Sunny Yellow Soursob

The Big Spring Clean is nearly at an end thank goodness. Uncovering the sewing room was like an archeological dig!
The sewing room is now the guest room and my son's old room is now the craft/sewing room :)
Anyhoooooo enough domesticity and onto some dyepots. Simmering away on the fire is an aluminum pot of rainwater and a frozen Soursob teabag made from an old stocking. A skein of merino 8ply wool is taking up a beautiful luminous yellow.
Tomorrow I will use the same dye bath but with an iron nail added to color another skein of wool. I'm hoping for a bright green but you just never know how the dye dice will roll ha ha ha.

Craving an Art Fix!

Well having waited hand n foot upon the invalid (hubby had knee surgery) and made inroads on The Big Spring Clean I'm just itchin to get stitchin :)
The Soursob or sour grass as some people call it (oxalis) is in full bloom so picking has been very fruitful. I find if I pick a shopping bag full per day then freeze it I can smash the frozen oxalis down to quite a small size to store in the freezer. It makes a wonderful yellow dye and with addition of various mordants or the use of pots as mordants you can achieve some wonderful greens and even oranges :)

The Mushroom Fairy?

When in the throws of a mad spring cleaning my husband commented that I looked like a giant brown mushroom fairy???? Hmmmmm.....
I have posted a pic below :) I'm wearing the nice warm 'Dr Flannel' 100% wool shirt that I dyed with coffee and seaweed in Tasmania with my long sleeved cotton T ecoprinted with kangaroo paw and my 'birthday tights' :)
The tights are merino wool ecoprinted by my wonderful pal Jane and given to me for my 50th birthday....and aren't they snazzy!
If ur a Facebooker check out her gallery at 'Folios and Fibre' for luscious handmade books and textiles :)

Where HAS she been??

Got laid low for a bit when I returned home with a nasty ear infection but I'm on the mend now :)
Oh my goodness it's been hectic trying to sort out the chaos my 5wks away seems to have wrought on my house ha ha. Bless em the lads have tried but...well.... It's been 'man-cleaned' need I say more?
Catching up with family has been a joy tho :)
Can't wait to hit the dye pots again but a massive downsize/spring clean is afoot first. Living minimally on my retreat has given me some interesting insights into myself. Time to get a tad more organized! :) I can hear my family and friends Bwahahaha-ing already lol :) but seriously it's time to 'pay it forward'