I was introduced to the punchneedle process last spring, by my friend Sarah, an accomplished rug-hooker. She got me started with the tools and a fistful of wool thread. Until then I was not a wool lover in any big way, knitting with wool only occasionally. Though I was curious about Punchneedle process it was not love at first sight, that is, until I threw my punchneedle supplies into my suitcase and took it with me on a trip West last summer.
It started to gel for me then. I found myself making lots of circular swatches to find a comfort level with the subdued colors of the wool DMC Medici thread. A growing mountain of puffy, wooly circles ended up becoming buttons. More on buttons later...
I've come to love and appreciate wool through the dyeing process. I love the way wool takes up the dyes and the depths you can get (or some people can get with the dyeing process). I spent some time this weekend transforming a pile of pale pastel skeins of DMC wool into a pile of intense vibrant skeins. I'm not methodical about this dyeing process yet, but I have a good time in a mad scientist kinda way creating colors and dipping skeins in one jar and another. I'm sure there'll come a time when I want to duplicate and control the process better.
I did have a plan though for the specific colors I needed to round out my palette and I'm happy with the weekend results. A new collection of buttons for the Fall are in the making!
