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Friday 17 November 2017

All the purples ...

This week I've had a lot of fun using logwood chips to create a dye-bath that's given me a lush spectrum running from inky purples to airy lavenders as it has gradually lost its strength. I've been playing with it for several days now, allowing each hank of wool time to absorb its fill of the dye before mordanting another hank, and dropping it into the bath.
Costa Brava Botanicals: Logwood Dye
Logwood Dye
























Costa Brava Botanicals: Logwood Dye
Logwood Dye
First off I got a lovely gradient-hued deep purple: perfect for socks. Then out came a gradation of hues that shifted from a jewelled amethyst to a gentle pastel lilac, each one subtly different from the one before. I'm not sure how I'm going to use them; I think they'd look great together in an ombré-toned creation. The last couple of lavender-lilacs are in double knitting, so they may get worked into some manner of creature after the fashion of Festibear.

Costa Brava Botanicals: Logwood Dye
Logwood Dye
I'm constantly amazed by how many plants can be used to create such wonderful colours.

London:  Walpole Park, Ealing
Walpole Park, Ealing
This week I've also been wowed by Mother Nature's seasonal display of foliar fireworks. Autumn still rules down in Walpole Park, where the WonderDog and I go for our morning constitutional every day after school drop-off.

Walpole Park, Ealing, London
Walpole Park, Ealing, London

I'm thinking of trying some turmeric or maybe some onion skins to match those wonderful golden yellows that are brightening up my mornings at the moment.

Walpole Park, Ealing, London
Walpole Park, Ealing, London
I think golden woolly socks might be good for the soul in the depths of a grey English winter. What do you reckon?

Mr B is in Boston as I write. Imagining that it would be chillier there than here, and not being able to lay his hands on a hat of his own, he seized my grey bobble hat on his way out the door, muttering darkly that his wife never knits anything for him. It's true: I don't. In my defence it's all about economies of scale: there's more to cover when I'm knitting for Mr B. Chastened, nevertheless, by his complaint I'm busy knitting him a pair of socks to make amends.


Normally I knit socks with steel double pin needles, but the other day I treated myself to a lovely wooden set of Knit Pro double pins. They are working really well. Because they weigh so much less than steel needles they don't pull the knitting outwards - like a banana peeling - as I work. This makes it easier to avoid those ladders of loose tension where one needle meets another. Also the stitches don't slide off so easily, which makes them safely transportable for working on the go. And I think you'll have to admit that, as needles go, they look rather splendid. Indeed you could be forgiven for thinking that I'd chosen them to match Mr B's new socks.





In the early part of the week I read The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. I'll be honest: it took me a long time to bond with the characters; set in 1859 their reality is so very different from modern life today, and much of what they believed in seemed absurd to me. Somewhere, around two thirds of the way through, however, I began to root for Lib Wright, the sceptical English nurse who'd been sent over to the Irish midlands to watch over the young girl, at the centre of the story, who was slowly starving herself to death under the pretext of being a Holy Child of such spiritual purity that she had no need of earthly sustenance. Apparently these Fasting Girls  really were a thing back then. The story unfolds shortly after the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, and it's easy to see how the emotional trauma of that time must have profoundly affected everyone's psychology where food was concerned. Abstinence, not being greedy, eating like a bird: they must all have seemed positively virtuous when there was so little to go around. It's strange to reflect on how the bullying mass media of today has a similar impact on young girls who aspire to fit into those impossibly-perfect size zero dresses. Society, then as now, makes harsh demands of its most vulnerable young women.

Costa Brava Botanicals
Costa Brava Botanically Dyed Wool
Anyway, having belatedly started to root for Lib Wright, I very much enjoyed the final third of the book to the point where I felt quite bereft when it had finished. It left me wanting more.  It was an interesting study of mass hysteria, and the power of suggestion. It also resonated with a distant summer from my own childhood in Ireland; the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II had visited, and, suddenly, every statue of the Virgin, up and down the country, seemed to be weeping. To be honest, we all have a tendency to bend the facts to fit the narrative of our own prejudices and outlook. So in the final analysis it tapped some surprisingly modern themes, and successfully ratcheted up the tension for a barnstorming finale. Well done Emma Donoghue!


And finally I leave you with an image of the WonderDog chillaxing whilst I type. No one - neither man nor beast - chillaxes with the aplomb of the WonderDog.

All the best for a fabulous weekend,


Bonny x

8 comments:

  1. Oh wow, I love the purples! I had no idea that Logwood would give you such a wonderful purple! And, I love the idea of golden socks for a grey morning, There's just something so comforting about colourful wool socks in the dark of winter. :)

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  2. Thank you, Sarah. Have a great weekend. B

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  3. Oh, me too, on thinking Golden Socks on a dreary, cold winter morn! And what wonderful purples. I cannot settle to reading much these days....which feels so, so strange. I have always been one to read. But I will say that the books sounds like something I would have enjoyed in the past.

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    1. Thank you, Rose. Wish you lots of good books and happy reading in the cosy indoor hours this fall.

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  4. The purple shades of the logwood dye are just gorgeous, but where do you get the logwood? I look forward to seeing your knitting projects with these yarns and that bear is very cute...so is WonderDog. Marie x

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    1. Thank you, Marie. You're very kind. I bought the logwood chips on Ebay. Logwood trees grow in Central America, but the books say they've been used as a dyestuff here in Europe since shortly after the days of Columbus. B x

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  5. I love your beautiful purple yarns, Bonny. I am sure than an ombre creation with these will be lovely. I also admire the great socks you knit for your husband. Definitely he will LOVE this great gift. And how great autumn photos from your place, my friend. And your dog is adorable!!!!!!!! Give him a hug from me, OK? Kisses, my friend, and have a nice Sunday!

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  6. Beautiful shades of purple and autumn too. One of my favorite seasons. Wonder Dog looks tuckered out.

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