Who says natural dyes are boring?!

I stock some yummy fat yarn, a single so I suppose really it is a giant pencil roving, that I dye and sell to knitters and weavers who want a fast result! I am often asked what it looks like knitted up and began a blanket, in log cabin style, to have as a sample on display. As I was making it, a friend fell in love with it and so I finished it to fit her when she was lying down, toes covered at one end and reaching generously to her chin at the other. Friends and colleagues at Duchy Square began referring to this project as 'Blankie,' and progress was watched with interest. Blankie is pictured above with some dyed yarns

Moving on a year, I had a burning desire to try weaving Blankie 2 - the warp is on the loom now, slightly more progress than you will see in the photo of the warp raddled. The dyes are cutch, madder, dhak and a mix based on weld extract. I hope to have some woven fabric to show later this week but realistically I have very little time as I will also be preparing for the annual teaching trip to The Netherlands with my good friends Alison Daykin, Amanda Hannaford and Helen Melvin. We are all getting excited now, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that these visits are inspiring, exciting and all round positive experiences. Can't wait!

Well, another busy few days have sped past, leaving me wondering where the time goes.
I had a most enjoyable day at Bicton College on Tuesday, teaching natural dyeing to a very nice group of ladies, amongst whom were two who preferred to weave. So I turned up with looms, hot-plates, dyes, fibres and all manner of 'stuff' - think I will have to get a bigger car! We dyed with saffron, cochineal and indigo thought the modifying was a bit disappointing - I think in my desperation to ensure everyone had a decent colour from the pots, I probably used more dye than necessary. Very bad practice environmentally but worry not, we saved all the dye liquor for the ladies to use later.

Carol and Mair produced some fabulous weaving and I am fantasizing about a Bicton wall-hanging, incorporating lots of plant material from the gardens, though I expect one would have to fight the horticultural department for some of the best examples! I was presented with the most beautiful bouquet that I am still enjoying - thank you all, especially Gill.

On Thursday I hosted a Peter TAvy Guild inbetween day at Duchy Square and visitors to Laura Wall's wonderful art show (Love at the Seaside, www.Laurawall.com ) were somewhat taken aback to find the gallery full of ladies spinning. Laura herself popped in to change some paintings and she was very pleased to see us. We had a lovely day and I achieved one of my 'must get round to it' jobs of spinning a fair amount of last summer's silk harvest.

On Friday my good friend Archie Dickens, another silkworm fanatic, came to see me and we had a very absorbing time going through the suppliers websites, and choosing the varieties we will keep in 2011. I have my fingers crossed that my cocoons will have survived our very cold winter - they are in a fridge in the garage and I hope the fridge will have stayed above freezing.

Next Friday is Textile Friday at Duchy Square so if you are in the neighbourhood of Duchy Square (www.duchysqare.org ) and you enjoy textile talk, come and join us. We are there from 10-4 and will be delighted to see you

Fleece

I've had fleece on my mind over the past few days. First, a visit to the National Sheep Society and meeting some fellow wool devotees and supporters of the Campaign for Wool, yesterday. Then today my good friend Claire Crompton came to sort out some spinning techniques for her flock of mini-sheep, created from yarn grown, spun and knitted in the south west UK. The flock is growing and you can read all about it on Claire's blog: ukfleece.wordpress.com.

Claire bought me a Cotswold fleece, obtained from a farmer who doesn't do anything with it, regarding it as a waste product. It looks gorgeous - what do I mean by that? It is filthy - sheep live in fields and don't have access to regular wash and brush-ups, so that is to be expected. Vegetable matter attaches itself to the fibres, occasionally small insects (dead, usually!) are to be found lurking in the locks of wool, and quite often the remains of normal biological processes are attached to the rear end of the fleece. And it usually smells of sheep - an acquired taste. It is possible, and quite straightforward to buy ready processed, clean wool top to spin so why on earth would I want to use the raw fibre that needs to be scoured, dried, combed or carded according to the fibre type and intended spin? Masochism?

