Affraid of colour?

You may perhaps have already noticed that I’m not too scared of splashing a colour or two about in my work. I admit that most of my projects involve more than half a dozen different colours, shades, tones etc. In fact I enjoy the challenges of using lots of differentBalls of dyed yarn in my work.Do I do any natural and single coloured projects? Actually yes, although often these are for other people at their request.I’ve done a number of different garments in black for instance. Right as I speak there is a black alpaca jacket sleeve sitting on my knitting needles as well as a natural brownAlpaca yarn in the process of being knitted into a hat. Over this last year I’ve woven several natural coloured scarves and wraps, crocheted a black shawl and knitted a short coat in brown. See suri scarf below in previous blog. I do like fibre in its natural, living colours, I’m a handspinner and therefore collector of fleece. I admit quite a few of them are white (grubby white as they wait to be washed), and destined for the dyepot.I just find the colourful stuff so appealing to do and photograph.

Above is a tapestry crocheted tote bag in my hand dyed yarns. This form of crochet is worked tightly, usually with a hook smaller than the recommended size for weight of yarn. It utilizes only the double crochet (single crochet) stitch and the fabric emulates a woven fabric so it is often not recognized as crochet. Two (or can be more) threads are used at the same time to create the pattern carrying the colours along the top of the stitches, this adds to the firmness of the fabric. For more info on this style of crochet and instructions see http://www.tapestrycrochet.com/. I made this bag at the end of 2007 out of a predominantly alpaca yarn. I don’t always line these bags because the fabric can be very sturdy, and non stretchy particularly if worked in cotton or linen.