Update

I am coming to after a hectic time. First we had ITV Wales filming the garden as part of National Garden Open in Wales. For those of you not from the UK this is a uniquely British event where people open their gardens sometimes just for one day sometimes for groups visiting . All the gardens are listed in a famous yellow book. The visitors fee goes to Charity. Most of the gardens are absolutely stunning and often very grand stately homes but also little tiny cottage gardens too. My parents were very fond of visiting gardens and when my father moved up here he and I went round gardens together although mostly I think because my father was very partial to the home made cakes that so often feature! Quite where I found the courage to propose the dye garden to the organisers I don't know. I think it came from the day when we opened the garden last year as "Shopping for Colour" and it was so obviously enjoyed. Someone said to me you should open under the National Garden Open Scheme and here we are. We are open to groups visiting when Enys and I talk about the plants and I talk about dyeing and then conduct them around the garden. The solar pots have been a very good way to introduce people to the colour of the garden especially the madder , birch and golden rod pots.
So last week -was it really only last week?- ITV filmed. I forgot to ask Enys to take pictures of me demonstrating woad dyeing and I only took a few of her but it gives you the flavour of the day. We both enjoyed it it very much and it was a fascinating experience. I picked woad leaves six or seven times while they filmed it from different angles-amazing that the woad leaves held up. I kept finding another little plant hiding under something else as it has self seeded around the dye beds.
Two days after that we loaded the car, squeezing an unhappy dog into one tiny corner and set off for Woolfest. "Don't buy anything will you" said DH "there is no room even in the top box". Not buy anything! Go to the Woolfest and not buy anything. The poor man obviously had sun stroke. Fortunately a good friend with an empty car came to the rescue and took back my two fleeces and a swift and I sold some big bulky items such as all my new solar pot kits complete with 2 litre Kilner Jars which took up a lot of space. We could have sold these twice over they were all gone by 10.am of the second day. Another great success of the Woolfest was my inks of which I sold a lot. These inks designed by me for painting and writing turnout to be excellent fabric paints too. I painted some pre-mordanted silk with them steamed and rinsed. No colour came out at all

In between ITV filming and setting off for the Woolfest my new Aura wheel, the fantastic new spinning wheel from Majacraft, which had arrived but was sitting tantalisingly in it's box was set up. My original vision was that I would sit spinning some fantastic textured yarn at Woolfest to advertise both my fibres, my packs and my new Beyond the Twist Yarns. A good friend ( I am very lucky in my friends) recovering from a hip replacement carded me some batts to spin and some batts to sell. Did I get a chance to spin? Well I expect you are smiling as you read this . Of course not- except for a few minutes here and there. Plus the fact that people bought the batts which were meant me to spin so at the end I had no batts at all! The wheel attracted a a lot of interest. I directed them all to poor Martin of PM Woolcraft who imports them and from whom I bought mine. I say poor because none of his ordered wheels had arrived. I was very fortunate to have mine as it is at the moment one of only three in the UK. What is so good about it? Well it spins like a dream. The huge flyer and fantastic threading system (no hook pulling the yarn through a tiny orifice) means it will spin from laceweight to bulky yarn. A hugely versatile tensioning system with two different tensions means it is very flexible. In the picture you can see some fine yarns ( some of my cashmere and silk plied with a laceweight merino) and an over the top yarn with teeswater curls spun in whole.
What am I doing now?Getting ready for the student coming on Monday for two days. Which means tidying up my studio. Sigh! (And I still have not fully unpacked the car)

Friends, Dye Garden, Mordants , Health and textured yarn

Posted by Helen
Where would we be without friends? My friends have always been very important to me but over the last few weeks I have come to value them all very much. This is what one good fairy friend turned up with the other day. Something to crochet with from her own stash, some are handspun yarns and others are interesting yarns she has picked up. yum! yum! . So I made a hat for her. The turquoise is from the merino 18.5 micron dyed with Saxon blue (indigo sulphonate)I dyed a couple of months ago,and spun last week, but I added in some of the sparkly yarn and then some terracotta and purple. Here is the result although I plan to add a large flower.

