A day with my mushrooms; dye experiments

I've been collecting road side plants for a while now. Always curious about the little inconspicuous plants that jump out at me on my walks.  

This past summer while walking up from my first swim at Medomak, I spotted along the side of the woods, two large bright orange- things popping out from the leaves. 

At closer look I notice these bright growths are mushrooms. 

Something happens when I find a new mushroom, lichen or plant where I don't know it's potential yet. I become a crazed person, stopping everything, using what ever I have on my person, shirt, skirt, (in that moment) towel that I usually wear around my middle after swimming to cover parts I don't care for others to see. Like my glow in the dark thighs. 

But once I saw this orange- time stopped and I stopped thinking of my whiter than pale thighs. I was more happy about my weird mushrooms. 

After some investigating, I found it was the lobster claw mushroom. Also known as

 Hypomyces lactifluorum. Dyeing with this fresh mushroom and adding ammonia to the dye bath, our yarns came out a light salmon pink. I was pretty excited about it. As the summer progressed into fall, my mushroom foraging grew to such an obsession. I spent a lot of time in my sister's new woods in Bowdoin where my two small nephews and niece helped me collect, filing my basket full of every mushroom they found. 

Back home I sorted each batch, cutting them into tiny pieces and letting them hang out outside to dry or in my basement. I did invest in an inexpensive dehydrator to help get the job down quicker. It speeds up the process for drying. Drying the mushrooms is essential for storing for later use. 

This week I knew would be the week to go through my stash. Over this past year I managed to stuff TWO plastic grocery bags FULL of dried foraged mushrooms. All labeled with the date, location, and if I was able to identify it- the name. If not- I made one up. But you know, it just feels better to know with out a doubt what a mushroom is. I still need to find a good mushroom book. 

After I decided on which ones to work with, I weighed each pile, in grams, made notes, put them in a mason jar, filled with boiling water, placed in large lobster pot filled half way with water. I made a little note of which mushroom on a piece of masking tape, stuck it on the end of a wooden skewer and put it in the jar. I love to multi task and I don't feel normal if I'm not multitasking, but I also can't hold all this info at the same time. I have to write things down. Also, having these notes is always good for comparison later with each dye test. 

Measuring out & grinding hard black puff balls. 

Red gilled cort bath- beginning

Lobster claw bath

First look at red gilled bath!!!

From left to right: a type of black hedgehog, 4 baths of lobster, 2 of red gilled. All in process. 

A few days before the mushroom dyeing, I mordanted several small sample skeins of 100% wool and small strips of silk fabric. In each jar went a strip of silk and a skein of wool yarn. 

Bright spots in a sea of beige. 

When I'm dyeing with a plant for the first time and I'm waiting and I'm exited to see the color result, I've had to teach myself not to really "look" at the color until it's all done and dried on the fiber. 

Mushrooms I dyed with: (if it has a * I made up the name because I can't figure out what it is yet)

Red Gilled- 5g

Lavender (looks like cortnilius)8g

hard black puff balls 5g

hedgehogs- black 23g

phalis 12g

cort 2g

lobster claw 2g

polypore 19g

Nov- mushroom 35g

thelephora terrestris11g

tiny soft puff ball 5g

white fungus with pink edges 41g

tiny orange hedgehogs 2g

turkey tail 14g

pail turkey tail 20g

small poly pore 20g

I knew the red gilled and the lobster where absolute givers of color- the others where blind experiments. 

Those two mushrooms- the red gilled cort and lobster where just stunning. STUNNING! STUNNING! STUNNING!

It's official. Though red gilled is wonderful, the 5 grams I used only lasted through 4 dye baths where the 2 grams of lobster claw mushroom lasted through 6! The first dye bath of lobster with just alum was bright orange. I then added ammonia for the next dye baths and lovely pinks. 

Have you dyed with mushrooms? Share your stories with us here!

About to board a plane to San Francisco where I'll have 8 days to explore Califonria's spring and budding flora and fauna. 

I've got collection bags & silk fabric packed for creating Eco prints! So excited to discover more dyes plants!

