Mushroom Dyeing Results!

 The first part of this year's mushroom dyeing project is complete.  It is a complete success!  At least I am so happy about the results.

The quick story is that I put about 7 grams of wetted Lonk sheep fiber into the pot with the mushroom dye-bath and let it simmer for an hour then shut off the burner and let everything cool down overnight.  The gold-y orange color is beautiful.  Well, my husband doesn't like it but I do!

Since that worked so well I put four 7-8 gram pieces of Lonk fiber in a bowl with cold water with 10 percent alum dissolved in the water and let them soak 24 hours.  Some people say 24 hour, others say at least 4 days.  Well, I went with the 24 hours.

After rinsing the now pre-mordanted Lonk fiber, the fiber was put into the dye-bath and brought to a simmer where it sat for one hour.  Turned off and let cool down overnight.  This morning I pulled out the fiber and dried it off somewhat.  

This is the results:

The fiber on the left is the un-pre-mordanted-with-alum fiber; the one of the right is mordanted.  There is a difference.  The fiber with mordant is a brighter color.  I am so pleased!

So pleased that I went back out to the new fairy gardens on the lawn and picked a bag of white mushroom tops.  They are Agaricadeae mushrooms according to Picture This app. Since they are white I have no idea if they will do anything but I am going to put in a plain piece of fiber and a mordanted piece of fiber tomorrow, simmer one hour, then let cool.  I will let you know if we get different colors!

By the way...I believe the orange mushrooms are Suillacaeae.

Those Orange Mushrooms As Dye...

Today was a very busy day.  Those orange mushrooms in their own fairy garden that I showed you yesterday were calling to me.  I was so afraid the weather would change again and I would be unable to harvest them and turn them into dye....so after supper I went out with my stroller (to keep me upright!), a cardboard box, a 5 gallon paint strainer bag, and a pair of garden gloves that I put on before I picked even one mushroom.  

Since I do not know specifically if these mushrooms are safe to handle, I felt very strongly about not touching them.  When I got to the lawn I found that multiple mushrooms had already started molding and going by.  I did not collect them.  I will let them go back into the ground from which they sprang.

Even though these mushrooms are on our own lawn, I still did not harvest them all.  When I had about as many as I though I should collect, I went back into the house, emptied one of our dye pots--a nice stainless steel pot with a glass cover that is ONLY USED for dyeing, even though it is only natural dyestuffs I am currently using--and after cleaning the pot I filled it about 2/3 full of water then set the bag of mushrooms into the water and set the burner heat to medium low, covered the pot, then went to my wonderful VERY elderly blue platform rocker to do some knitting for a while.  (After about four rows I realized that I had forgotten that I was supposed to be decreasing every other round.  Rats!  So I took out those rows and decided to check the dye pot until I recovered my equanimity after that faux-pas...)

The wool fiber I used to put in the pot as a sample was 5.6 grams of Lonk Wool.  Yes, Lonk!  Look it up.  ("The Lonk is a British breed of domestic sheep. It belongs to the group of black-faced hill breeds of northern England.)". 

So I lifted the bag out of the water to see if there was any color.  About 30 minutes had passed so I was pleased to see a sort of dark brown-y orange liquid...SO I put the bit of Lonk fiber in the pot.  In another ten minutes or so I will turn off the heat and let the mushrooms and wool sit together overnight.  I look forward to morning!!

This is the pot with the paint strainer bag and in the top of the pot, that little non-bag hump-y looking thing  is the fiber.  I repeat: I look forward to the morning.

++++++++++++

On a totally other subject:  today I was serving with a friend in the FamilySearch Center.  I spent most of my time learning rather than forwarding our family history.  I started with the front page of The Family History Guide. There are a number of short videos that I watched then moved on to click on a link, then another, then another.  THERE IS SO MUCH THERE! (Actually thousands of articles and links, etc)  If you think you don't know enough about doing family history research, this is the website for you.  If you think you know all there is to know about doing family history work, this website is for you!  You are wrong!  There is so much more.  SO MUCH.

I won't tell you about what I learned because it is all still swirling around in my brain.  Suffice it to say that this website is a wonderful blessing to everyone who goes to it...from the rankest beginner, even if you have not even begun family history work...on up to the most certified credentialed researcher.  Later on this year I believe we will begin holding The Family History Guide workshops...not classes because no one can know all that is there.  We will work on family history together starting with projects and goals, and moving on one step at a time.

By the way:  The Family History Guide is not an app to download; it is a free website accessible via your own device.  The Family History Guide also allows you to work through the projects, goals etc with the focus you want.  Let's say you have an account at FamilySearch, a totally free global family tree website....you can focus your work and projects on FamilySearch.  Perhaps you have purchased an Ancestry.com account, or acquired a free account...you can focus your learning on Ancestry.  You can also focus on FindMyPast or MyHeritage.  So great!  I am so enthusiastic.  I was part of The Family History Guide many years ago when they first started (2015!) and even then I knew it was a good thing.

That is it for today!  Mushroom dyeing and The Family History Guide!  Two very different things but both a big part of this day.

Best wishes to all.

We Have Fairy Gardens!