The second thing she bought (apart from the cherries which I really enjoyed :)) was " A BOOK" ! This lovely book is full of different ways to create interesting textured yarn. Now it may surprise some people to know that I can spin a smooth even yarn if I have too and if I put my mind to it but I get so bored! I can never resist adding something in, so this book is just up my street. The book is Intertwined,The Art of Handspun Yarn,Modern Patterns and Creative Spinning Lexi Boeger ISBN-13:978-1-59253-374-9 published by www.quarrybooks.com.It is full of interesting textured and innovative yarns with clear instructions on how to spin them (although you do have to know how to spin -it is not a beginners book). There are projects too but I rarely want to follow some one else's projects preferring to invent my own.

The Dye Garden -or rather bits of it in January.The first snowdrops are out.When Enys came three days ago there was no sign of them but today here they are. Here too is some very healthy looking weld and my Chinese Woad.



My health is continuing to improve with some minor setbacks. An investigation has shown no further complications,which is very good news. As the Consultant said I have "just" had pneumonia but she did say this is a serious illness and I can expect it to take three months before I feel like my old self :(
While in recovery from my recent investigation I read more on mordanting and also Brazilwood as Debbie Bamford is running a red dyeing workshop on the Online Guild in March. She wants us to put some into soak now as it improves with age. I haven't done it that yet but I will tomorrow.
Mordanting:I have written 7 pages so far on the history of mordanting, the use of mordants worldwide and on alum .What do I do? Extract some of it for the blog or publish the whole lot.What do you think? How much do you want to read about mordanting?

Being ill and the importance of craft/art

Posted by Helen on the 1st of January ( but started on the 23rd)

I have been ill, unfortunately quite seriously ill. First I had week in bed after one trip to A & E and to the out of hours doctors service. with aching limbs and a high temperature while DH bought me beef tea which was all I could eat/drink and which has done wonders for my figure, I am now a new slimmed down smaller me.

However when feeling better I sat beside a roaring log fire made by loving DH and rediscovered my old love affair with crochet.

I used to do loads of free form crochet which I always think is painting with stitch, and had a tunic "Fire in the Rain Forest" accepted by the Millennium touring exhibition of the Weavers Spinner s and Dyers in 2000. Not many people saw it as for some reason the way they displayed it all sorts of little ends appeared and it came back in disgrace. After a few ends were sown in again it has been fine and much worn by DH . It is hand spun Wensleydale, silk, mohair and of course all naturally dyed! My inspiration for free form is always Silvia Cosh and James Walters Crochet Workbook published by Batsford, a very much cherished possession. It was the first craft book I ever bought ( gosh! that does take me back!) and from it I learnt a lot about design , planning a project as well as about free form crochet. I also have her sweater book and made my self the Celtic jacket from hand spun naturally dyed shetland spun long draw ( which I also took to A&E as I was feeling so cold).

My crafts have made a difference to how I coped . Much to the ambulance crew amusement I took Dominque Cardon Natural Dyes with me and sat in a wheelchair in the waiting room for my results reading all about cochineal and then about mollusk purple.

First of all I crocheted wrist warmers for my sister in law who has a poorly wrist which after two ops is now giving her problems with arthritis . The lovely multicoloured dyed yarn, and white silk and linen yarn was spun by Anne and the others were her dyed rovings. I bought all these from her at the Artisan Market. Now with the bit firmly between my teeth I investigated my stash. DH had requested a felt beany but was prepared to accept a crocheted one in lieu so off I set off working out a beany . I soon discovered that I needed to spin a little extra yarn so my Lendrum was installed in a cosy corner by the fire and I spun my lovely teeswater in cochineal over dyed in indigo all curly and then a dive into my stash gave me some hand painted Shetland tops in cochineal and logwood for the ply. At this stage I was very wheezy and unable to even walk comfortably upstairs so I was surprised at how my breathing improved after a couple of hours gentle spinning while listening to the Play on radio 4 ( a very good one). My health then nose dived down and I ended up in hospital a medical mystery on Boxing day. After investigations for blood clots on the lung I was found to have an area of collapsed lung with pneumonia and also had pleurisy. My consultant-quite wonderful- rushed into the ward yesterday morning saying before I say anything give me your email address I have a friend who is interested in what you do! Then she told me I could go home but back in the new year for further investigations. I have to take it easy for six weeks :(

