Centering with Making

I've got to admit, I've had trouble lately with my making.
For about 20 years I've had an insatiable thirst to keep going.
I never tired of it. I never hit a road block. I never got bored.
Not in 20 years.

However, 

As my life continues to take on new shapes with raising a child, my energies of course have needed to shift. 

I've felt it most heavily. And I've been troubled by it.
I'm trying to go easy on myself as I realize my brain needs to hold space for an actual growing human, not just my creative ideas.

So as I've shifted towards allowing myself to evolve so I can do both,
I find myself here.

Mending and stitching tiny pieces of preciously plant dyed bits of fabric to larger bits of fabric.
Just so I can see the true and natural highlights of each and every test.
Both successes and failures.
The stunning magentas of my carefully attended fermented lichen solutions
and the oh  so  boring  beiges of
pine needles, ferns, petals, avocado pits, twigs, leaves..... this list could go on forever.

You see, it's not that THAT is all you get with pine cones, pine needles and various petals and leaves- just beige.
It just means that that is one way to get beige.
Weak baths, too high heat, not enough heat. Not enough time soaking. Not enough plant material. Fiber not mordanted properly. And again, this list could go on forever.

My one regret in life (ok, I have a few) is that I know I can't live long enough to test every single plant IN MY AREA ALONE with all the fiber and mordant and techniques that I ALONE know of.
And there is SO MUCH I don't know.

But it is and will be my life's work anyway.

Ok, onto what I worked on last week.
Which I admit is a little odd. Maybe will be seen as a snooze fest, but I friggin' loved it and it brought me so much needed

P   E   A   C   E

Last week while cleaning out my fiber studio, really because it was the New Year and it was the only thing that felt comforting, because I was experiencing this creative desert,

a new idea sparked.

I have a huge closet that I can stand in and it's actually one of my favorite places in our whole house. It's where I keep all sorts of things including my fleece stash.
I pulled out this pitiful bag of fabric scraps that I thought I would part with and just end the misery of being annoyed by their existence and then feeling like I certainly couldn't part with the lichen magenta or orange mushroom dyed silks.

Then I visualized this:

various "failure" plant dyes on silk

Then this:

various lichen dyes on silk

Then I started to visualize A LOT of them.

Either hanging close together to form a quilt image. 

Or actually sewing them together to form a quilt to hang. 

These bottom two, I started first. With the top one being random pieces I pulled from my basket. 

The bottom piece being all mushroom dyes. 

               

Working on this through the week, was SO rewarding.

It's the kind of project I can get lost in. 

That, "I can get through anything because I am working on this project" kind of project. 

I can take it with me on the boat, do during nap time, and really anytime if I have a few minutes, which... I'm laughing, I don't really ever have a "few minutes" to so anything like this. 

I have a TON more to do and it will take quite a while. 

And that's just the silks alone.
I also have a pile of cotton and a pile of linen.

Now aside from the satisfaction it gives me to work with color I helped to facilitate to transfer to the cloth, I also get this other kind of sparkly satisfaction that I'm doing something with not just the pieces I have used in my own testings in my home studio, but also those in one of my last classes where it was very clear how annoyed my students were at just dealing with these pieces. I took their unwanted pieces and added them to my pile. 

A question I am often asked, which also turns into a statement:

"You can't get a very interesting range of color from plant dyes. Can you?" You sure can. 

"Well, they always fade." They can fade if alum is not used correctly. Otherwise, no they do not fade. 

"All you get are yellows and browns." Referring to our Maine pallet. Not me personally. And, let me show you this magenta...

"Oh it's so much work." So true. 

"Using plant dyes are so toxic." Well... if you use tin and chrome (for example) as a mordant and DO NOT TAKE EXTREME CARE, yes those are very toxic. But when using alum, or working with lichens which need no mordants, and you take regular common sense measures of ventilation, 

no, using plant dyes are not toxic. 

I'm so excited to continue this long project and it reminds me more of the whole work I do. 

I hope to at some point have this shown in a space that can further educate Mainers on the color that can be unlocked from our endearing landscape. 

New Shop Items, Baby Socks, and a Fiber Column

I've just have too many thoughts swimming around up here to get organized properly.
Or at least like I used to. 

Days of spending endless hours creating and writing are over. 

Or at least on hold, for a long while. 

But that's ok. I've got a human to raise and cuddle and love and just be with. 

Motherhood is a crazy time warp spent swimming through diapers, cuddles, and every emotion. 

And being a new mom whose life has been spent creating has its special challenages and highlights. 

My good friend, Casey recently told me about the podcast On Being with Krista Tippet. In particular this episode with Ann Hamilton. I loved the last question of the interview about balancing motherhood and creating. 

I had had a particular crappy week with teething issues with our 5 month old. 

The concept of balance has always eluded me. 

That is until however I heard the Ann's answer. 

I then started to feel differently. 

Thoughts mainly consisting of:

Nothing is written stone.

Lower my expectations for myself and for my baby's routine.

Sink in deeper and cuddle more.

Put off that project if it's not working. Let it breath, think about it, come back to it. 

