Summer Competition Update

We are starting to get some lovely ideas from you all for our Summer Competition, ranging from a Multi-Directional Scarf to knitted mittens! Please keep the ideas coming in.

For those of you who missed our post about the competition, here are the rules:

Alison has spun some Shetland tops, she dyed earlier this year, and can't decide what to make from the yarn she has produced and is asking for your help. In return you can win one of two packs of dyes - a Mini Starter Kit or a Spring 4 Collection.

Alison dyed one 50g lot of Shetland tops with Myrobalan, Madder and Acacia Gum and the other 50gs was dyed with Red Lac and Annatto. She pulled staple lengths of fibre from each top and spun these in turn. The resulting singles yarn was then Navajo plyed (3 ply), to keep the lovely colours separate. There are approximately 8 - 9 wraps to an inch (Double Double/Chunky Yarn!) and approx. 250 yards in all.

We are looking for a suitable knitting or crochet pattern or whatever you can come up with that stylish and bang on trend!

For your chance to win one of the two dye kits you will need to visit the Pure Tinctoria website and either place an order and leave your idea in the comment section or click on Contact Us at the top right hand side of the website and leave your email address, name and message. The item that is produced from the winning idea will be featured on the Pure Tinctoria website and on this blog. We are looking forward to your ideas.

Good luck, oh, and the closing date is Monday 31 August, so there's just over a month for you to put your thinking caps on!

Sarah Pearson Cooke

I've just had a lovely email from Sarah Pearson Cooke: -

"I have been demonstrating and showing my work at Art in Action for the last four days and just wanted to let you know that I was endorsing your fabulous dyes! I hope you are not overwhelmed too much with orders, although I am sure this is not a bad thing! I have used your extracted natural dyes for some time on my peace silk cloth which I dye using Shibori processes. Your dyes were very well received at the event and are an important aspect in my journey in working to improving my ethical and environmental impact. I do hope you do not mind me passing on your business details to those who were interested."

Not only does Sarah use Peace Silk in her work, but some lovely hemp/silk fabric too, read about this here! Take a look a Sarah's lovely scarves and interior products to see how she uses our dyes. I particularly like her new Darjeeling Collection, such lovely greens and blues! oh, and take peek at her Online Boutique where she has a sale, I'm sure you will be tempted!

Indigo Workshop

Jane Deane is running an Indigo Dye Workshop at the Duchy Centre for Creativity in Princetown, Devon on Saturday 8 August from 10am to 4pm.

Jane's a great teacher and this will be a great day. So if you live in the area or are on holiday and can spare that Saturday you will be in for a treat for just £35 for the day., which is tremendous value. See the Duchy Website for details. Just go to events and scroll down to the Indigo Dye Workshop link and you will be able to send for all the information you need to enroll on the course.

Pure Tinctoria Summer Competition

Hi all

We are running a competition at Pure Tinctoria, this summer. Alison has spun some Shetland tops, she dyed earlier this year, and can't decide what to make from the yarn she has produced and is asking for your help. In return you can win one of two packs of dyes - a Mini Starter Kit or a Spring 4 Kit.

Alison dyed one 50g lot of Shetland tops with Myrobalan, Madder and Acacia Gum and the other 50gs was dyed with Red Lac and Annatto. She pulled staple lengths of fibre from each top and spun these in turn. The resulting singles yarn was then Navajo plyed (3 ply), to keep the lovely colours separate. There are approximately 8 - 9 wraps to an inch (Double Double/Chunky Yarn!) and approx. 250 yards in all.

Alison is looking for a suitable knitting or crochet pattern or whatever you can come up with that stylish and bang on trend!

For your chance to win one of the two dye kits you will need to visit the Pure Tinctoria website and either place an order and leave your idea in the comment section or click on Contact Us at the top right hand side of the website and leave your email address, name and message. The item that is produced from the winning idea will be featured on the Pure Tinctoria website and on this blog. We are looking forward to your ideas.

Good luck

Jenny Dean's Red & Purple Lac Experiments

I've just been trying to catch up with blog posts that I've been following. Rather late, I know, but I came across this blog post by Jenny Dean.
As you may know, Jenny Dean is a wonderfully experienced dyer and I have all of her books! She is the one person who has inspired me to keep dyeing naturally over the years.
Well, to the point, Jenny did some lovely dyeing experiments with red and purple lac way back in December and I wanted to draw your attention to her results. If you follow the following link you will see the results of modification on the lac which are truly wonderful: http://www.jennydean.co.uk/wordpress/?p=214
Many thanks Jenny!