If I remember to, I'll post to FB at 44 clovers, Pinterest and Instagram my findings along the way:) 

Happy Weekend!

A Trip to Charlottetown

Last weekend, Jubal and I drove to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island to visit Jubal's aunt. This was my 4th trip and Jubal was there about 4 years ago. We were both giddy to return to a beloved place that had given us both fond memories. To me what's so special about PEI is it is so much like Maine but somehow magical. And made magical by the memories I made when I was 17 on vacation there with my family. Not to mention, my all time favorite stories written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables. 

As it's a 10 hour drive from Portland to Charlottetown, we stopped off in Calias and stayed at Greystones Bed and Breakfast. After traveling Rt. 9 in the dark through fog and light rain, arriving at the B&B was like coming home. Or at least a cozy magazine. I could not highly recommend staying here enough. The rooms are immaculately decorated, warm and inviting with beautiful touches. For breakfast in the morning I was served an egg soufflé which was amazing and kept me going nearly all day. I did keep eating, but I knew I didn't need to.  

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The reminder of the drive was lovely. There is something about crossing a border no matter where I am that is always exciting. 

We crossed over into St. Stephen, New Brunswick with ease as the line of cars coming from the other direction reached further into town. We both started to calculate in our heads the amount of time we'd need to come back through. We enjoyed a pit stop at the St. John City Market. We picked up lunch, a few treasures and we were off again. 

I love a country who has a cream for every food. 

A view of the Confederation Bridge connecting New Brunswick to PEI. It's 8 miles. my first trip in 1996 with my family, it wasn't finished yet but I think it had begun. We took the ferry over and I remember seeing this bridge reaching out into the water. I felt a bit speechless just not being able to wrap my mind around a bridge being built into the open water like that. But there it is. All these years later.  

Reaching the other side. 

The next morning we visited the Charlottetown Farmer's Market. It was packed with lovely local delights. We did a quick tour around just enough time to sample a steamed scallop, pick up a gift, choose wool, and sample fresh porgies.  

We then drove to Belfast to tour the Belfast Mini Mills. The drive there was peaceful and filled with this light that looked like the sky couldn't decide weather to shine or snow. 

We found these funny ice sculptures forming on the gutter of one of the buildings. 

One of the many things that makes this mill so unique is they build all their own equipment AND build the same equipment in smaller sizes to send to small villages all over the world. It wasn't hard to consider what it would be light to set up a mini mill in our own back yard. 

This bag here, this big fluffy white bag, it's 100% Samoyed dog. They use borax with the washing and it removes all traces of dog smell:) 

This little pile of grey fluff, 100% quiviut. Just holding it for a few seconds, my hand started to warm. 

A few treasures I brought home included a bag of 8oz of Lupin Lane colorway a huge batt of merino, alpaca, mohair, silk, bamboo, and qiviut. And a few skeins of undyed superwash merino for sample skeins. 

We then ventured to the McPhail Homestead for a foraging walk. Jubal had come here with his aunt on his last trip and had very fond memories of finding a pile of chanterelles. He just where to look and with in minutes he found a pile. 

As always I had a great time finding a few mushrooms. I love finding these. I believe it's a type of hedgehog. Perhaps traveling hedgehog.... I think I've seen this name in my book. My favorite thing about these mushrooms are the teeth. Those little fangs that hang under the cap instead of gills. 

For dinner, Jubal cooked up the mushrooms and we had them with our chicken and roasted vegetables. They were so delicious. 

On our last day, we walked around Charlottetown. I had such a longing to see the old places I first saw with my family so when we turned a corner and I saw this store, I felt like our trip came full circle. We popped into the Anne of Green Gables store, I couldn't help it, where I bought #8 of the series. Though these books were written for children, I love reading them. They are witty, calming, and inspired. 

After a brisk walk around, we visited a cafe where there happened to be a knitting circle in full force. When they asked me if I had my knitting, I responded that I left it in the car. Someone said, "you mean you go places with out it?!" Yes sometimes I do and then I kick myself. 

The drive back that afternoon was eventless and the sky was turning more towards snow. We stopped off in Calias again had a good rest before we tackled the rest of our trip. It was all too short but so happy we were able to go. 