 We have had rain almost every day for about two weeks.  We needed it and are happy for it...though I do have to say that today I left the house when it was cloudy and by the time I got to my destination more than 30 minutes away I had been through two very scary deluges!  I do not enjoy driving or riding in the rain. AT ALL!

This morning when we woke up I took these pictures of what I have heard described as Fairy Gardens.  They really are beautiful.

These mushrooms came up in two days and are just outside our garage.  I do love them.  I intended to harvest them for solar dyeing wool fiber to see what color we could get. BUT the day got ahead of me.  Hopefully tomorrow.

As you can see, these came up by the birdfeeder.  There are also some plants...probably sunflowers...that are growing up where seeds were dropped.  I think we will let them grow a bit before cutting them. 

These mushrooms are a different variety of mushrooms.  Last year or the year before I did some mushroom dyeing with orange-y mushrooms and got a lovely yellow fiber. I hope I can repeat that.  I just have to find the directions again!

My hope is that the mushrooms will still be in good shape tomorrow when I have time to harvest them and turn them into dye.  I picked some last week and almost immediately they turned into a horrifying moldy mess.  I hope I can help the basket recuperate!

Since I am mentally into solar dyeing I am hoping someone has a lot of weedy goldenrod they would like someone to take away.  I would do it!  I really love the beautiful yellow goldenrod produces.  You should try it yourself!

Two Sample Shawls Plus Unexpected Skin Surgery

 This weekend I added two sample shawls to my knitting basket.  Here they are:

The photo is not ideal but maybe you can enlarge it.

The brown shawl is sort of like the Outlander-Inspired Shawl for 18-Inch dolls.    I made a few small changes to suit me a little better.  The main change was that I slipped the first stitch purl-wise every row to get a nice chain-like edging.  Since I will use this as a sample, but also as a shawl for one of our Emotional Support Chickens, I knitted about 20 garter ridges then did the bottom eyelet edging, knitted one additional row then bound off loosely.  It came out okay.

The green shawl is also a sample for my friend to choose from when she chooses her shawl pattern.  This shawl is simply the increase rows of Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth then one row of eyelet stitches then binding off loosely.  It also is about 20 garter ridges and will be for another Emotional Support Chicken.  They need their shawls for their own emotional support!!  At least I like to think so...

This was a fun weekend evening project though it would probably have been better to spread out the knitting joy a little...

So about the unexpected skin surgery:  I spoke of it on The Country Wife From Vermont YouTube channel last week if you want to hear it "live"!  Here are the basic details: I went to the skin doctor for the annual "naked" appointment--my mother died of malignant melanoma which spread to her lungs and then to her brain, and since I have a ton of moles, I go every six months to be checked.  Once a year there is an ignominious full-body check.  Last week was the day.  I got there and was helped up onto the bench (I waited for help since good balance is no longer my middle name...) and he started the exam.  A minute or so into the exam he asked if there was anything  new or different.  Well, yes.  The day before my left ear was itchy so I scratched  it and found a smallish lump/bump which I scratched all day and into the day of the appointment.  He looked at it and said, "Huh!  Would you mind if we took that off?  It might be nothing, but it might be something."  Well, what would you do?!!  So I said go for it.  So he did.  

The wound is supposed to Vaselined and covered until it heals or until I hear from the office about the biopsy results.  Of course, you will know how well the bandage sticks to skin with Vaseline on it...so it is now healing in the open air.  If you are a medical person and think I should do something else, please let me know!  Many thanks.

So that is the newsy bits  front from the South today. I hope all is well with you and your family as you are reading this.

Lawn Renovation!

 There are a fair few empty bare spots on our lawn. I am not sure why though it might be because we don't water enough.  Maybe we drive over the lawn too often? I don't know BUT  several weeks ago I spoke with Chris at BC Mulch and More.  She told me how to fix the lawn when I asked.  This is her suggestion:

Dragon fly exploring the newly laid compost!

1.  Go to Southern States to get some Contractor Mix grass seed.

2.  Use a garden fork to aerate the bare spot.

3  Spread the compost I was purchasing from her over the aerated spot.

4.  Broadcast on the grass seed.

5.  Water several times a day until the seeds are established.

This seemed like an easy project.

Not so!

The first issue was that Southern States only had grass seed in fifty pound bags.  That would have been way overkill.  At least that is my thought.

Southern States was in process of opening bags on pallets from another location and they were going to have and open bag the next day...so I came back.

They did not have a bag open.  The nice boy at the desk suggested I call before coming so I could save my gasoline.  I agreed to that.

A week later I did go back to the store and they still had not opened a bag but did it on the spot and sold me two pounds of seed.

This is the bare spot on the lawn I decided to address first.

Now the real fun began.  As I was aerating the soil it seemed like just about every other poke into the ground hit a stone!  R-r-r-r!!  Well, I continued then spread the bucket of compost and aerated again.  Next I got the seed from the house and broadcast a good bit of it.  Finally I got the hose out and sprayed the  ground in good shape.  As I am writing this I am looking at the clock and need to go and water again.

Here is the lawn with the whole process completed...except for all the watering projects!

Let us all pray that the seed takes hold and the lawn improves.  If it does, there are more bare spots...