$35 Wool Madder Red Liberty or Death Cap?

On Sunday, I just finished knitting the second version of my Liberty or Death Cap. I love it. The lettering is much bigger and it didn't felt it too much. I knitted one on Saturday but I mistakenly felted it too much and it wouldn't even fit on my head, let alone try to stretch it to fit on a man's head.

I dyed the madder red wool yarn while we were at Bordentown 9-10 June 2007. The color is beautiful and the natural wool used on the lettering contrasts well.


I designed this hat to sell. With my labor and supplies, the cost would be $35. Would people be willing to pay $35 for a hand-dyed homemade Wool Madder Red Liberty or Death Cap?


I am weary about trying to sell the first on eBay as I never seem to get the money I want. I can't run a business without getting the cost of my labor and supplies. No matter how much I enjoy doing it.

Seven State Travel

My husband and I just returned from a whirlwind travel to see my husband's Mom in New York.

We started our trip with a 100-mile charity bike ride in Maryland. I took advantage of the trip to New York to travel a little out of our way to visit my girl friend in Cleveland, OH, and also to visit my sister in New York. We visited Saratoga Battlefield (really nice place and well groomed) and got to see the Benedict Arnold Monument (in which has only his boot and never lists his name - that will show him for being such a traitor). We finished it with a 18th century reenactment event at Bordentown, New Jersey.

(2007 Asthma Bike Century, Salisbury, Maryland) (Mike's Mom and Gwen)

(My sister, two of her boys, and my husband) (Gwen driving truck)
(Gwen at Saratoga)
(Gwen and I making lei's to give to everyone)

(Benedict Arnold Monument)

(Saratoga Battlefield)

(Bordentown, New Jersey)
(Dye Demonstration)
(Cochineal wool dyeing at Bordentown, NJ)
(Laundress demonstration at Bordentown, NJ)

Happy Birthday

Actually Happy Birthday to myself. Another year older. Oh well. I did take the day off of work which gave me a four-day weekend and allowed me to get a lot of stuff done.


First, I started and finished a basket made from Tibet recycled silk and wool yarn I purchased at the Golden Knitting Gallery while I was in Naples, Florida last Thanksgiving. I had designed this basket and cut all the yarn about two months ago and just haven't gotten around to starting it. I made it in the same way that a pine needle basket is made using groups of short lengths of yarn instead of pine needles. It's definitely different from what I usually make. Gwen seems totally bored by it and is instead picking her toenails.

We also got Gwen her new cage last week. It has been in the kitchen near her old cage. At first she treated the new stainless steel cage from the Bird Toy Outlet as though it was an alien space ship that had landed while she was away. But over the weekend, as we started moving her toys and perches over to it, she started to climb on it. I guess she figured it wasn't so bad. We really bribed her into the cage for the first time by giving her a rubber sandal to chew on which she couldn't resist. We then closed the cage door and left the house and went to Lowe's. We have completed moving everything over today so tonight will be her first night in the new cage. I know this time it will go better than last time we got her a new cage. Last time we instantly put up her new cage and that night forced her into it, covered her up and left the room. For the next 20 minutes all she did was scream. We knew though that if we went and got her out, she would think that all she had to do was scream and we would come running. So we let her scream. It was painful to hear her be in such agony and I felt so bad. This time I just know it is going to go better. We have left the house three times today and all three times she was in the new cage as though she has lived in it forever. I just know that tonight will go great.

I have also done some Logwood dying. The wool yarn and linen are still in the dye pots but the color is definitely a purple. I used an alum mordant on the wool and a tannic acid on the linen. I dumped the logwood right into the alum mordant then added the wool yarn. However, after soaking the linen, I dumped the tannic acid and rinsed the linen before adding it to the dye bath. The white linen was turned yellow by the tannic acid but it looks like it is going to be a nice red-purple.

Both materials are now in separate dye baths each containing 1/2 oz of logwood extract that I purchased from Claude Moore Colonial Farm during one of their Market Fairs. They charge only $7.00 an ounce for the extract. I will post pictures of the completed material when I get them out of the dye bath tomorrow or later this week. I am in no rush to get them out. I am hoping that one of those stupid squirrels in my back yard decide try to get a drink from the vats, falls in, and ends up taking a purple bath - that will show them. I will also know which of them did it - he will be purple - lol. Just kidding of course. Damn squirrels.

