Handmade Christmas

My dad and his wife collect paintings of the mountains that are the view from their kitchen window by local artists they've met.  The walls of their house are overflowing with gorgeous landscapes.  They are also really difficult to shop for.  If there's something one of them wants, they buy it, and they don't like to have too much stuff lying around.  So for my dad's Christmas gift this year, Robert made a maple candleholder with the mountains carved into the front.  My dad has always really liked light natural wood, and this past summer he had the kitchen re-done with maple cabinets.  Robert and I think it turned out beautifully, and we hope my dad enjoys it!  We gave my dad's wife this shawl, and it seemed like she likes it a lot.

My mom made these hot beverage cozies for Robert and me.  The coffee press cozy is made from her handspun yarn that she and I dyed with coffee last August.  The bottle cozy matches one of my favorite pair of socks (which my mom knitted for me when I was in college).

Last but not least, Huck got this awesome bandanna from my cousin, who has recently started a business making these and doggie bow ties.  He looks so dapper in it!  He also seems to like (or at least not notice) wearing it.  It's cleverly constructed to fit on the collar, so he doesn't have something else tied around his neck.  I've tried to make him wear stuff before, and he's never been willing to put up with it, so I'm impressed that he is so happy to wear this!

Coffee-dyed yarn

I visited my mom last weekend, and on Sunday morning before I flew home we dyed some of her handspun yarn with coffee!  We used the book Harvesting Color as a reference (it doesn't have specific instructions for coffee, so we used the master dye bath recipe).

We mordanted by simmering with alum for an hour the on Sunday morning, then rinsed the yarn with hot water and simmered it in very, very strong coffee for 90 minutes.  Then I had to go to the airport, so we turned the heat off and let the yarn cool in the dye bath until Sunday evening, when my mom rinsed, thwacked, and hung the yarn to dry.

It is a lovely golden brown color - but not what we expected.  I think we both expected a darker, less golden, more "dirt" brown color.  But in any case, it is beautiful, and we had fun!