The response Ann had to how she keeps her balance invloves looking at everything, from her art work, to making soup for her sick child, to whatever needs to come next- as all one big project. 

What I took away from it was

L E T  A L L  O F  I T  B E  YOUR  W O R K 

the laundry

the meals

the playing

the relaxing

the creating

And for me the word work isn't a negative one. But rather filled with privilege, meditation, graditude, hope, shelter, color, nourishment, entertainment, therapy. 

This past week, my heart has felt new aches for the world that it hasn't felt in a very long time. 

I've been reminded to be thankful all over again for the rhythm we've created in our family, the environment we live in and to remember to look up at strangers to smile, say hello, or even give a compliment. To just slow down and notice. 

So, to let all of it, my work, to be part of one project that is never ending. 

Doesn't it make sense? Because laundry and meals and general care of our selves and our child is not suppose to have an end. Neither should our creating. Or interacting with one another. 

I used to think I needed (and sometimes I still do) so much clear head space to get settled into a creating rhythm. But I also realized that part of my creating rhythm needs to include prepping and cleaning materials and making lists or steps and documenting- it's really endless what needs to go into creating. 

All this has come about for me with the approach of winter. I've been remembering that at the beginning of last year, I was writing and creating a dye tutorial once a week or this space to share. I miss my dyeing desperately and hope to get to it when I can. But in the mean time, I'd like get back to my once a week posting and share whatever I've been working on for the week. When I decided to do this, I was reminded that Damn! I make a lot! Despite the broken hours and stranded projects and misplaced ideas I have at 4am. I'm still creating!

For my shop, new Holiday themed project bags. I love making these so much. 

I am a fat quarters hound. I visit a fabric store and I immediately start looking for stacks of fat quarters. I found these sweeties at Z Fabrics in Portland, Maine. I've also been taking a weekly sewing class there working on garments. I love it so so much. I've completed 2 so far that I'll share later.

I often have several knitting projects on the needles and I love keeping them tidy and clean and in a to go mode. I never know what I'll want to work on while on the boat and on car trips. 

Sewing up fat quarters and adding a simple ribbon or lace at the top to create a simple size bag and an easy to open and close bag. 

I couldn't resist these prints. And I really enjoy adding to my project bag collection every season. 

My little one has been growing faster than I can blink- as babies do. He's just over 5 months now and growing out of his soft stretchy new born Old Navy socks. Though I can't believe how long they've lasted. Babies grow in funny ways. Our guy has been growing long and fast but it wasn't until last month or so that he started growing out ward much faster than before. 

I've had a few balls of my hand spun Irish Texel and fermented lichen dyed yarn hanging out in my stash for a while now from experiments I did here last year. You can also read about my whole process for lichen dyes there. 

For this little sock pattern that I improvised, for the starting point I used the pattern from a book in my home library, Last Minute Knitted Gifts, Angora Baby Booties. 

I've made countless pairs of these booties and they are so much fun to make. I tried the base of this pattern with my thick and chunky handspun. The only adjustment I made was continuing to knit up the leg and adding a few rows of rib stitch. I tried to make my bind off nice and loose and stretchy but it didn't happen. Resulting in making it kind of hard to get the socks on his chubby feet. I found instead it worked to fold over the rib edge and get them on that way! He wears them that way too. And usually stay on for a quite a while. 

My latest endevor involves venturing more into my home state of Maine exploring and sharing Maine's fiber happenings through a new media outlet known as Northern Journeys Magazine. A quartley publication that was created by Jason Thomas nearly 20 years ago in Idaho. You can read more about it on their website. I will be a contributing columnist for each edition for the 

Your Maine Fiber Connection.

In the first edition, I share my own fiber journey. The online edition will be live soon. 

I somehow was able to complete this post around a feeding and getting a pumpkin in the oven and feeding myself!

Me & My Knitting

Just a quicky to say hi and share where I've been at with my fiber. 

I may have mentioned that I've come to a decision about my 

knitting 

& 

etsy.

I'm not going to do a ton of knitting for my etsy shop for at least 

a long while.

My plant dyed 

hand spun

yarns are doing really well

and take almost, if not more time to produce

so I'm going to be putting more energy into that

and more energy into knitting for my growing family- including my growing self.

So, with that said, 

here's what I've been working on;

AAAHHHHHHH!!!!

isn't it the cutest thing ever?!?!

I just loved knitting this little romper. 

I used wool that I bought while on honeymoon in Ireland 2 years.

The town of Dingle is adorable and though it will be a few years till we can go back, 

I can't wait. 

The pattern I used is by Carina Spencer and is called Small Things Romper. It can be found on ravelry. 

I'm 24 weeks now and just finished knitting and blocking this past weekend.

It's been a really long time since I had such a connection with something I was knitting. 

I've been needing that feeling for a long time. 

I thought it was gone.

While knitting it I was able to think about the wool and where it came from-

off the backs of sheep all over Ireland, deing dyed in Donegal, it's Donegal wool- I'm not sure though, if they do their dyeing in house or in England or Germany, but in any case, it's what I thought about.

I thought about our honeymoon there and all the adventures we had- mostly sitting in pubs drinkng tea and going for walks. 

