Ooooops!!!!

I'm really not good at this blogging malarkey despite all of my good intentions!
Sometimes life just gets in the way....

Well, since I last blogged (all those months ago!!) I've been on holiday to visit a friend, accumulated obscene amounts of new yarn, and actually finished some projects!
So let's rewind time (if only!), go back a little and I'll try and play catch up....

We'll start with my holiday to visit a good friend who just happens to live in one of the most BEAUTIFUL villages in North Holland :-)

We had big plans for this trip. A whole week filled to the brim full of yarn bombing, yarn dyeing, retail therapy (it goes without saying!) and of course a little hooky time :-)

Long before my planned trip the members of our online crochet group had been furiously making contributions to the great yarn bombing event. It's a great group of ladies! From complete beginners through to experienced designers. And you know what the nicest thing about this group is? Everyone is very supportive! There are no negative comments allowed! Anyway I digress..... the village where my friend lives is very sleepy and quiet. Anything out of the ordinary makes the front page of the village newsletter! A few months back the village was yarn bombed!!!! OH MY!!!! It hit the front page!!!! And you know what the yarn bomb was? A lonely scarf wrapped around a tree at the entrance to the village! Seriously!!! In all honesty it looked liked some kind soul had found a misplaced scarf and wrapped it around the tree in the hope that it would be reunited with its owner. Well!!!! We decided that the scarf needed a little company and hence the yarn bombing plan was born :-)

After a little much sewing together of random pieces of brightly coloured crochet the time had come....we ventured out with some step ladders and our crocheted decorations!

Don't they look fab?! We had a great time decorating the trees! It also caused a fair bit of interest from passerbys lol What's difficult to see from the photos is that behind the trees is a ditch. I think I was clinging to those trees for dear life whilst sewing the crochet in place!!!

In between the yarn bombing antics we also tried our hands at some totally natural yarn dyeing. Did you know that common weeds hedgerow plants can seriously produce some of the most gorgeous colours??? Mother nature is a clever clever lady :-)

First we soaked the yarn in a mordant of alum and cream of tartare. This prepares the yarn to take the dye. Don't ask how.....it's just magic!

First job while the mordant was doing it's magic was to gather plants! We headed off into the hedgerows and came home with a mixture of comfrey, wild carrot, elder leaves, alder leaves and others that I can't quite remember right now!

Next we prepared the leaves/plants for the dye bath. We used an enamel wash pot and also added some copper pennies! This was then heated up and the yarn added.

I think this was the wild carrot! A lovely mustardy yellow that actually dried much lighter. I've since read that oxygen in the air affects the final colour.

A weeks worth of hand dyed yarn! We also had some cochineal and logwood to play with hence the reds and purples.

The yarns neatly caked and labelled. I think we were both surprised at the lovely range of colours we produced!

How gorgeous do they look? I feel a snuggly winter blanket in the making :-) 

I also managed to make a start on a new blanket while I was there.... 

A gorgeous mix of sport weight cotton. Mercerised and plain. I love how the sheen of the mercerised cotton works with the plain cotton. This is very much a work in progress! More of this in the future!

Ok I think that's enough gossip for today :-) Thank you to Anita for sharing her pics! I'm rubbish at taking photos when I'm holiday!!!!!

Til next time!

Maria x