Just the Good Bits

Last week was much like any other week in my life of late. I knitted, foraged, visited with family, created, tried new things, and went apple picking. Ok, I don't go apple picking every week but I am so glad I did this week.

In my last post I lamented on and on about having too many ideas keeping me up at night and not always knowing how to balance life with so many awesome things to do. Awful problem isn't? It's ok, I know how lucky I am every single day to be home creating. So I decided I needed to start to organize my thought process into more of a flow chart, alter my habits so that creating, cleaning, living, all of it, can just all flow together and live in harmony:) I'm trying. That is until I new idea is sparked while vacuuming. Down goes the vacuum, up comes needle and thread. 

At the beginning of October I created this little journal for myself to help me remember just the good bits of each and every day. So, every night when I climb into my fluffy marshmallow bed, I jot down all of the bits of light that made me smile through out the day. I love looking back on it and remembering these small moments that fill my heart with so much joy. I also love it because its so easy to forget the next day when I have a million things I want to do. I want to not loose sight of the little things that gave me such a heaping spoonful of love and laughter through out the day. Like how I heard my youngest nephew Jude say my name for the first time, seeing my father twice in one day, having a meaningful conversation with two islanders on the way home, and finally not fumbling fingers going from the open E to the 3rd A on my violin. 

The following photos are a sampling of good bits....

Embroidery becomes me. As much as I've been obsessed with mushroom foraging and dyeing, I've been obsessed with trying to find time to embroider some of my favorite things. Below is the beginning of a series of Irish counties I will have available in my etsy shop in a few weeks. Each county in Irish. 

Oh yard sales, how I love thee.... several weeks ago I asked my dear husband if he might have any spare copper bits and bobs laying around in his endless supply of hardware in our basement. He wasn't sure but wrote a note to himself and stuck it on our cupboard for several more weeks. Then while passing through Hollis the other day, we found this. !!!!! What in the world?? You might ask. It's for dyeing:) I'll be soaking these bits in order to create a copper liquor to use as a second choice in mordanting the fibers and yarns I dye with plants. 

Progress on the Uptown Boot Socks. The pattern is from this book.  I love this book and this is the 5th pattern I've knitted. It's a super simple cable pattern and I've been using nature spun in lemon. 

Progress on the painting of our home. Your eyes or computer screen do not fool you. That is pink you are looking at. The top shingles only have the primer on. The dormers are still in the first color I choose- I've gone 3 shades lighter. But the pink on the siding is staying. It looks so beautiful in the light, exactly what I've pictured. And after all the hemming and hawing and consulting of family, I knew deep down it was exactly what I wanted. 

This is my attempt at using the new panoramic feature on the iphone 4s with the new operating system. It's fun but fickle. My view on the commute route.  

Collected more mushrooms a while back from my sisters and this time doing a spore print. Which I love doing. It's like magic seeing what comes out. Though these two prints give different colors, I still think they must be the same just different ages. Still need to polish up my mushroom identifying skills. 

Love this pink stem. 

The time finally came where I caved and decided to try to dye blueberries. In every workshop I have done for natural dyeing, I am asked (or sometimes told) about blueberries used as a dye because they must for the staining they usually leave behind! Finally put this to the test and found interesting results. 

I had 2 1/2 pints shriveling in the back of my fridge. But don't worry, I also have many pints in my freezer. 10 maybe? I love the idea of experimenting with food waste but not perfectly good food. So here it goes. 

I started one vat by soaking the blue berries in water and heating for 3 hours. After it cooled the next day, I strained out the berries, added the liquid to my dye vessel, added mordant, my pre soaked yarns, and a silk hankie. 

Now this silk hankie turned out to be the most interesting part of this experiment. I first soak it in the cold blueberry bath. 

Look at that color! This is after a slight rinse and hung to dry.

But then I had to do something silly and put it in the heat. After it was dried again, the color changed very much. Also, the bolder color above is with out mordant. 

I also created a second dye bath from the blueberries agin, this time cold soaking this Shetland wool for a day. I did a rinse test and no color stuck. I then slowly heated the vat for 3 hours keeping the temp between 160-180 and no color... Except it did alter the natural color. It left the wool a very pale off gray.... And the silk hanky, well it became even more grey in the day light. 

