Ajrakh cloth, a timeless textile art originating from the Sindh region, is one of those artful things that I love. I brought it down to make a beautiful & cozy space to spend a lot of time in, a place I am now calling The Tweed House ( previously known as the tiny house , repurposed for a place to dye and card wool ), but I wasn’t expecting it to be such a beautiful backdrop with the afternoon light streaming in, making short light for a photographic effect I love most. Just sitting on the Ajrakh covered futon, with drop spindle and carders in hand, listening to the dye pot rattle, and sipping a tasty cup of coffee, in the woods … well, it just doesn’t get any cozier than that!

This particular blend is inspired by the traditional madder red and blue of Ajrakh, but also rich browns and golds too, a blend of three colors in equal amounts, which when combined together create more beautiful depth of colors, attempting to blend together the colors of the block prints I love. The trick I am finding is not to blend too much, so that the individual colors are still present and not too fused into each other, so the little bumps of color show in the spinning. I kept track of the dye amounts to get the deep madder red wool, and surprised myself, and the deep gold color does just seem to belong, then finally the turquoise is the gem color that pops, tones it all down and brings all the colors together, and this one is so far my favorite. But there needs to be some refinements before I write the recipe, and you can see Tweed Notes below.

♣   Tweed Notes  ♣

• Fiber: Dyed Merino wool (dye recipes are not yet decided).
• Measured: 1g my own “Madder Red”, 1g my own “Ajrakh Gold” (in Sindh region is achieved from pomegranate peel and/or turmeric), 1g Turquoise Blue.
• What I will do differently next time: I will experiment on achieving a truer yet still bright indigo blue mixing different powdered dyes, but the red and the gold are spot on, because although the individual colors are maybe too bright and not exactly the same as the natural dye used in block printing ajrakh , the combination creates a perfect mixture which, in my opinion, tones all the colors down and gives the feel of the ajrakh.