rubykittyruby

I had a go at eco printing, though I didn't use a mordant - like alum - so the leaves I included in my dye pot didn't transfer on to the white cotton as I'd hoped they would.  I'll know for next time.  (It would've helped if I'd bothered to educate myself on the process before I started, but that would've been too sensible, wouldn't it?)  However, I still got some interesting results with red and brown onion skins, tea leaves, blackberries, bits of rusty metal and string!   I've a slow stitching project in mind for some of these pieces, and I'll definitely have another go at natural dyeing.  I'm hoping to go to the Harrogate Knitting & Stitching show and I know there'll be plenty of other craft stalls there, so maybe one will be selling dyes, mordants etc.   In other 'news', I gave up on 'The Lost Apothecary' as it wasn't well written enough to maintain my interest and life's too short to soldier on with a medi...

  I spent the morning cleaning, then stitching, so a long walk was called for.  A circuit of about an hour's brisk walking around my favourite haunt, the local RSPB reserve.   There were plenty of twitchers about, as well as people just enjoying a stroll, dodging the muddy puddles and the occasional cyclists and horseriders.   Back home I'm getting stuck into a Kate Atkinson novel.  I'm only a few chapters in, but it's already a terrific read and I'm loving the notorious Nellie Coker.  The book's called 'Shrines of Gaiety' and is set in 1926, a world of dancing girls and seemingly glamorous nightclubs, but also of a seedy criminal underworld and people traumatised by the impact of the so-called Great War.   The other thing I've done today is start experimenting with eco-printing.  I've seen various crafty types on YouTube produce lovely looking eco-printed material, so it was about time I tried the technique out.  Not 100% sure...