buy two balls of yarn (or even just one) and a pair of mittens or fingerless gloves at least is always a possibility. And if something goes wrong, ripping it all out won't be such a drama. What's hard to fit on mittens? Big fat cables, intarsia and well, lace mittens ... maybe not the best idea. Besides mittens, I also love fingerless gloves and wristwarmers, but that's for another post.

Today I'd like to introduce a mitten fresh from the brain. A friend of mine who was among the first people I met when I went online back in April 1999 a very long time ago recently complained about the cold (on facebook, where else). We used to send little things to each other ages ago, so I thought - mittens, why not? After much back and forth about his hand measurements and the color of yarn he'd prefer, I went to my favorite yarn store to search for dark red yarn. In my brain, a devilish idea was already lurking.

It's cold in Finland, very cold (otherwise he wouldn't have complained). So I couldn't knit just a simple mitten - anyone can do that. No, I would knit a superwarm mitten! But how? Simply doubling the yarn would make for warm mittens, but bigger stitches mean colder hands when it's windy. Enter a very simple solution, if you like fairisle, that is.

I bought four balls of yarn of the same color, a fluffy, muted dark red. The yarn is Lana Grossa Linea Pura Verde, a mixture of merino and alpaca. Then I doubled the yarn and knit the cuffs in a simple but pleasing pattern of k1tbl, p2. After 12 rows, I switched back to single yarn and knit one stitch with one ball, the next with the other, etc. So, stranded knitting with the same color. I increased periodically from 30 stitches to 72, then set aside 20 for the thumb, but didn't cast on any further stitches. I knit knit knit until the glove was too long (I still have to fix that), then I started decreasing and did a three-needle bindoff at the top, it just looked better. Add the thumb and - voila - a superwarm dark red mitten, that just needs its top ripped out a little ... for Finland!