I thought about the baby boy in my belly and his increasing wiggles and what he might look like wearign this sweet romper- and how long he'd be able to wear it! 

I may knit 1 or 2 more a I have the same yarn in green and purple. 

I then got to re-working this 9 year old sweater that I made with Maine wool. 

The pattern is from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book.

I first washed the fleece,

stuffed it in large glass containers with the Pumpkin colorway from country classics dye 

and let it do it's dye thing in the sun for 3 days.

I spun the wool and knitted this up following the pattern exactly- and not all my measurements. 

It's turned out that I don't like hiking up long bell sleeves and pulled at the waist. 

So, I frogged sleeve hems and waist hem, shortening the sleeves by 6" each and adding that rest of that yarn to the bottom. 

I'm almost finished. 

Though I don't use this dye any more, I adore this color and yarn and have been 

loving this methodical heavy knitting every evening. 

I'm noticing more and more with my pregnancy that I'm enjoying the slow process- or just making everything slower, the process of just doing things. I'm not really in a hurry as my body is slowing way down. My level of calm has been developing:)

Here's two extra tidbits;

these yarns {may} appear in the shop- 

haven't decided yet.

Just a collection of what has been sitting in my spinning basket. 

I don;t know about you, but I do love to clean house and use things up after a certain point. 

The brown is: natural Maine Icelandic.

The blue is: Navajo spun Maine mohair dyed with indigo

The magenta is: 1oz, first bath of Umbilicaria lichen fermented liquor.

The lighter pink is the 2nd bath of this lichen. 

The last two are a combo of evernia, xanthoria, and a curly green lichen I never identified, all spun together. 

All dyed in the batt form first and then I lost track of what every thing was so I spun it all up! These last three I'm not sure yet where they will end up...

Remember my last post of Operation Wool? This is another finished finished fleece, Maine Icelandic from Pondview Farm in Limington. 

It will get dyed this spring when it warms up enough. 

I cannot wait!

I go to bed at night planningout my outdoor dye space.

We'll set up the canopy,

bring out the enamal table, 

set up the pots,

etc...

This will be the first year I've worked my yarn creating into such a fine tuned mass production.

Well "mass" for me. 

Whether your a handspinner or not, you should know, it's kind of a big deal to knock out about a dozen spun fleeces in a one year. 

Dyeing with 4 Lichens from 3 Corners of the World.

So I've been enjoying some nice down time here on Peaks.
I'm now in my 2nd trimester and my energy is perking back up.
Beginning around Halloween I was feeling pretty tuckered out as I was balancing this new life form growing inside me and just in general wrapping my brain around our lives changing forever.

Between the holidays, my time has been spent researching baby things, doctor appointments, times with family, snuggling on the sofa all day watching endless series of whatever felt nice and interesting. I blow through tv way more than is good for me. Holding my small chicken a whole lot more and just standing in my painting studio soaking up the energy in there and day dreaming about what I'll paint when I get around to it.

As Christmas neared I started to plan on taking January and Feburary off from cranking out the knitted and sewn goods. Or really any major shop planning things. I just needed a break from not thinking about creating for the shop. And it's been really good.
I still got the dye urges and one day a few weeks ago as I was cleaning out the fridge trying again to find that weird smell, I found two things that I over looked last time.

A red cabbage.

And a bag of tiny skiny purple carrots.
From September......

I had also been hankering to dye up my fermented lichen jars of reds and purples.

That is what I'm going to begin with here, the lichen dyes.

The next two posts will be about the carrots and cabbage, but seperately.

This is my 3rd post on lichen dyes and you can find the others in my archives.

Lichens.

I heart lichens
So
Very
Much.

I revisted my wonderful and so so informative book by Karen Cassleman, Lichen Dyes, A new Source Book. 
I've had it about a year or more and found a few pages where I had made all these notes on with my pencil. It occured to me that the first time I experimented with my fermented lichen dyes I kind of winged it, even though I had read what she said to do.  Also I was working with tiny amounts of fiber.

This time though, I did exactly as she said.
Started with 1oz of washed fiber : 1cup of dye liquor : 4 cups water.
From there I repeated the fiber amount in the afterbaths until the color was absorbed.

I had a different lichen in each jar.
The 1st being what I was pretty sure was
Evernia prunastri
that I collected from my mother in law's yard.
Which by the way is a lichen paradise.
 Let me see if I can pull up a picture.

I mean, come on. How can you not fall in love with this weird and strange organism?
Just
So
Beautiful.

Ok, two pictures. They live in the Sierra Foothills, California 

and going there in Feburary is such a treat. 

I also collected from the same spot a dark curly green lichen. Which may be what was in this last picture. 

A had a 3rd jar of Xanthoria parietina that I had collected from Inis Meáin, the middle of the Aran Island off the west coast of Ireland during our honeymoon in 2013. I finally used the last of that jar. 

sniff... sniff....

The 4th jar was of Umbilicaria mammulata I collected at Squam Lake in New Hampshire while teaching at the September Taproot/Squam. 

