Well, it seems as if the summer is on its way out as the nights are drawing in, the evenings are getting chillier and the early morning is adorned with dewdropped cobwebs. I'm fed up with cooking the apples that are r apidly falling from the Grendier apple tree though will be grateful for them later in the winter when I can dig them out of the freezer.
The caterpillars are all cocooned now, apart from the last two - there are always a couple that keep hanging on till the bitter end but I suspect they are about to spin and I will be extremely glad to have my dining room table back! So the cocoon and dye fridge will be full again.
On the dye front, I am about to harvest my Japanese indigo, grown from plants supplied by my good friend, Isabella Whitworth (www.isabellawhitworth.co.uk) , and hope to get some turquoise on silk as well as some blue. Last week Isabella used my studio at Duchy Square to cook her leaves and the amount of blue obtained looked extremely promising. I also have the last few woad plants to deal with.
I am waiting for some more mohair yarn, as the throw was so successful that other people have commissioned one - the fab fibre comes from another good friend, Lesley Prior, (www.devonfinefibres.co.uk) or more accurately, from her goats!
I also have to whip up some tapestry samples - though anyone who knows about tapestry will instantly understand that it can't be 'whipped up,' for a forthcoming tapestry course I have been asked to teach for the local education authority in Tavistock. It is entirely possible that this won't have sufficient numbers to run but one has to be prepared in any event. And the samples will be useful and fun to do - stretch the old brain a bit!
Our Textile Fridays - last Friday of the month at Duchy Square - are growing from strength to strength and I hope the Textile Fair that we are running in conjunction with the October Friday (29th and 30th) will attract a lot of people for the traders who are coming - should be wonderful fun, apart from anything else.
I have some old sheeting in the washing machine at the moment that I am going to dye as a contribution to Nick Viney's forthcoming exhibition at Duchy Square so I had better trot off and fish it out - it is destined for the indigo vat!
More shortly!