While I was on the ward I read more of Dominique Cardon and made notes for a day dyeing with cochineal which I think will be great fun to do as she has lots of different recipes which sound interesting. Then every now and again I picked up my crochet. The poor lady opposite, confined to bed, was very interested and asked what I was doing and before long all the patients on the ward were all involved as we discussed colours and decided on a rib to finish it and they encouraged me to produce a flower on the side when finished. Some of them tried it on and I felt very pleased with how it came out- especially considering how it been done! It looks more like a cloche hat than a beany This was definitely a cooperative hat with inputs from five people-great fun.

Incidentally this was the NHS at it's best. I was seen by a medical consultant about 8pm on Boxing day, the nurses despite being very busy were unfailingly pleasant and friendly and informative. They worked very hard. A bed was often stripped cleaned and made up again with a new patient installed within 45 minutes of being vacated. The respiratory ward where I was was spotless. As Glan Clwyd Hospital faces East towards the Clwydian range and I was by the window on the fourth floor we watched two magnificent sunrises. The first of which the sun rose looking so like a orange you felt it could be plucked from the sky and eaten! The second it was so brilliant you could not look directly at it.

Finally I want to welcome the new followers to my blog and finally to wish you a happy healthy year full of interesting textiles and of course natural dyeing.

Fibres for spinning and a little on inks

Over the last year my spinning wheel has been calling plaintively to me from a corner of my sitting room. Every now and again I dusted it and wondered if I would ever get back to spinning. You have to understand 1. I don't knit ,can't knit 2. I don't weave- hence my love for crochet and only free form crochet. This is because I cannot be creative and count! 3. I am an evening spinner. Until last January my evenings were not really free as I looked after my dearly beloved father and he was usually here till 9pm then somehow I could not get my head round it and then I found ( and this shows how long it is since I spun) my lendrums's string for the single drive band bit had perished which I might add caused me to go into total panic mode but fortunately I was rescued by Martin of PM Woolcraft.

This Christmas DS's firmly plonked the TV into our sitting room, and suddenly here we are back to DH watching TV a little and me watching along with him and spinning! What am I spinning? A Shetland /Ryeland cross that my dear friend Anne persuaded me to buy. I have been washing and dyeing it throughout this winter with I might add the intention of making up packs of it for the wool festival Wonderwool. I gave some to Anne -mistress spinner- to sample and loved the resulting textured yarn so much I decided to do some too! ( quite different from Leigh's ( Leigh's fibre Journall) beautifully spun Shetland !)Plus I love love love the colour I have dyed it. It has been multidyed with extract dyes. Green from Living Colour and logwood purple, logwood grey from Earthues. Then I had a mad moment and ordered some bowmont from Lesley Prior. What am I thinking of I need a new project like a hole in the head.

This alongside the rapidly expanding project looking at natural dye inks!, My now fully booked workshop next week Leaves of Gossamer Felt ( and I have all the packs to do) a commission to dye 1.5kilos of merino tops for medieval felt maker Rachel Frost, a commission to make a bag ( for which I need to dye the fibres. ) Quite mad!

On the Inks. I now have the Artists materials that Dorothy of Dot's fibres to Fabrics recommended in a previous post. I am waiting for a book on medievallpaints and a few people directed me to Forty Centuries of Ink by David Carvalho which I have now ordered too. In the meantime the subject has inspired Natural Dyes Online and Ruth Schooley has kindly sent me a couple of papers on Chinese ink which I started reading today.

One of the interesting comments that came out of Natural Dyes Online is that whether something is ink or paint depends on what one does ie writes or paints. Although the more I think about this the more I think that this is not quite right still maybe my reading will illuminate this. I can't help thinking that inks are fluids and paints originally solid at least in the West.

The other I like is that apparently cornflowers were used to make a blue ink so I will need to grow some cornflowers.

It's getting late so off to bed.