Meeting Stephanie Pearl McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot was pivotal in my lichen dyeing adventures because she confirmed for me that indeed Umbilicaria does resemble black potato chips. After she said that I knew I had seen it before. But I realized I didn't know what I was more excited and overwhelmed with. The fact that I just had a conversation with Stephanie Pearl McPhee. Or that she cracked my lichen mystery. 

Both I'm sure. 

Then on the last day of Squam before I headed home, I took another foraging walk around and there by the lake behind the big house, on a rock was a wonderful smattering of Umbilicaria mammulata and another Umbilicaria with the common name, toad skin lichen. Growing side by side. I collected a small amount and begun the soaking as soon I got home. 

On this day of dyeing, I was excited to get some dyeing done.
But to also just use up what I had.


Lichen fermentation is super exciting and everything
but we need not foget about the dyeing bit.





The Umbilicaria is the only one that really held the deep color in the first bath.
The others, turned out to be a very soft pink or purle.

I did wonder if it was because I was using loose wool opposed to yarn or fabric.
Which I think, saturates better... Not a fact, just in my experience so far.



I was super impressed with the first dye bath of Umbilicaria which is on the left. A bright magenta.
I think I did 2 after baths with an once of washed wool in each pot.
In a few of them, I added more dye liquor which made me feel like I was cheating but, I wanted some color to be drawn out.
It was fine.

The mystery lichen, 3rd from the left came out kind of impressive.



Going across the picture here, the fluffy batts are my carded lichen samples, 1 oz each.
1st baths starting on the far left and going up.

(below the batts are my cabbage experiments which I will post about later.


Here is my jar of leftover Xanthoria from the Aran Island.
After I poured off all the dye liquor, I just couldn't face dumping the lichens.
I mean, they came from such an ancient place and ancient spot.
So I filled it back up with more ammonia and water just to see what would happen.
This is it after just a few minutes.
I'll wait a few weeks and try it again.
When using something like lichens for dyes, I think it is so important to use up every last drop.

In the mean time, I've acquired a few lichen tools. 

A microscope

another lichen book

little jars for collecting and testing lichens in the field for dyeing

dissection tools

and the cutest red tiny filing cabinet from Ikea that will soon house my new lichen herbarium. 

Now I've just got to get organized. 

If you have any questions about lichen dyeing, leave me a comment and I'll do my best to answer you. 

I have taught a lichen dyeing course once at the Maine Fiber Frolic last summer. 

Lichen dyeing is a tricky course to teach, for me, because I want to fit so much information into a course and it all really needs time. 

I'm still on the fence if I'm going to teach one from my home studio this spring. 

I need to think about how I want to structure it because most likely, I need to be the one to prepare and ferment the lichens and even then it will be dyeing of little samples. 

So if there is something really specific or an area in lichen dyeing you'd like to learn in the form of a course, do let me know. 

A Lichen Update; playing with photooxidation

{i just love the definition for photooxidation: Oxidation under the influence of radiant energy (as) light}

I've got quite a few (12) lichen jars going.

I check on them daily and give them a good shake when I remember. 

They are my babies.

Collecting just the right kind of lichens that will produce bright and bold colors has been a tricky and fasinating road for me. 

Foraging from Califonia to Ireland has been a wonderful journey for me into the world of lichens. 

Here are tiny samples I set up to see if any would ferment into colorful dyes. 

5 minutes after set up. 

{pretend your looking at a 2nd picture} 

after a few weeks, the middle lichen jar has turned a deep red. 

Today I used my jar from July 7th 2013 of about a tablespoon of Xanthoria that I collected from a granite stone on the Eastern Promenade.

It fermented it with 1 part ammonia to 2 parts water for 8 months before today. 

Of course it seems like a very long time. But once a lichen jar is set up, I just go on living my life (as I check it evey day for fun). 

I started with only 1/2 cup liquid lichen dye and added 6 cups water which was enough to cover the yarn. I let it cook away for awhile. I did neglet the pot for a little bit and it was boiling when I checked on it but everything was fine. The yarn is still as soft as can be. 

It did take quite a while longer for the color to really sink into the fiber. 

I babied it though and let it do its thing.

Some natural/plant dyes only need about an hour or so to let the color absorb. 

But sometimes, a plant needs a bit longer to reach its full potential. 

And I think it's important not to rush this process. 

{if you haven't heard yet about this lichen and the crazy it does~ here's why this lichen is special}

Xanthoria lichen has a special UV type of sunscreen acid inside. It's like something protecting it from its self- or something like that. 

So- when this dye is exposed to sunlight, the color goes from pinky to purply to blue grey. 

At the end of the day, I hung the yarn over the pot and let it dry over night.

I was surprised to see these purple splotches beacuse it wasn't drying outside where the UV rays were hitting it. However- it only had a few of these spots all the rest was pink. 

{the green yarn is from the carror tops I was doing at the same time in the next pot. I just like these colors together. Don't you?!} 

This is the yarn before I took it outside.

It was almost dry with only a few purply blue spots. 

I then tried another experiment and put it back in the pot just to get it wet.

Then i brought it outside to dry in the sun. 

Sure enough, pink to purple to blue. 

This process here, of the first pink color changing to purple and blue is called

photo-oxidizing. 

