Starting my dye journal / iniciando mi diario tinte

I have wanted to try dying for a while. In the past I have experimented dying fiber and yarn with food colors or Kool aide. While that method is a food safe and non toxic way to add color to your fiber, the problem with that method is that the dyes are not extremely colorfast and also it is very hard to get a consistent color. The push that I needed to start using acid-fast dyes came when I moved to Spain and started spinning through my hand-dyed fiber stash. There are maybe two hand dyers of fiber that I know of in the whole country.

He querido probar a teñir desde hacía tiempo. En el pasado he experimentado tiñiendo fibras e hilados con colorantes alimenticios o con Kool aid. Mientras que ése es un método seguro y no tóxico para agregar color a la fibra, el problema es que los colorantes se destiñen y es muy difícil conseguir un color uniforme. El empujón que necesitaba para empezar a utilizar tintes resistentes con ácido llegó cuando me mudé a España y empecé a usar mi "stash" de fibras teñidas a mano. Que yo sepa, en todo el país hay quizás dos tintoreros que tiñen fibra a mano.

I love playing with color, I can not just spin all the time with white or neutrals  For me, playing with colors is the most rewarding thing about spinning. I decided to get what I needed to start hand dying at home. I started getting all of the material I needed in November.  I will go into what you need to dye on another post, because it is a lot of information and I want to take photos for a tutorial. There are plenty of tutorials in English, but in Spanish we definitely need more.

Me gusta jugar con colores, no puedo hilar todo el tiempo sólo con blanco o colores neutros. Para mí, jugar con colores es la mejor parte del hilado. Decidí conseguir lo que necesiaba para empezar a teñir a mano en casa. Empecé a obtener todo el material que necesitaba en noviembre. Describiré lo que se necesita para teñir en otra ocasión, porque hay un montón de información y quiero tomar fotos para un tutorial. Hay bastantes tutoriales en inglés, pero necesitamos más en castellano.

Today I am going to share what I did on Friday. I got out my dye pot and equipment...

Hoy voy a compartir lo que hice el viernes. Saqué mi olla para teñir y mi equipo...

...and 8 of the 10 colors of dye I have. I started putting together a dye journal. A dye journal is something my dyeing idol Deb Menz recommends to do. It is a good idea. If you have this information you will know what shade exactly you get from each dye. Now a dye journal will take a while to make as you can vary the colors in intensity (hue) and make color mixes (ie yellow + blue = green). Friday I dyed samples of yarn the 8 shades straight out of the bottle on a low intensity (depth of shade). I also mixed the dye to create four other colors just to see what I would get (bottom card - click to enlarge).

... y 8 de los 10 tintes que tengo. Empecé haciendo un diario sobre teñido. Un diario sobre teñido es algo que mi ídolo del teñido Deb Menz recomienda. Es una buena idea. Si tienes esa información, sabrás exactamente qu'e tonos consigues con cada tinte. Un diario sobre teñido es algo que llevará cierto tiempo para completar ya que puedes variar los colores en intensidad (tono) y hacer mezclas de colores (por ejemplo, amarillo+azul=verde). El viernes teñí muestras de lana con los 8 tintes tal como vienen pero con un tono bajo. También mezclé los tintes para crear 4 colores nuevos sólo para ver qué es lo obtendría (los cuatro colores en la página de la izquierda - hacer clic para agrandar).

Then I dyed 10 gram samples of fiber (white Finn wool) in (mostly) two different colors. In this way I was hoping not just to get a good idea of the "true" color on un-spun fiber, but also to get an idea of what colors would be made when those two colors meet in the center. I used the dip dyeing method, not hand-painting, because I thought that with this method I would get a bigger zone of overlap of the colors in the center. There is not as much overlap as I expected, and there are drips of color all over the place because it is a messier technique.

Entonces teñí muestras de 10 gramos de fibra (lana blanca de raza de oveja Finn) con dos colores distintos (en la mayoría de los casos). De esta forma esperaba hacerme una idea no sólo de los verdaderos colores en fibras no teñidas, pero también descubrir qué colores se formarían cuando esos dos colores se encontraran en el medio. Usé el método de teñido por inmersión en vez del método de teñido por pintado, porque pensé que con este método conseguiría una zona más extensa de superposición de los dos colores en el centro. No conseguí tanta superposición como esperaba, y hay goteos de color por todas partes porque es una técnica un tanto incontrolable.

