Happy Halloween!

 

Natural Dyeing

 From a Beautiful Mess, Experimenting with Natural Dyes, and well, they are dyeing linen, which I would love to try. 

Avocado Pits=light peachy pink on linen, light peach on silk, light blush on wool
Marigolds=light yellow on cotton and linen, olive green when used with iron
Turmeric=bright tangerine on linen, bright yellow when mixed with white vinegar
Yellow Onion Skins=warm orange on linen
Red Onion Skins=grayish purple on linen
Madder Root=bright rust on linen
Cochineal=bright cranberry on linen and silk
Hibiscus=a cool pink on linen

 
This book look like an interesting introduction to the process: Botanical Colour at you Fingertips.
 

This is from Kiliko.com 

Yellow 
chamomile - pale yellow birch leaves - pale yellow
goldenrod - sunny yellow
purple budleja - sunny yellow
marigolds - sunny yellow  

Green
marigolds - olive green with iron
birch leaves - olive green with iron
nettles - pale green, pale grey with iron
ferns - light green to red-pink  

Orange and pink
rhododendron leaves - pale orange (toxic)
willow leaves - orange-red
firethorn berries - orange-red
bracken fern
hibiscus flowers - orange-red to light blue-green 

Purple and Blue
mahonia berries - purple
elderberries - pale purple
oak galls - grey-purple with iron
ligustrum berries - blue (toxic)
black hollyhock - blue to grey

Brown and Grey
oak leaves - beige, grey with iron
acorns - brown-beige, grey with iron
alder cones - brown-beige, grey with iron
walnut leaves - deep brown
walnut skins - deep brown  

Kitchen waste
turmeric - yellow
pomegranate skins - yellow
onion skins - orange
avocado skins and pits - pink
black tea, coffee - beige-brown
rosemary - grey
sage - pale green
….and two lovely but very fugitive colors
red cabbage - purple
black beans - grey-blue 

Feast your eyes on these dye colors!

NatureColorsEU on Etsy. Dyers’ Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) over on Wild Colours, also lots of history on dye colors.

Lots of fun dyes on Hooked and Dyed, Hollyhock, carrot tops , mushrooms! Who knew!

I Believe that Climate Change is a Real Threat

 

Reposted from another blog...

Climate change is real

I Could Be Wrong always has something importand to impart. 

"I have an old 17’ powerboat that my wife and I take out to the Intracoastals a couple of times a week. Yesterday we were drifting in Tarpon Bay and I took a picture that I posted on Facebook saying that we need to work to preserve this. Every State has there treasures and our lakes, rivers and oceans have always been part of them. All my life I have lived near water and could not imagine life without them. I grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin right on the shores of Lake Michigan. On a clear day we could see some of the Chicago skyline form our shores. We had a sailboat and we enjoyed the lake as much as we could. Moving to Florida to be near the Gulf just seemed to make sense. I have been down here now for two years and it seems that the Red Tide and the Green Algae are still a problem. I read an editorial from an Orlando newspaper that stated that if you treat your state like a toilet you can’t be surprised when it backs up. We have a beautiful recourse here that we need to do more to preserve for our future generations. 

When I was a kid we did a lot of swimming in Lake Michigan. There was an area that we use to call the cove that was at the end of 68th street that we would go swimming there quite often. It was not really a cove, it was just an open area for the storm sewer run off could flow into the lake but we were kids so what did we know. Also there was the pumping station for the American Brass where they would pump water out of the lake to use in the fabrication of their copper products. Sometimes you could see the green discharge oozing up from behind the pumping station. When I was growing up the water quality of the lake was not monitored like it is now so we had no idea what we were swimming in. I always wonder how many sicknesses were caused by that water. The Great Lakes have come a long way in the last 60 years. One reason there was a comeback with Lake Michigan is because we started monitoring what we were dumping in the lake but the other thing was that the industry that was causing a lot of the pollution is just no longer there. It is good to not have the pollution but the loss of the jobs is really sad.

In many ways we have cleaned up our environment but, in many ways we are still lagging behind the rest of the world. We are still trying to save coal jobs that should never come back and we are still too dependent on oil, two of the largest polluters of today. They are also two of the industries that lobby the hardest against a green economy. Not pursuing a green economy is just making us fall farther behind the rest of the world. Those lobbies that are bribing our politicians don’t care about the future of our country and in some cases the future of our planet. They care about profit and the future of their corporation and many times it is a foreign corporation. Do you really think that a Saudi Prince or a Russian Oligarch care about the future of any of our grandchildren. They use your own hate against you so they can keep on making huge profits. The saddest part of all of this is that our own government knows that all this is true but too many of our own politicians are just getting to much money to help promote change. 

Climate change is real and it is not going to go away. It may actually be too late to reverse a lot of it. We can pray for rain out west to battle the drought conditions but we need to start preparing for that not happening. The solution, let’s start preparing to move people to places that have the water is to support the people and move the industry that will be needed. Science is not going to change what is happening out west. Science can only at this point help us prepare for what is going to happen and we need to start preparing for. At the least, we need to start talking about it. We need to get people to the areas that can sustain the population. I don’t mean that we have to abandon California but get it to the point where the water supply and the people can sustain themselves. The same with Vegas and many other parts of the west that are suffering the effects of climate change. 

These are really hard discussions that have to happen and with today’s political climate will not happen. We need to get the climate deniers out of Washington. We need to have election reform to get the bribery out of Washington. Those two things are holding us back and are making us lose our standing as a leader in the world. When it comes to climate change a strong military will not help us. A green economy is the economy of the future. We can either lead or we can follow. We use to be leaders."

Temps Dropping to 40 Tonight

 We are going from 60s for lows at night to 38 to 40 tonight.  Time to turn the heat on.  I'm ready for sweaters, and sweat pants, and soups and stews.  I'm ready for snuggling in watching college football games and reading books.  We had wind today, and the leaves were falling like rain.  Speaking of rain, we had a hard rain this morning, then it cleared and the afternoon was gorgeous.  Blue skies with fluffy clouds floating by.  And the moon tonight is so beautiful.  Won't be long until it's full.

The kittens are growing by leaps and bounds.  Marlee is no happier with them being here.  I try to give her extra attention, although these rampaging little dervishes are hard to ignore.  :D  

I ordered some Fall fabrics to make a table topper.  Maybe I will get a picture of them within the next few days, and I will share it if I do.

Have to go and have a nervous breakdown over this Tennessee v. Ole Miss ball game.