Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've not had much time to post just recently, I've been busy at the week-ends for the last month and preparing for them during the week.

At the end of May I was invited by the York and District Guild to tutor a "Backstrap Weaving Workshop" at Coberhill just north of Scarborough. I had a lovely time, the weather was perfect, although we spent it in doors most of the time, the accommodation and food at Coberhill was good and the people on the course were a delight! When I find my camera I'll post some images!

The following Saturday I was in Amersham talking to the Berkshire Guild about "Creative Spinning". After a terribly rainy start to the journey it ended in sunshine and a rewarding talk to the guild. Another lovely group of people.

Last week-end was our Guild Open Day. Beautiful weather brought out a lot of people and we all had a great time, not least because two of the husbands served the tea and coffee and the wonderful lunch we had all contributed to, leaving us plenty of time to spin, natter and shop with Vicky Smedley of MoBears, Janet Phillips of The Threashing Barn and Michael Williams with his wonderful drop spindles and spinning, weaving and lace making tools, amongst others.

This coming Saturday, I'm off to talk to the Oxford Guild on the Saturday afternoon and tutor a workshop on the Sunday. The talk is about how Jane Deane and I approached the Book and the workshop is "Creative Spinning". I really love what I do and enjoy passing on skills, ideas and encouraging creativity.

Then it's Woolfest! Woo Hoo! It's hard work, but so, so enjoyable and give everyone a great chance to catch up with old and new friends in the spinning, weaving and dyeing world. I for one am looking forward to the buzz of the two days and the Tatty Pot supper and Spin In.

See you there!

Mordanting Cellulose Fibres

I was reading Deb Bamfords blog, A History of Colour, today and her post was about mordanting cellulose fibres. This prompted me write about some mordanting I did earlier this year with my friend Lorraine.

Those of you who visit Pure Tinctoria at Woolfest and Wonderwool Wales will know Lorraine as my very able helper. I wanted to reward Lorraine for all the help she gives me at these events and won't take a penny in recompense. Knowing she likes makeing quilts, last year I gave her a dyeing kit and cotton fabric for her birthday, and we got together to do the mordanting.

Now, I'm a passionate advocate for wool, British in particular, so I had to get out all my books to check how to do the mordanting properly! I knew I could do it in a one stage process, using aluminium acetate, but Lorraine wanted to do it "traditionally" with the everything in her "kit". So we opted to follow the alum, tannin, alum process. The tannin component was Amber-M (Oak Gall).

I was really impressed with the fabulous colours we got. They are so rich.

This image is of the colours before Lorraine pressed the fabric, but even then they are really beautiful. From Left to Right they are:
Ganges (Dhak), Amazon (Annatto), Rhine-M (Red Lac) and Rhine-S (Purple Lac).

Rhubarb and Custard Update!

Well I've finally managed to take a photograph of my Rhubarb and Custard scarf and here it is.
I can't give you the pattern for this one as it's copyright, but it's knitted on the diagonal.

I spun the Shetland fibres by taking alternate staple lengths of each colour, red lac and marigold. I didn't want precise staples so that I got a good mix of red lac with red lac and marigold with marigold and red lac with marigold when I plied the two singles.

Rhubarb and Custard!

Hi, do you remember the hanks of wool yarn and Shetland tops I dyed at the end of last month, well I've spun up the 2% Red Lac (Rhine-M) and the 2% Marigold (Ambrosia) and here is the result.

I'm really delighted with the hank which is pun on my Jumbo flyer. I took staple lengths of each colour, alternating each colour as I spun. The staple lengths weren't accurately weighed as I wanted some overlap of the colours.

I'm going to knit it into a diagonal scarf, from a pattern I was shown in The Hague at Dineke's workshop last month, which I'm hoping will give me some subtle diagonal stripes. If I have any left I might just get out my Knitters Loom and weave a narrow scarf, too.

Fame at last!!

I was interviewed earlier this week by The Textiles Directory and have been featured in this weeks Friday Focus. Please take some time to read the interview here. You will also get a chance to win a Mini Starter Kit if you read all the way through to the end!

It was quite an in depth interview and hope that it will give every one some ideas of how to use natural dye extracts and some food for thought. Some of the ideas will be used in this blog in the coming months, in a little more detail, so please keep an eye open or subscribe to our RSS feed.

I was also contacted by Ethical Living magazine with a query from one of there reads. I'm hoping the answer to the query will be in a future issue of that magazine and that I will be able to do some articles with them in the future.

In the mean time have a look at the Pure Tinctoria online shop and have a great week-end.

Alison

Shetland Tops in Natural Dyes

Well I've spun up one of the Shetland tops I dyed at the demo on Saturday. (Tops 6)

I spun it on Monday and have been knitting a lovely spiral scarf that I was shown in The Hague.

This is the pattern:
Cast on 20 stitches
K one row
*Slip the 1st st, K 8, Yfwd, sl 1 P wise, Turn
P to end (10 st)
Sl 1st st, K 6, Yfwd, sl 1 P wise, Turn
P to end (8st)
Sl 1st st, K 4, yfwd, sl 1 P wise, Turn
P to end (6 st)
Sl 1st st, K 4, (pick up loop under next st and k together with that st, K 1) repeat once, Pick up next loop and k with st. P to end
Repeat from * until desired length is achieved, cast off and secure ends.

It's a really easy pattern and can be knitted in any yarn with any needles! Thanks to Dineke of De Spinners who showed me how!

Clay Cross Lace and Textile Celebration Day

Hi all

on Saturday I was invited to the above event in Derbyshire. In the morning I did a natural dye extracts demonstration and produced the lovely hanks and tops you can see on the right.
The hanks were 95% Blue Face Leicester with a 5% nylon binder and the tops were Shetland.
From the right:
Hank 1 - an immersion bath of Lodhra Bark (Amber-L).
Hank 2 - I painted this one with Annatto (Amazon) and Red Lac (Rhine-M).
Tops 1 - an immersion bath of a mix of Annatto and Red Lac.
Hank 3 - painted with Madder (Indus), Acacia Gum (Caspian) and Kamala (Basant).
Tops 2 - I painted this one with Madder (Indus), AcaciaGum (Caspian) and Myrobalan (Kango).
Tops 3 - this lovely baby pink was an immersion bath of 2% Red Lac (Rhine-M).
Tops 4 - a lovely soft lemon yellow from a 2% immersion bath of Marigold (Ambrosia).
Tops 5 - this is a baby alpaca and bleached tussah silk top painted with Madder (Indus) and Myrobalan (Kango) .
Hank 4 - painted with Madder (Indus), Myrobalan (Kango) and Rhubarb Root (Desert).
Tops 6 - painted with Annatto and Red Lac.

In the afternoon I tutored a Design for the Terrified Master Class. Altogether a very enjoyable day!