Then in the interest of keeping organized I took small samples of the fibers from each color end, and samples from the middle. I already have a tone of ideas of different color-ways that I could make! Which ones are your favorite?

Finalmente, en un intento de intentar ser organizada, tomé muestras de fibra de los dos extremos en cada caso, y una muestra del medio. Ya tengo un montón de ideas sobre diferentes líneas de colores que puedo hacer! Cuáles son tus colores favoritos?

A walk through my new neighborhood

I live in a more residential neighborhood now, and I prefer it. But maybe it is not as picturesque as the the other one. However before I moved to Spain I was fascinated by "real" photos of Europe. Not the tourist photos, the ones that showed what it would look like to live there. 

So if any of you feel the same, enjoy.

Inside el Templo de Debod

A while back I did a blog post about the Temple of Debod and why it is in the Parque del Oeste. I would recommend reading it for the background information on why this stunningly beautiful Egyptian monument is in Madrid. 

It is perched atop a hill over looking a majority of the city. There are reflecting pools on both sides of the monument and it is surrounded by palm trees. On a clear day (not when this picture was taken) it is possible to see the mountains from behind the temple (this view), see the heart of the city from the front, and if you go 30 meters or so to the South it is possible to see the Royal Palace.

This is probably the most romantic picture of these two in their lives. No I do not know them.

But I had never been inside the temple before this Christmas when my SIL and partner came down from Barcelona for New Years. I was not expecting the inside to be so spacious, so informative, so ..awe inspiring. also, for some reason I was not expecting Hieroglyphs. 

You could touch these, there is no barrier. It is both cool and deeply disturbing.

I was not expecting that Spain had turned the inside into a small free museum, educating about the temple and it's origins. In the photo below you can see how they added a "light" version of the statue that was once on this alter.

In looking for the proper name for this "cornice" on line I just found a cool site that lets you see what the temple was in its heyday. It is in Spanish, but I think worth the trip even if you do not speak read it well.

At the end, if you are in Madrid and have the time. Definitely visit this temple.

Sorolla musem

There is a precious little museum in the center of Madrid. It is the former house and studio of a painter who is, strangely, not really well known outside of Spain. Joaquín Sorolla had a wonderfully impressionistic style and way of capturing the light in Spain that is utterly captivating. I did not attempt to take photos within the museum, click on his name above or do a google search for his work it will be worth your time.

The first I ever heard about the museum was from the "Notes in Spanish" podcast. Which is a podcast in Spanish by a Madrileña and her husband from Oxford (UK) about Madrid and Spain. If you are learning Spanish, I can not recommend this podcast enough. Just listening to their conversation has improved my Spanish immensely. I tend to listen to it while I am walking or on the metro to "warm up" my Spanish for the day.

When my beautiful Sister-in-law and partner came to Madrid over New Years, we only had the time to go to one museum out of the many in Madrid and we chose the Sorolla. I am so glad that we did. It is the perfect size for a museum, not too small, not too big. The rooms of the house (mansion) are filled with light, the beauty of his art and his collections. But your visit will start with the gardens...

The gardens, by the way, are free. I am sure that they are magnificent in Spring, but even in winter they are something to see. What I have here is just a taste of what you can expect.

He was a man enchanted with the Alhambra and the style of his garden reflects this.

The garden is not large (by US standards) but there is art tucked away everywhere you look.

I highly recommend a visit. 

Has anyone ever been?

Challenge accepted - Nativity scene

Recently a certain blogger challenged me (on Christmas eve in the comments) to make a felted nativity scene. I thought about ignoring this challenge as I did not have a lot of time to devote to this. However, I am just as much a sucker for challenges as the next person so I went ahead and started. On Christmas day I got this:

 Which served as a big distraction and occupied two full days of experimentation when ever I could find a free moment.

Then my favorite sister-in-law and partner came for a visit and whilst there were here, it was too cold to be out walking, everything was closed so we got to play around with making felted critters. I was able to finish off the "little lamb" which was all I needed to complete my scene.

Earlier in the month I had made the Christmas trees, the Santa, the snowman, the box, and what was to be the oveja María. When I got the challenge I thought about what I would do. I am not a religious person, meaning I do not belong to a particular faith, so I did not want to do a traditional Belén. So I thought about how importent wool is to me and (maybe) the fact that I already had one sheep, and decided that with what little time I had, I would make a oveja José, and a ovejita Jésus on a bed of straw before the 12th night (January 6th).