I included a link here but it's more interesting than it is directly related to this lichen. As I find it in my notes again, I'll add it another time. 

I also dyed a vintage silk hankerchief avaible in my shop!

in these pictures, it shows, the lichen, dye, and items dyes:)

And I had a little helper with the lighting. 

This summer, in June, I'll be attending a week long lichen ecology study at the Eagel Hill Institute in Stuben Maine. 

I really look forward to learning more about lichens so I can apply appropriate standards for collecting. 

I will also be teaching a really fun and informative workshop focusing on lichen collecting principles, and how to set up your jars- here at the Maine Fiber Frolic. 

You can sign up for my workshop Lichen Magic through their website. 

I'm also teaching two other plant dye workshops at the Frolic; 

Foraging for Color

and

Rainbows in my Dye Pot.

If you've dyed with lichens or have been curious where to start, I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

ox, Rachel

A Story of 3 Lichens; a tutorial in lichen dye experimentation

“I find myself inspecting little granules as it were on the bark of trees little shields or apothecia springing from a thallus such is the mood of my mind and I call it studying…"
~ Thoreau

I’m not sure when I first fell in love with lichens. Not just an appreciation for these tiny leafy growths, but a deep curiosity that has lead me down a path of reverence for what lichens are, how they grow, how they contribute to our planet, and the secrets they hold inside their thin layers. Through this investigative process of finding the pinks, reds and purple that some lichens hold, it has been an adventure like no other. 

One day in my studio apartment where I lived in Portland's East End, I had a small bag of branches I found with leafy lichens attached. I took the lichen off the branch, popped them into my vintage crock pot, and covered with water. I turned it on high and let it cook away for over two hours. The smell was like the best woodsy smell I remembered from my childhood springs. The color was that of root beer. I strained out the lichens and saved the bath. I slipped in some pre-wetted wool and let it cook away some more. The resulting color was a lovely soft brown, like a nuthatch. And the smell… smelled like a man who spent his days chopping wood in the forest. He probably wore a red and black wool plaid shirt and a soft leather brown belt. A very powerful musk that had me daydreaming — I was single at the time. I dubbed this smell The Woodsy Man Smell. Socks I knitted with that wool dyed lichen, three years ago and through many washes, still have this smell. Since then I’ve been determined to find these colorful pigments, and I started to explore the world of lichens, learning about many species. 

The color purple has been obtained through dyeing with lichens for thousands of years. Some of these lichens include Ochrolechia, Lasallia, and Umbilicaria dating back to the Bronze and Iron age.  Harris Tweeds, a very established and well known Scottish textile company still in business today used (uses still?) Lichens in their famous tweeds. 

What are lichens? They are a mutualistic symbiosis. The plant body (or thallus) consists of two quite different organisms together in an intimate association; a fungus and a microscopic green plant (an alga). The fungus makes up the bulk of the thallus and the algal cells are buried with in it. Or rather, imagine the fungus saying the to alga, if you provide me with food, I’ll provide you with shelter.

Do lichens need a mordant for dyeing?
Lichen dyes are substantive, meaning no mordant is needed. All Lichens contain acids that hold precursors of colors. Some lichens have certain acids that give more dramatic colors than others. But all can be used for dyeing and none need a mordant. However, a number of additives can be used to shift the pH to achieve a different color. These include, but aren’t limited to: chalk, vinegar, ammonia, urine, washing soda, iron, onion skins, rhubarb leaves, copper pennies. Experiment and see what happens. 

Collecting
When collecting lichens, please be mindful. Lichens take a very long time to grow. Two things to remember; Collect from a spot where there is a plentiful amount. And only collect the lichen when it already separated from its substrate.

Dyeing methods
For dyeing with lichens, three different methods are used according to the desired color: 

BWM- simply means “boil water method”. Throw some lichens in a pot and boil away. A method I’ve used many times. Maybe add fiber with the lichens, maybe strain off to use later. The range of colors will be browns, yellows, oranges, and rust.

AM- “ammonia method.” This is key for the pinks, reds, purples and blues. There are certain lichens containing these colors that will yield these colors when fermented for three or more months with a 1:2 ammonia and water ratio.

POD Through reading, it is my understand that the letters POD stand for “Photo Oxidizing Dyes”. In Casselman’s research, she has traced their use back to the 18th century. But what happens with these POD dyes? What I’ve read in a few places, is to collect a common orange/ yellow lichen such as Xanthoria, found near the sea on rocks, preparing the same way as for AM by making a fermentation vat and let sit for the same length of time. Here’s the fun part: it reacts similarly to indigo in that when you pull the fiber out of the bath, it will be purple or pink. Expose it to sunlight and it will turn blue. And here’s the other similarity to indigo: return it to the bath for another 30 minutes or so, for a deeper pink or purple to return, then expose it to sunlight again and the blue will deepen. 

Some more detailed info on Xanthoria parietina: The fungus protects the green alga from the harsh UV rays and drought. In return, the alga provides nutrients to the fungus through photosynthesis. I know that lichens are made up of a symbiotic relationship, but is this situation with photosynthesis and UV rays unique to Xanthoria? Possibly, because this is the only lichen species that I know of where dyed colors change with sunlight. 

