Svila i crni čaj / Silk and the black tea

Vrijeme leti, ljeto polako odmiče, dani su kraći, noći pomalo hladnije. Nisam ni primijetila da je već prohujalo gotovo dva tjedna od mog zadnjeg pisanja, a dugujem vam slike i priču o farbanju svile crnim čajem i dojmove iz Haslach-a sa tkalačkog sajma. Prvo čaj i svila. Eksperiment je uspio, svila je pofarbana u lijepu nijansu zlatno-smeđe boje i spremna za tkanje. Zašto crni čaj? Prošli sam mjesec pročitala na jednom od foruma da je zapravo najjednostavnije farbati predivo sa istim onim prirodnim sastojcima, voćem i povrćem (breskve, višnje, borovnice, crno vino, ribizli, paradajz, cikla, a negdje pročitah i crni čaj) sa kojim obično i najbolje mažemo svoju odjeću. Tome jedino još dodati malo octa da to sve skupa dobro upije, i to je to. Tako sam i ja skuhala 2-3 dcl vode, stavila pet filter vrećica čaja, i još nekoliko žličica čaja bez filtera, u to dodala dvije žlice octa, natopila svilu i ostavila da prenoći, da bi drugo jutro pronašla lijepo pofarbanu svilu koju sam oprala i sad razmišljam šta da od toga tkam. Dodatno sam isprela mješavinu lana i svile koja izgleda vrlo interesantno i vjerujem da će dati prekrasan komad tkanja, jednom kad ispredem još 30-40dkg da imam za jedan poveći komad. Na slici u sredini je mješavina svile i lana, lijevo je čista svila jednostruko predena, a desno lanena pređa prije predenja.

The time is running fast, the summer is slowly coming to its end, days are a lot shorter, the nights cooler. I did not even realize that it is almost two weeks I have written my last post, while I still owe you the story and photos of coloring the silk with black tea, impressions from the Haslach weaver's market and the latest news of my weaving and spinning works. Firstly, the tea and the silk. My experiment worked out, the silk is painted in a lovely shade of golden/brown and ready for weaving. Some of you may ask why the black tea? Last month, I have been reading on one of the forums that the easiest and cheapest way to colour the yarn is to use the natural ingredients, fruits and vegetables which are usually leaving stains on our clothes (peaches, sour cherry, blackberry, red wine, tomato, red beet, etc.). White vinegar can be used as a mordant. I boiled some water, put 5 filter bags of black tea and a couple of spoons of loose tea leaves, two small spoons of vinegar and left the silk soaking overnight. Next morning, I took it out, washed it to find a nicely coloured skein. I have not used it yet, still thinking what to make out of it. Additionally, I span the mixture of silk and linen which turned out into an interesting yarn. The left item on the photo shows the single-plied silk, middle one is the ready span mixture linen+silk, and the right one is the raw linen before spinning.