Vielä ei ole onneksi ollut hallaöitä, olen kerännyt ja käsitellyt väritattaria eli japanilaista indigoa talteen ja sato on todella hyvä. Yhdestä kasvista tulee lehtiä n 300g, jolla taas värjää melkein saman verran lankaa siniseksi. Kasvihuoneessa kasvavista keräsin yhden sadon jo elokuun alussa ja toinen sato on vielä siellä odottamassa, mutta ulkona kasvavat on kerätty vasta nyt, lähinnä ajanpuutteen takia... no, ovat sitten kasvaneet entistä enemmän. Kirjoitan myöhemmin tarkemmin niiden käsittelystä, tässä vain kiva juttu, joka sattui toissapäivänä.Olin perkaamassa lehtiä pois varsista, ja toinen kissamme tuli katsomaan, mitä teen. Sekin on 18 vuotta vanha (kuten valkoinen veljensä Maukka), ja ihan kuuro jo, mutta näkö- ja hajuaisti toimii, joskus se saa jopa myyriä vielä kiinni.
In English
We haven't had any frosty nights yet, but any time now they could come. I have been busy harvesting my dyeplants, mainly japanese indigo, which is very tender and dies if temperature gets too low. The yield is very good this year, from one plant I get about 300grams of leaves, which dye almost the same amount of yarn blue. From the plants which grow in the greenhouse, I got one harvest already in early August, and more is still growing inside, but most plants are outside and I haven't had time to harvest them until now.. which is ok, since I get more leaves now:) I'll write later more about extracting the blue from them, but here are some pictures about what happened day before yesterday.
I was ripping the leaves from the stems of japanese indigo, when our other cat came to look what I was doing. She is also 18 years old (like her white brother Maukka), and though she can't hear anything any more, she can see and smell well still... she even catches occasional moles from the garden.
Ensin pöydän reunalle ja sitten vähän lähemmäs lehtipinoa...First she is sitting near the edge of the table and then moves closer to the pile of indigos...
Hmm... mitäs täällä tuoksuu...Mmm, what is that smell...
Jotain täällä on...There is something here...
Haa..... löytyi!
Haa..... löytyi!Haa... got it!
Nam, se oli pieni palanen kissanmintun (Nepeta cataria) lehteä, joka oli kasvanut väritattarien seassa ja joutunut leikkuuseen vahingossa. Uskomaton hajuaisti, lehti oli pinon pohjalla, enkä ollut lainkaan huomannut sitä oksia leikatessa:)
Nam, se oli pieni palanen kissanmintun (Nepeta cataria) lehteä, joka oli kasvanut väritattarien seassa ja joutunut leikkuuseen vahingossa. Uskomaton hajuaisti, lehti oli pinon pohjalla, enkä ollut lainkaan huomannut sitä oksia leikatessa:)
In English
Yam, it was a one leave from catmint (Nepeta cataria) which had grown in the japanese indigo bed (as a weed), and I had accidentally cut it with the indigos. How amazing that she smelled it, it was in the bottom of the pile, and I hadn't noticed it at all while cutting the indigos:)
Thank you for all your reports - I really enjoy to read them!
ReplyDeleteAnd I like your cat very much - it is so cute...
Best wishes
Annette
I am amazed by your blog - actually by the knowledge you have and everything you do, form growing plants, to extracting dyes etc. I don't know anything about dyeing with natural dyes (well, thanks to you I know a little bit now ;)) so this is a whole new world to me. Thank you :)
ReplyDeleteI love your new mittens, Leena. Such beautiful colours. I was much entertained by your cat's antics. We gave up growing catnip as our cats loved it so much we thought they might die from excess pleasure, they wriggled about on it so much! And I must say that your Japanese indigo leaves look very impressive - the plants must be extremely vigorous. When I grew Polygonum tinctorium I'm afraid my plants produced very much smaller leaves. Jill Goodwin (a well-known English dyer & author) told me once that it's possible to dry the leaves of Japanese indigo & use them successfully later for blues. It might be worth trying this with a few leaves, if you have a bumper crop? I seem to remember I did try using dried leaves & they worked OK, giving reasonable blues but not as deep as the blues from fresh leaves.
ReplyDeleteWarm good wishes from Jenny (Dean)
Thank you for the comments:)
ReplyDeleteOur cats love the catnip, too, I don't grow it on purpose, but it has self-seeded, and then I leave one or two to grow for the cats.. this one though grew among the indigos, and I hadn't noticed it.
The japanese indigo grew really well this year for me, I think I'll get today the rest of it from outside and that leaves still some growing inside the greenhouse.. and I will try to get seeds from it.
I'll dry some, thanks for the advice, Jenny:)
Hi there!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your blog very much, and your post about Japanese Indigo is very interesting to me, as I have just harvested my own plants and dyed the loveliest blue yarns with it!
Looking forward to read about your dye-results.
- Birthe in Denmark