To be a true Spanish naivety scene (albet sheep themed) I would have needed to make the three kings, as they are very popular an much more recognized then Santa. Buy, hey, I am an American working with a creative license. Also I believe that the Three Kings did not arrive until the 12th night, so as I finished early I am safe.

I hope that everyone is having Happy Holidays and will have a prosperous New Year!

Making holiday decorations

Since I have been the crafty holiday mood I thought that I would share some of them with you. 

A quick note to say that I did take some xmas ornaments with me when I moved to Spain, but they are few, and in a very nicely packed box. Currently I really do not know where that box is. I am just glad that I have them for later. 

This xmas we have a real tree for the first time, which means that it is really small, because it is a potted plant. We hope to have it for many years.

So in order to decorate said tree, I got two tubes of small ornamental bulbs. They were very cheap looking so I also bought some glitter glue and had some fun with it. It was a couple of weeks before I remembered that I also had acrylic paint (see the White tree and "s" below).

 Then I of course, used both at the same time.

And I could not just leave the tree up there all alone so I made a winter wonderland below complete with giant balls of yarn...

using some of my characters from a unsuccessful diorama.

Then I broke out the bigger ornaments.

I of course got bored with the paint and glitter, and started to try and incorporate yarn.

Then I made decorative yarn ball ornaments.

Then I wrapped the cheap plastic ornaments in ribbon yarn.

 Here are the bigger ornaments on display at the window.

And the free standing felt tree now lives with some felted critters I made (and a stone zebra I did not).

What are you doing to decorate this year? Anything crafty?

The next thing I need is a garland, because I have company coming this year!

December

One day last week I experienced the magic of Christmas for the first time this season. I had had the brillant idea of listening to Christmas music while on my crowded one hour and three train metro comute to work. It was wonderful. With the sound track of the holidays playing the metro was transformed from a dirty tube crowded with hot and cranky people into a cheerful and bright place.

But best of all? I was listen to the Waltz of the Flowers from nutcracker when I emerged from the bowels of the metro station to find the Telefonicas' campus transformed into a winter wonderland of lights.

 There were deer and snowmen in amongst the trees. 

Even the magnolias trees were hung with lights. There were santas scattered around, and even a huge Christmas tree made completely out of white lights that twinkled with every movement. (Sorry there are no pictures of that - it was too dark. For those of you wondering, I took these at about 8:20 and no sun yet.)

Belén's are springing up everywhere. Belén literally means Bethlehem in Spanish, it is also a popular girls name and what they call the naivety scenes. There are some spectacular ones. Some are impressive and made of rock or wood with huge figures taller then a man. Some are so tiny and detailed you know that they are done by an artist. (I will endeavor to take some around the city soon, now that I am on break and have more time.) 

But I think the most charming things about the Beléns is that there are supplies to build them popping up in stores and Christmas markets everywhere, and that every other store seems to have one. There is always a little surprise in each one. This one was in a window of an insurance agent.

Do you see the Caganer?

Do you see the woman at her spinning wheel?

Another magical thing about December is that all of the woolly fashion is coming out in the stores and out of closets, because baby, it's cold outside.

I'll admit to Kinnearing these photos on or around the metro.

This first one was of a woman that had the most beautiful coat on. It was black wool with silk (?) ribbon embroidery making colorful flower shapes. I only got the corner of her coat here, but I think that it gives ou an idea of the splendor.

This next one was new for me: a sheepskin coat with the wool still on it. Even though I felt the usual revolution at the fact that she was wearing fur, I was fascinated by the concept and maybe a little intrigued. Talk about "in sheep's clothing" (she cut me off on the way in and out of the metro).

Then there are the sweaters for sale in the shops. There are so many. I really only take pictures of the ones that I like or hate. I really need to put together a blog post just about them.

This one was the ugliest sweater/outfit that I have ever seen. Maybe an example of why not to do intarsia with "fashion" yarn?

This one is a beautiful fair-isle (or stranded) yoked sweater, but  the neck was drawn in with a rather thick I-cord. Looking at it I still can not tell you wether I love it or hate it. It is certainly an inventive idea.

 I hope the holiday spirt is with you too!