Three things that could have changed the color:

-cold vs. heat

-no alum vs alum

-no after soak vs after soak in mrs. Meyers lavender dish soap. A soap I use often for that after ph balancing adjustment. 

I look forward to working on why the color dulled. Could it have stayed that vibrant color? Or is it just the characteristic of the blueberry? Also, these were organic and no pesticides where used- which would, I'm sure alter final colors. 

Elsa. Our cutie who loves her belly rubbed. 

I started this Winter Leaves scarf using my own Shetland handspun yarn. It will soon be available in my etsy shop. Which will go beautifully with the Winter Leaves Hat.

Reflection from the lace curtain in my studio.

The studio as of late. Yarns and threads every where. 

This happens every time. Every time I say I'm done with mushroom foraging this year, I come across these while walking from the ferry to the car. 

The three black capped mushrooms below are called Phallus ravenelii. Very distinctive in appearance and odor. I think they smell like fresh flowers. The husband does not. The four above *just may be* Russet- scaly Tricholoma. My resource book here is very dated though. These top four I found in the ground and where completely dried. The black caps where not and are drying below in the basement. Soon soon soon! I will be cooking up pots left and right for the mushrooms and will post all results here. 

My lichen babies, I mean jars are doing well. I have 6 going now and shake them every morning. When I remember to I bring two of them outside, open them up for an airing in hopes of developing the color further. So far I have collections from Bailey's Island, Peaks Island, Eastern Promenade here in Portland, and Inish Maan, Ireland. Oh! And Squam lake, New Hampshire. Those are the two I air out. You can see them in the to the right, toad skin lichen or Umbilicaria papulosa and a black potato chip lichen. Still trying to find the name for. These two are taking on a deep earthy red color. The brighter jars in the center and to the left are all Xanthoria which I've learned are UV sensitive and why I do not set them outside as the colors will fade. 

My oldest sibling turned 40 last week and we all came together to celebrate with some cake. It was such a fun time and I laughed so hard reminiscing about how we used to listen to the Jerky Boys. Oh Gawd!! Watching my nieces and nephews play and such a nice time catching up with everyone. 

Capturing Elsa sleeping with her eye open... Kind of creepy. 

Jubal and I finally made it to his favorite orchard, Ravenhill Orchard. They grow organic apples including his favorite, the Black Oxford apple. It's a small variety with a hint of plum. Very tasty. 

This may be a type of polypore?

This may be another polypore, Coriolus versicolor? 

I found a wooly caterpillar. Something I haven't seen since I was a kid. I loved finding these little fuzzy creatures. 

Cider press scraps. It just accorded to me that these apple scraps might make an interesting dye. The thing is, it has been my experience and belief that anything flora speaking will give a dye. It just depends on the fiber, water content, water temp, mordant, and time. That reminds me, I also collected 3 types of apple wood from the ground for dyeing. And some dark rust colored weeds:)

These are my pair of Orchard fingerless mitts I finished a few weeks ago. Made from my own handspun Maine island fleece, dyed with madder and lichen. Something I may be writing a pattern for shortly. 

Of course when it was all over, I had to sample a homemade donut. Oh! It just melted in my mouth! 

Thanks for reading about my good bits. If you have some good bits you'd like to share, please leave a comment below:)

ox, r

p.s. a tiny little thing I forgot to mention, geeze! how could I forgot?! I've been featured in one of Ireland's most popular crafting blogs, michellemadethis.com. Michelle Fallon is a full time crafter and blogger living in Roscommon living the dream of crafting. She has been featured in publications and television in Ireland. I first came in contact with Michelle while Jubal and I were in Ireland for our honeymoon last spring. I had heard of and was planning on attending the May Roscommon Lamb Festival and Michelle was one of the contact people. I rang her up one day to get more info on what it was all about. You can read more about the day at the lamb festival here. It has been lovely getting to know Michelle and keeping in touch with her. In the very near future, I will be featuring herself here at my blog, so keep a look out:)