The Bleach Test
Not sure if what you’ve spotted or collected has red, pink, purple, or blue potential? Take a very small piece of the lichen and scrape or tear across the piece to expose the inner white flesh. Carefully pour bleach into the cap on the bottle, then dip the exposed lichen edge in the bleach. If it turns pink or purple or red, it contains the acids to yield these colors.

Prepare Fermentation Vats (AM & POD)
Collect a few tablespoons of lichens such as Evernria, Umilicaria, Xanthoria. Put lichens into a glass mason jar with an airtight lid. Have the ammonia ready — household or industrial-strength ammonia is fine, as long as it’s non-sudsy (I’m not sure why.) 

Fill the jar a third full with ammonia on top on the lichens. Close the top and shake. Open back up and fill with 2 parts water, leaving space at the top for aeration. If you tolerate ammonia, use 1 part ammonia and 1 part water, making a 50/50 solution. Close the lid and shake vigorously. Within minutes you’ll see the color shift. Shake the jar every day for at least three months. If you think of it, take the jar outside, remove the top and expose the jar to air. It will help to develop the color. However, if it is Xanthoria, do not expose to sunlight as it may shift the vat color. Put a label on the jar with the date, location collected and the species. 

For the dye experiment I conducted on Monday, the lichens I used were:

Lobaria pulmonaria. Also known as Tree Lungwort, favors oaks but could be found on a beech tree if near water, and growing on the south side of the tree. At one time this lichen was prepared as a jelly and given medicinally to those suffering from pulmonary affections (liver infections). It has been used in England, Scotland and Ireland as a dye to achieve yellows and auburns. The acid found in Lobaria is Lobaric acid. I collected a small amount of this lichen while in Prince Edward Island this past November. I set up the fermentation vat, although I had done my bleach test and no color appeared. I wasn’t convinced, and thought I’d try this anyway. Judging by the results of the pale apricot, I should have stuck with the simple BWM. However, I found the vat exciting and promising.

Umbilicaria pustulata  also known as rock tripe. Grows on rocks in upland areas in high altitudes. It contains gyrophotic acid. It has been used as a purple and red dye for thousands of years, mainly in the northern hemisphere. I first gathered a small amount from a boulder on Squam Lake last September. where I had been teaching foraging and natural dyeing with the Taproot Gathering. After a lively lichen conversation with Stephanie Pearl McPhee on the first night, she encouraged me to look for Umbilicaria pustulata, calling it black potato chips growing on rocks. I then knew I had also seen it on a trail near Bethel, Maine, one of my favorite spots. When I got home, I prepared the vat, and it’s fermented since September. 

Photo below: preparing the dye bath, I poured off a small amount from the fermentation vat into a clean jar.

Xanthoria parietina also known as Golden Shield or common golden lichen. I’ve read in a few places that it’s a weedy lichen as it’s so common. But still, I feel it should be collected with reverence as with all lichens. It contains the acid parietin. I first collected this lichen while in Ireland last spring and summer. My husband and I were on our honeymoon and we travelled to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. We wandered off the beaten path to get a closer look at the water and to daydream of Finn McCool outwitting the Scottish giant, Benandonner and meeting up in the waters between Ireland and Scotland. There, I noticed boulders covered in a thick bright orange and yellow lichen. I collected about a tablespoon, sticking the loose yellow flakes in the pocket of my trousers. Several days later at our rented cottage, I tried the ammonia method for the first time. I grabbed an empty jam jar and the ammonia we bought at a garden store in town and prepared my first fermented lichen jar. Within minutes, the liquid inside the jar went from clear to pink, and deepened as the days went by, appearing like red Kool-Aid. As I waited for the color to shift I went outside to look out over the huge expanse that was our neighboring peat bog. I breathed the air and could smell the bog, lichens, and the rich freshness that Irish air is. I stepped back inside to look at my jar and I felt the familiar but rare sensation of sparkly sprinkles dashing across the top of my head. It's a feeling I've been experiencing for years when life lines up perfectly and I feel I'm smack dab in the middle of a magical energy.  

I’d read that I should open it up every day outside to aerate it so the color would develop. I also stuck a piece of hand-spun wool inside to just sit for a while. It dyed the wool pink without any heat, but eventually the color in the bath changed to brown. I was disappointed, but knew I couldn't keep the vat forever as we were returning soon to the US. 

Then we took a short trip to Inis Meáin, the middle of the three Aran islands off western Ireland. We had a glorious time! I found more lichen to collect in an unexpected spot. This time I kept it wrapped in a handkerchief to be prepared when we had reentered our US lives at the end of that month. 

Once prepared, that lichen fermented the longest. I then noticed we have the same-looking lichen here on Peaks and in Portland. I collected about a teaspoon near the Portland ferry landing, on the Eastern Prom, and also at a cemetery on Peaks, where I had a pleasant conversation with the groundskeeper about lichens. He was delighted to hear that I wanted scrape lichen from the headstones, because every year he, along with many others, uses a certain treatment to clean off the headstones to preserve legibility. Imagine a family member who wanted to locate an ancestor but couldn’t recognize the headstone because it’s covered in moss and lichens. However, on the flip-side of this, Lichenologists have been working to preserve cemeteries where lichens grow so as to keep the headstones from being cleaned as it offers a valuable resource in studying these delicate microsystems. A fellow natural dyer just sent me this link on the subject. Thank you Alissa!