I just planted three tomato plants this weekend. Last year the squirrels ate every one of my tomatoes before I even had a chance to pick them. This year I think I am going to put a fence around them. I doubt that will work either but I am going to try. I tried the pepper spray on the tomatoes but that only slowed them downed - it didn't stop them from eating.

I am also working on Over-the-Knee Socks, a pattern from Handknit Holidays, Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice by Melanie Falick. I am finding the pattern for the cable really difficult to follow and I know that I am not doing them perfect. The burgundy baby alpaca yarn I am using is one that a friend gave me many years ago (7 or more years) either for Christmas or for a birthday from Aurora Yarns. It is so soft and fine. It is almost a cashmere.

My husband and I are doing a 100 mile bicycle ride next weekend (2 June 2007) for charity - the American Lung Association of Maryland. Neither of us have reached our goals so I guess we will have to start asking all of our friends and co-workers for money. I am close with only about $150 more to go to reach my $600 goal. My husband has about $400 to go.

Knitting is Art

Wow. My knitting has now been declared art by the City of Alexandria. I went to the artist reception tonight and got to take pictures of my knits hanging on the walls of City Hall. It was a very nice feeling to see my stuff right next to paintings, professional photography, and some other really great pieces. I can say though that artists are a strange bunch. I guess now that includes me. Oh no.

Below are pictures of my two pieces. The first is 18th Century-style knitting using hand dyed wool yarn. There's the Thomas Paine Mittens ("These are the times that try men's souls") made with Onion and Walnut, "Liberty or Death" cap using Madder Root, and my "No Search" stockings made with Indigo.

The second piece is my doll dress in 18th Century-style clothing. I made her to use as a demonstration model to show what small clothes (underclothes) and other clothing that they wore in the 18th Century. She is dressed from head to foot with knitted wool stockings, petticoat, apron, and even a set of linen pockets.

I also want to show my giant fern that I had brought back from Hawaii the last time. It is doing quite well and has another frond just coming up.

I also want to say that Gwen is now on You Tube. You can see her video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kOfqALCfNY. No, I don't let her eat that whole pile.

Finished Stocking Order

I have finally finished the stocking order from two weeks ago. Although I had problems with the indigo dye, the yarn knitted up beautifully.



Also, for the last week I have been busy making up two pieces to hang for a jurored exhibition: "Art in the City". Any art selected will hang in the Alexandria Virginia City Hall for the next six months.

I had to drop my two pieces off Saturday and then wait until Sunday at noon to find out if any of the two were selected. If they hadn't been selected, I would have had to go back and pick them up.

I called at 1230 and found out that they accepted both my pieces. They are having an artist open house on the 23rd. I will take pictures of the two of them and where they are being displayed. I am so excited.

Socks and Indigo

I have been trying to finish a sock order that I got last week: 2 pairs of natural, 2 pairs of Cochineal and one pair of Indigo. I dyed the Cochineal wool yarn last weekend.

Today I finished knitting them. Now they are wet and on the sock stretchers.

Now I just have the one pair Indigo to go. I put on a dye pot of Indigo last weekend. I thought it was ready to go on Saturday and tried to dye a pound of wool yarn. Everything looked like it was going well until the rinse after the dyeing. Almost all of the Indigo washed out.



I can't use that yarn for the socks - it is just too light. Not a good quality bath at all. I know I'll end up redyeing the wool.

So, I put more Indigo in the dye bath, added more lye water, and we'll let it set a few more days to see how it does. After only one Indigo bath previously, I am certainly not an expert and I guess I should expect some batches that don't go well.

A Dye Weekend

I did a cochineal dye bath this weekend as well as start an indigo vat and knitted two pair of socks. So, I feel like I got a lot of stuff done. I didn't get my taxes done though despite it being on the top of my to-do-list (I have only a couple of more weeks to get them done). Dyeing and knitting is always better than taxes right?

The cochineal recipe that I used uses 1/3 less bugs than the last recipe that I used. That will certainly save me money. The color turned out just as strong. However, this dye bath was a lipstick red rather than a scarlet as last time. But the color was so beautiful, I didn't want to mess around with it and possibly ruin it.


After dyeing a pound of wool yard, I then put in a pair of socks that I had knitted this weekend as well. The second dye bath turned them a wonderful rose color. I bet I could have dyed a few more articles and they would have come out a wonderful pink. I put a small batch of indigo dyed wool into the second dye bath and it came out a strange mauve color. I say strange only because it didn't dye evenly. I am going to try to sell the rose colored socks on eBay.

