#sock wool

Merino silk blend from a local dyer, getting close to halfway I think :)

So I want to make a pair of socks for every month next year, and am currently collecting hand-dyed yarns from small, UK based creators. These are the ones I have that have not yet been wound into cakes and they are all so pretty and soft!

I'm still waiting on one that's still to be dyed and dispatched called Unicorn Farts (looks as good as it sounds) to take the number up to 12.

Skeins as they were drying and I was already so excited about how they were turning out

In autumn, I took myself picking in the definitely haunted abandoned orchid behind the railway, between the housing estate and the wetlands. There were signs of at least one person living in the bushes there, and I hoped that I wasn't about to surprise anyone/make them feel uncomfortable. I helped myself to blackberries, and stripped the wild growing fennel of all the feathery leaves I could find. (Fennel is invasive in my part of the world.) The plants in the orchid were tall after a wet summer, going to seed. In the way of annuals going to seed, there weren't many leaves left, but plenty for my first experiment with fennel.

Pictured: my dear friend with a giant fennel plant. This friend first showed me the abandoned orchid.

I try to do 1:1 leaves to weight of fibre in all my dye baths, but I'm not precise about it.

The dyebath of fennel leaves I heated and let cool over several days. The smell was the most potion of potions I have ever. Aniseed but turned up to 11.

I mordanted my fibre with alum before adding it to the dyebath

After heating and cooling to extract the colour, I strained out the leaves and added the alum mordanted fibre. Gently heated and held at 80c for as long as I could be bothered (an hour). (Note to self for next time: try flowers as well as leaves.)

Modified with iron water - warm water and {iron water preparation} left in bucket for 1 hour. This shifts the tone from a yellowish green down to a forest green <3

NEVA YARN Set 6x50g 100% Wool Pure Natural Sock YARN. Great Kit for hand knitting pullovers, jumpers, tunics, jackets. Made in Russia

Current WIP - Birthday socks for my granddad.

Some sample alpaca, and alpaca/merino bobbins to test jumper wool.