By the end of the summer I had prepared about 4 very small glass jars containing all the same lichens from various Maine (and one Ireland) locations.

Let’s get dyeing!

You’ve prepared your vats (fermenting jars) and they’ve been ripening for months and you’re ready for this next step in discovering the world of colors that lichens keep. 

I strongly suggest you use a very small amount of fiber for the strongest color, an ounce of less of whatever you like: wool, silk, alpaca, etc, to start. 

This is really important: pour off only about a cup’s worth of the liquid pigment. Then pour that cup into whatever dye vessel you’ll use. If I’m dyeing a small sample, I create a double-boiler method with a mason jar in a larger pot. The pigments that come from lichens go such a long way — you do not need to dye with your entire fermented jar at once. If you did, it would be very wasteful. In the beginning when you collected your small tablespoons and you prepared your fermented vat, it wasn’t very much, was it? Perhaps you wondered what you could dye with only that amount of liquid? Well, the good news is that with lichen dyes, the pigment stretches wonderfully. 

Put in your scoured and pre-wetted fiber in the pigment and cover generally with water so that your fiber can swim freely.

Heat slowly and watch the temp so that it doesn’t get hotter than 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat for 1 to 2 hours, then turn off the heat and let cool slowly. 

Results:

Xanthoria fresh out of the jar, I brought it outside in the sun to let the UV rays (though very weak this time of year) do their magic in turning this pinky purple blue with photo oxidizing.  

 

However after almost an hour nothing happened. 

I set it in the window for an entire day and nothing changed... 

The light yellow/ apricot is from the Lobaria. 

The middle pink purple is Xanthoria after a day in sunlight. 

The garnet/ wine color is Umbilicaria.

Each small skein is wrapped with a strip of silk I also dyed in the jar. 

The second day I dropped in another sample skein into the Xanthoria and Umbilicaria jars for another go. The top two skeins are from day 1. The bottom two skeins are from day 2. Surprised to see the Xanthoria even deeper. Maybe come summer with stronger UV rays, the skeins will shift to blue? 

I did not wash any of these skeins or even rinse them. Washing with soap can alter and shift colors because of the ph levels in whatever soap used.

I had such a fun time with these experiments and will of course be going further. Later on in the year as I travel to other parts of the country, I'll be collecting lichens where ever I go. This has turned out to be one of my favorite parts about traveling to new places. It's also a great way to explore a new place and create memories.

Wanting to understand lichen ecology, I'll be attending a seminar later on this summer where I'll be using a microscope, small knife and going on walks. I couldn't imagine a more exciting way to spend a week in Down East Maine in June. I look forward to using what I learn that week in future foraging and dye classes. 

Recommended reading list:  

The Observer’s Book of Lichens by K.A. Kershaw & K.L. Alvin. England 1963. For me an amusing little book. A bit out-dated as sometimes species are renamed. I found this in my favorite bookstore, Charlie Byrne's in Galway City, Ireland last spring. I’ve been visiting this bookshop on every trip I make to Ireland. My favorite lichen, Xanthoria parietina, is on the cover of this book. And I enjoy reading it with a 70 year old British male voice in my head. 

Lichens for Vegetable Dyeing by Eileen Bolton, England 1960. A gift from a fellow fiber enthusiast and student I’ve had in a few dye classes. She rescued the book from a rubbish pile. I was delighted to be the new recipient. It has a few beautiful plates and is an easy read. 

Lichen Dyes: The New Source Book by Karen Diadick Casselman, 1996. This book is what I’ve been using the most, and what I highly recommend —mainly because it’s one of the only ones out there that I know of. In the book, Casselman answers all the questions about lichen collecting, from ethics to colorfastness. 

Casselman also published a document in regards to dyeing with lichens and mollusks called The Politics of Purple. 

If you have any questions, of what to share your results, I'd love to hear from you,  leave me a comment:)

Happy experimenting!

ox, r

Slipped Gears; day dreaming with lichens, family, and baby booties.

I say 'day dreaming with' because in these joyous moments of new lichen dye discoveries, seeing a growing rooster, and talking with my sisters, I'm day dreaming too. Mostly about new projects, some very big and some very small, on the horizon. Day dreaming is fun and it's useful! I should know, I've been doing it all my life. And here I am. Inside my very day dream I've had since I was in Mrs. Veno's 1st grade class. The first teacher who wrote my name on the board. I was caught talking in the bathroom which meant I was not paying attention when she told us during our bathroom break there was to be no talking.  What I remember most about that year was with every report card, was sent home a disapproving note to my parents; "rachel day dreams too much." I didn't really know what fuss was all about. I just knew it was so much more fun to be thinking about milk weed pods and why that silk was so silky. And why was goldenrod so yellow.