Linen Sock, 18th Century Touque Pattern, and Madder Red

We had a new visitor to our bird feeder. He's the middle one in the photo. We had to get out the bird book to find out what it was - a fox sparrow. It is bigger than a house sparrow with a lovely dark brown color, blue feathers on the head, and a lovely stripe pattern on the chest. I had never heard of one or seen one in my entire life. My bird feeder this year has certainly brought some new visitors.

I finished the 18th century toque pattern last week and knit up a sample in a dark red wool. My intention is to take this pattern, knit it up in hand-dye madder red, add in "Liberty or Death" in natural wool, and sell a couple. Mike loves his and he says he gets comments about it all the time.



So, now that I had the pattern, I just had to dye up some madder red wool. I started on Thursday night with a Tin and Cream of Tarter mordant bath for one pound of wool yarn. I also ground up the madder root (from Pakistan that I purchased from Aurora Silk) in the blender, added water, brought it up to about 180 degrees and then turned it off for the night. Friday evening I blended the madder again in the blender then put it in a dye bag made out of linen (I make my own by making a large tube, sewing up the sides with a small machine stitch, and then tying off the top). The wool then went in Friday night around 160 degrees for 90 minutes. I then let the yarn soak in the dye bath until Sunday afternoon. It is a beautiful red - not too orangey. But I am still partial to the cochineal red. But, the colonies just wouldn't have had a large access to cochineal and their reds would have been closer to Turkey Red or Madder Red, both of which come from Madder Root.


Saturday, I knit up a linen sock with 7/5 natural linen I purchased from R&M Yarns. The yarn smelled just like a fresh hay bale and brought back memories of haying in the summer in Northeast Ohio. Anyway, back to the yarn and the sock. I am finding linen hard to knit on the machine mainly because it is hard to weigh down enough for the needles to pass easily up and down. I believe next time that I will be trying the 7/2 linen thinking that it will be easier to weigh down. I ended up moving the stitch size up to 6 which made the sock much bigger than I wanted. But I am going to use this knitted sock to do some experiments. I have already washed it in the machine in hot water and it has shrunken and turned a lovely gray color. I am letting it dry on the sock stretcher and we will have to see if it will fit me after it is completely dry.

I also finished up a dye display that I had been working on to use at our 1st Virginia Regiment functions with the public. I believe that I will be able to open this up and lay out for the public to look and touch.

Hampton Virginia Quilt Show

I went to the Hampton Virginia Quilt Show last weekend. There was so much to see (and buy). My favorite quilt was really a wall hanging - a quilt made to look like a Crayola Crayon box. Very original and very nicely done.



I purchased some linen yarn at the show - bright red - and knit a pair of stockings. I definitely had the wrong weight of yarn. I have never worked with linen before and found that even though a wool of this weight (sport) would have gone through my machine easily, the linen didn't. The biggest problem was the fact that it didn't seem to care how much weight I attached, it just wouldn't hang sufficiently to let the needles work properly. I will definitely do more of these however. The stockings are beautiful and I know will only get softer with each washing. The color is striking and the sheen of the yarn is fabulous. I have ordered a lighter weight linen to try in the future.



The last picture is of the Giant Fern and Ti plant that I brought back from Hawaii. I brought the fern back last trip and it is really taking off. I know it will look terrific once the fronds unfurl. It is already 20" high.

Stockings with Back Cabling

Sunday, I played around with putting a cable pattern at the back of a pair of stockings. I spent most of the day trying to find a pattern that worked AND looked nice. I had one that looked nice but was nearly impossible to get right and it was easy to drop a stitch - which would leave giant holes in the stockings that were nearly impossible to fix.


I settled on a simple 10 row 4-stitch cable pattern. I used 7 ounces (188 grams) of the cochineal yarn to make the final pair. I wore them today at the George Washington Birthday Parade in Alexandria, Virginia dressed as a 1st Virginia Regiment camp-follower.


I am also posting pictures of the light blue stockings that I made last weekend. I made flat knitted fabric and then cut out the stockings and sewed them together. I used a pattern and the socks seemed a little big. So, I felted them a little. Now they are tight and they have lost their knitted stretch.

Hopefully you can see the way that they were sewn together in the photo. The fit of them, even when they were big, come no where close to the fit of my fitted socks. It was nice to try to make a period sock using fabric but I can't see me wearing them. The seam on the bottom of the heal is too distracting.