Recent Projects

Here are a few things I have been busy with lately. 

The blanket is a Kaffe Fassett design knitted in hand spun Jacob and Shetland. The blue is indigo dyed Jacob.

This is more Jacob again using  indigo dyed yarn. Knitted in the round it was a quick and easy project that I am very pleased with.

This waistcoat came about after talking to friends about how to use art yarns. It was a good stash busting project and I have incorporated core spun, cabled, racing stripe and three ply as well as the usual two ply. It was originally for sale but I fell in love with it and have been wearing it myself.

WS&D National Exhibition

These are just a few of the things that I really liked at the exhibition of our WS&D,s National Association held at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum on Saturday.Of course I thought I would remember whats what or find it in the catalog. Some I can and some I can't. The blanket or afghan as it is called is knitted in hand spun wool ans silk with natral dyes.

The panels of this skirt are shibori dyed and I love it. Will try to have a go at one myself  I dye silk scarves in the same way how lovely to have a skirt.

Both of these wall hangings show the range of things that can be made with in our crafts.

These panels where made from a blanket cut up and dyed with natural dyes. Names and pictures of the dye stuff used have been machine embroidered in each square.

Colourful skeins.

One of the skeins I have for sale on Etsy at the moment is a Jacob mix dyed red and blue. Just to remind you Jacobs are a breed of sheep that are very popular with small holders because they are medium sized ,easy to keep, hardy and friendly. The fleece is good for hand spinners because it is easy to spin and coming in a mix of brown and white, it is easy to knit up to very effective patterns. The down side is that it is some times a bit course especially if the fleece is from and older ewe.

 I spun one single in pure Jacob randomly straight from the fleece. Meaning no carding. The other single was a white Oxford down dyed with Madder and Indigo. Spun alternately red and blue. When plied together it was surprising  how much of the Jacob was lost but the overall result was just what I wanted.

New Venture

Because I am a bit of a butterfly never keeping my mind on one thing for long. I have taken a bit of a side ways step with my business and started to produce hand dyed silk scarfs. It is still natural dyes on natural fibers. This is the core of my work and I will stick to it as much as possible. But if I can create something wonderful using other materials I will. Nothing is written in stone, and I won't be hide bound by rules. The end result is the important thing for me.

The scarfs are brought in and I dye them in the Shibori style with indigo. The indigo vat can be tricky to start with but once you have mastered it the results are fabulous. It would take to long to describe here but if you are interested these books have been a great help to me.

Wild Colour by Jenny Dean, if you are interested in natural dyeing Jenny Dean is must. Any one of her books are full of the best advice and information you could want.

A Handbook of Indigo Dyeing by Vivien Prideaux.

Shibori by Mandy Southan.

There are many more but these three have been the ones I use the most at the moment

I will be a bit more precise about the methods I use in future posts.