Episode 4: Logwood Purple, Primroses and Violets

Join me as I chat a bit about my knitting and spinning projects as well as some natural dyeing with logwood!

Find me on instagram as @dunkel_grun

Finished Projects

Unfortunately there are no recent FOs this week, so I shared with you a shawl that I knit in 2014. It is a crescent shaped shawl that I improvised out of handspun yarn. The fiber for this yarn was combing waste (70% camel, 30% silk) that occurs as a “side product” when tops are made in a spinning mill.
Here is a link to my old blog where I talk in detail about this project.

Knitting in Progress

Citywool Socks

Top Down Vanilla Socks
My first two-at-a-time socks!!
Needles: Addi bamboo 2.5 mm (US 1 1/2), cable length 100 cm / 40 inch.
Yarn: Citywool “Alfa-Spotlight Superwash”, color 6015
Swiss yarn from a Swiss department store (Coop).
Comes with “Fächtli”, which is a reinforcement thread that can be knit into the heel for extra strength.

Flower Potion

Pattern: Fall Flower by Vera Sanon, was originally released as an MKAL.
Yarn: Malabrigo Arroyo in colorway Pocion.

2017 Memory Blanket

Pattern: Memory Blanket by Georgie Nicolson
Yarns are DK and worsted weight, Cast On 30 stitches for each square.

Spinning Projects

Handspun Socks

Superwash Wool (75%) / Nylon (25%), combed top, dyed by myself
Goal: A cable ply 4ply in fingering to sport weight.
Book: The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Design by Sarah Anderson.

Dyeing

Logwood or bloodwood is a tree from Mexico that contains haematoxylin, which is the molecule responsible for the deep purple color that can be obtained from this plant.

Mordant alum: 12% (12 g/100 g) was added to a pot, together with enough water to cover the yarn. Added the yarn and simmered for 1h.
50g logwood chips, soaked in water overnight, then boiled for 1h and strained through a piece of cloth.
at a pH of >7, the color was red-purple
at a pH of <7, the color changed to red-brown. I added some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to get back to a slightly basic pH and the red-purple color
first run: 200 g of mordanted yarn were in the dye bath for about 10 min, then taken out and let cool before rinsing (gave a deep eggplant purple color).
second run: 200 g of mordanted yarn were in the warm dye bath for 1h, then let cool overnight. The next day, the bath was warmed to just below a simmer and kept there for 1h, let cool and then rinsed the yarn (gave a lavender purple color).