I love fleece, and I particularly love the qualities that remain in the fibre when it has been prepared by hand. The fleece I work with is generally from a breed I can identify, will have come from a local farmer, is intended for an end product for which it is entirely suited and will require skill and patience to turn it from smelly, mucky fleece into gorgeous yarn. The preparation and spin I use will be chosen to retain the particular quality of the wool and the skills I have developed over 30+ years will show me when it is appropriate to stick to the traditional preparation and spin, and when 'breaking' those rules will give something truly unique and wonderful.

I am going to put my fleece in a bucket of water to soak, and dream about what I shall do with it when it has been scoured.....

A Late Happy New Year

Well, I haven't had much to say for myself recently but have been planning projects. I have an exhibition coming up in March, am writing a follow up to Creative Spinning with my friend and co-author Alison Daykin, planning a trip to The Netherlands in March to teach some workshops along with Alison, Amanda Hannaford and Helen Melvin, going to ISEND in April and am wondering when to start getting the cocoons out of the fridge! I hope they have survived and that the fridge has, ironically, been warmer than the garage was in the depth of the snow and ice...

I have been dyeing with some eucalyptus bark from Spain and have got some lovely browns, reminiscent of the colours from walnut.

Yesterday I had a great day out with friends Isabella Whitworth and Claire Crompton as we braved the icy roads to visit Lesley Prior and her wonderful fibre animals. Sadly, I forgot my camera but there are lots of pictures of the Bowmonts and the cashmere and angora goats on Lesley's blog: www.devonfinefibres.wordpress.com.

Bowmonts are unique in the UK in several ways: they are the only commercial flock that is being bred specifically for fibre; they are the only Bowmonts in existence; they live a life of sheep luxury! That last point may not be unique but it is certainly unusual. Sadly for us, but wonderfully for Lesley and the Bowmonts, the fleece is in such demand commercially that there is not a huge amount available for the handspinners

Well, the weather is going the right way and we are a lot less frozen this weekend than we were last. Let's hope it holds.
You will see the TAFA logo on the blog - have a look. It is the most fantastic resource and is an ideal way to while away a wet Sunday afternoon, especially if Santa has some chores for you do!

I am going to put some wonderful eucalyptus bark into soak for a week to see if I can get some exciting colour. It was grown in southern Spain and is a gift from a friend. I shall be interested to see if the bark grown in a hot climate differs in the colour that is produced from my little Silver Dollar gum in the chillier south west of the UK.

Clothes moths are a topic that has been raised on my friend Lesley Prior's blog (www.devonfinefibres.wordpress). Apparently people are concerned about the little blighters eating woollen garments, and that is why they are reluctant to buy natural fibres. I can tell you that if natural fibres aren't available and you have case moths or carpet beetles, that they are quite happy to eat synthetic fibres.....I would urge those of you who swat any moth you see that you check it is one of the clothes moth varieties. Thousands of moths are swatted to death every year when they venture through an open window, usually attracted by a light. These moths have no interest in your belongings, are already under threat from environmental pressures, are pollinators and a valuable food source for birds. The case moth, or clothes moth, is a weedy little specimen, doesn't seem to like the light much, leaves evidence of its presence with the little 'cases' from which the larvae emerge as moths and by then the damage is done, as it is the larve who eat the fibres, not the adults.

So how do you combat them? I keep my clean fleece in vacuum bags, wash dirty fleece as soon as I get it, put suspect fibres in the freezer overnight and repeat in 12 days to catch any eggs that may have hatched in the meantime. I vacuum dark corners, cupboards and drawers regularly and keep a mothball in my vacuum cleaner bag. I have no faith in lavender, sanderswood, cedar or any of the other so called anti-moth smellies, but I do regret the passing of newspaper printed with proper ink - that did help keep the moth down, because the ink contained a poison. I do keep my handspun yarn in hanks rather than balls and if they are to stored for any length of time, I undo the skein, give them a shake, and hang them in the sun every few weeks.

I raise silkmoths, as regular readers of this blog will know, so cannot afford to have chemical controls around the place - poison will not discriminate between useful and destructive moths!

Back to the loom....