On and off for about a week now I've felt myself happily gliding into a holiday mode. Day dreaming about the meals, plans, projects I'll create. Just when I feel I've established a nice buttoned up, all my ducks in a row house is cleaned and projects are complete organized routine, that's when it happens. A gear slips. I get so excited about an idea and before I know it I've collected all 24 of my dye books for note writing. Or I've started sorting my yarn again and five ideas emerge.  I end up pacing trying to decide what to start first and why it's more important than the others. I bring down 3 prepared embroidery projects, 2 knitting projects and park myself to watch my latest series and then the cat starts begging to be brushed by pulling my arm towards her with her too hard to see and too sharp to tolerate claws.  So, this past week, I glided and floated happily along enjoying what ever came my way. It was quiet and restful as I did a lot of sitting back, thinking and planning.

The few things that kept me busy:

My latest lichen jars. While in Prince Edward Island a weekends ago visiting my husband's aunt, I discovered this lichen, Lobaria pulmonaria. Also know as tree lung wart. I found two slightly different shapes of it but looking very similar in two different spots. I harvested maybe a fourth of what I saw. Back home, I set up my ammonia method for fermentation. Within a day the liquid turned a bright orange. I'm have some left in my bag that I will also try with the boil water method. Reading in my lichen books, this is suppose to give a dye ranging from peach to orange with the boil water method or BWM. It doesn't say anything about the ammonia method but I'm trying it anyway. I also tried the orchil acid test by dipping an exposed inner white flesh edge of the lichen in bleach. If there is orchil acid, the white bit will turn pink to red. It did nothing and stayed white. So I thought I would continue to experiment anyway. When I actually dye with this lichen, I will of course post results. Look how orange it is!

Speaking of day dreams, back in 2006 I first opened up my etsy shop. Back then it was Bosco44. Named after my sweet dog I had as a kid. Etsy has been changing a lot over the last few years, increasing all that you can do and how you manage. There are tiny companies and studios all around the world doing the etsy thing full time. I manage my shop completely by myself. I am the sole creator for everything in the shop. A while ago while checking out my shop stats, I realized that my biggest year for sales was 2009. I remember thinking to myself, "ok, this needs to turn around now and I need to surpass these numbers soon." It had been too long. I then noticed that since 2010, my views, listing favorites, and sales have slowly but steady climbed. Then I noticed the third thing. Since the time I left my full time working for someone else grind at the end of August 2012, sales have doubled, shop and listing views have doubled, and my favorites have more than tripled. 

This past week hit a special mark for me reaching the first time since 2009 when I had a serious influx for sales during this particular season. I hit my fourth sale of the month pushing me into beating my highest sales year from 2009 going over by 4 sales so far. 

In this little package was my first rainbow roving. You can see the whole series there at the shop. Having 3 orders in a week really did a lot for my self esteem I have to say. And to wake up on a Sunday morning to be greeted with a notification on my phone or to hear that heavenly "CHA-CHING!!" from my phone or ipad while cooking or tending to other things, there's nothing like it.  

My sisters and I try to get together often usually meeting at one of their houses for an afternoon with our lunches and knitting. It had been a little bit since I had been to this sister's house and had forgotten about just how fast chickens grow. I took a few minutes checking out their coop set up. They have roughly 8 or 9 (?) chickens now and they all look good. Like tweens sporting their new haircuts and outfits just before the 7th grade. In that stage of still cute and nearing handsome adulthood. But more on the cute side. And wanting to be noticed. 

Check out Ralphie's du. The rooster. 

I collect clothes lines, remember. I can't help it. I see one and my phone is clicking away before I've thought about it. 

I love this window door thing and the hanging feeder. 

So here I was just kind of slowly day dreaming about next steps in life and I found myself sorting all my natural dye samples from classes and workshops I've taught. I've had this sweet little pile of kid mohair and silk yarn that I've been r e l i s h i n g in experimenting with. I realized I had just about all the colors of the rainbow plus brown. 

And as always, working with mohair always makes me think of baby booties. For a few years now, I've been knitting several pairs for my shop, friends and family with what ever mohair I have. I've been using this pattern. It's so easy and I've made so so many. I love knitting it because it's very quick and you kind of knit a tiny ravioli to start- by double knitting. Can I call that double knitting? It's ok, correct me if I'm wrong. 

As the yarn is SO tiny and strand like, not like the old mohair I use to work with that had a sizable loft to it. I used US 1 double pointed needles. This is also the first time I've knitted this pattern with stripes. It was interesting and I figured it out along the way. 

They are just too CUTE! and I'm pretty happy with the colors. Which include from toe to cuff- all dyed with plant dyes by me, madder root light, madder root dark, goldenrod, onion skins (the green!) garden grown indigo, indigo extract, logwood purple, alkanet, lichen, and black walnut. I still have plenty of sample yarn left over so it's very possible I'll be knitting a pair for the shop. Maybe slightly bigger as these could be for a newborn. But these little things will be tucked away for when the time is real.

Obligatory cat picture. A very friendly wandering cat I noticed from my window while washing dishes who in my mind is named Henry.  

Thanksgiving and Chanukah is this week. As you celebrate how ever you do this coming holiday season, do your self a great big favor and take time out to just day dream. Look out a window and just let your mind go. And do it often.  

ox, r