Blue to the Elbow with Topsy

An idea becomes a search, which leads us back to our roots:
In thinking about some of the finer gauge items for ladies and children - lovely spencers and caracoes and other such jackets that don't want to be of a woolly pully weight as with Fair Isle - a possibility crept into my mind: lace-weight yarn (such as we use for Shetland shawls) in Fair Isle patterns!
I suspected that the result would be an entirely different animal than regular Fair Isle, and I was right - it is very dainty.

But how to achieve our colours in a reasonable price-point for people (Rowan yarns having a nice range of lace-weight colours but not extensive and at $13 a hank, makes the finished products very spendy.) Well, clearly, taking an ivory yarn and dyeing it. Just as Morris did to achieve his soft colours back in the day. Going back to our roots here of concocting plant-based dyes.

There are two options for the wool, a washing wool with nylon added, and pure merino. The two will dye similarly, but the washing wool will survive normal laundering at a warm temperature.

 As for the dyes, there is still the old option of bark, roots, leaves and berries, with the addition of mordants of alum, tin, copper and soon to achieve different shades.

But there are also now pre-mixed natural powder dyes in 48 beautiful colours, waiting to be blended. Mix water and powder, bring to a boil, add wool. No mordanting required.

I still do, however, think of Topsy at an important meeting, his arms blue to the elbow from an indigo dye vat.