Thursday, March 25, 2010

Into The Blue

I forgot that I was going to mention that Henri Lambert, the Woad Master, passed away recently. It was only back in October last that I got the once-in-a-lifetime chance to take a workshop with him and his wife Denise.

Henri and Denise

He was a gentle, precise, funny, kind and generous person and he gave a huge gift to the world of natural dyers by reviving the Art of Woad. It seems at least that Denise is determined to continue without his presence. I wish her all the best. There’s a blog post here from Maiwa.

And speaking of woad, my last year’s plants are bolting and my baby seedlings are getting their second leaves. I need to take a shovel to the old ones but I’m delaying as I debate whether or not to try getting any blue from them first. It seems such a shame to waste it all in the compost. But everyone always says that there’s no blue to speak of in second-year leaves. It’s a great deal of work if the outcome is going to be zip. In the meantime, the darn things are shooting up. Probably losing any blue they had while I was arguing with myself. Silly me.

Instead I’ve been obsessing about my new project, the Pebbles Baby Cardi for my nephew and his wife’s impending first child. I finally rummaged around enough in the stash to locate 2 –50g balls of Regia sock yarn in one of the Kaffe Fasset colourways. It looks like multicoloured granite or beach pebbles in subdued beige-pastels. I used my new Knitware software to design a top-down circular cardi in a 6-months size. This kid is going to be born in July so I don’t want him/her to grow out of it before they get a chance to wear it! I’m just to the underarms now but haven’t had a chance to photograph it yet. It’s raining today and too dark to get a good colour likeness. This yarn is tricksy! Trust me – it’s turning out really cute. Baby things are so popular because they are such instant gratification.

Meanwhile I’m supposed to be gathering up my stuff for the demo at Fibres West tomorrow. I’m bringing my Victoria spinning wheel, spindles, fibre and some sample yarns and handspun items. But I can’t stop knitting…

A big thank you to all those who replied that they can see my blog just fine. I’m glad it hasn’t disappeared and that the general consensus is the changes are good ones!  Whew.

2 comments:

Heather said...

Hope you had fun at Fibres West. I would have liked to go but ended up in Victoria instead, where I succumbed to the Habu display at Knotty by Nature.

Louisa said...

Yum! Habu imports the most deliciously different yarns! I was sorry that I didn't have a chance to visit Knotty By Nature during my last whirlwind trip to Victoria. Next time for sure!