From Enys

Posted by Enys
Finally got the hang of writing in a blog. Should have been doing it winter when I actually had more time. Potted on 50+ of Chinese Woad last night. I can only work in the greenhouse early morning or in the evening - otherwise I'd get so hot Peter might come back and find I'd dissolved into a puddle of something or other!! This morning was reasonably cool so I got on with the Coreopsis and Baptisia australis.My evenings and dear husbands are spent watering in the greenhouse and watering the plants being hardened off outside - I'm sure they multiply during the night. Oh, and the rabbits have found my plants and are beginning their great pruning session so now I'm putting them on a frame out of their reach, trouble is I don't have enough of these frames. Have to get back to the drawing board.
I guess Helen has told you we'll be at Wonder Wool, I ll have some of my plants, so look me up if you are there.
Back to the plants.

Wonderwool Wales 25th-26th April at the Royal Welsh Showground

Posted by Helen

We,that is Enys and I are setting off to Wonderwool tomorrow.
If you are coming come and see us we shall be at N4. If you are a blog follower tell us and we will give you a blog follower discount of 10% . (Except for the special offers -such as 6x50g 0f merino for £20.00 as these are already discounted).

Natural Fibres Naturally Dyed
Kits
Natural Dye Inks
Dye Books
Dye Plants
Ceramic and Pottery Buttons

ps that is a back view of Enys at Woolfest !

These photos are of the Woolfest as the stall at Wonderwool last year was not too good. The reason for this is each stall is made up of a shell which has dirty white walls ( it is rather like being inside shoebox which is open to the top and at one end)! It was suggested to us by the organisers that you could hang meat hooks over the shell and then hang a broomstick from that. Sadly my stainless steel butchers hooks were too small, so it was a disaster as we had no way of covering the dirty white walls. This time however I am setting off sorted thanks to Debbie Bamford's John and DH and I expect the stall to look good, (or at least better). Furthermore I have loads more dyed merino than last year, indeed than ever before so should create a big splash of colour.



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From Enys
Just been potting on yet more seedlings, and looking at the ones I potted up last week, and thinking by this time next week they'll need to be put in bigger pots!! Trouble is I can't throw any plant away, Peter (husband) manages to be quite heartless and discards any of his plants that he thinks don't maker the grade. My problem is - all my plants are really strong so I can't bear to discard any, must try and stop anthropormorphising them (how's that for a big word) and talking to them, or one day men in white coats will take ma away!!
Enough for now.

Basket and Buttons

Posted by Helen
Today was Clwyd Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers friendship day. It was a lovely day, very warm and friendly with an extremely nice lunch so it was rather sad there were not as many visitors as was hoped for especially so as there were a number of good stalls (including mine). Just looking at the stalls made me realise what a wealth of local talent there is: Debbie Bamford of the Mulberry Dyer and her partner John (Debbie is currently running the Dyeing the Reds workshop on the Online Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers), Andy of Blue faced Leicester.com, who sells lovely yummy fibres many of which are British hooray, Norweft which is a local minimill specialising in alpacas, as well as stalls selling handmade ceramic buttons, baskets and jewellery.

This is what I bought! :) A basket from Chris Jordan to display my buttons and ..... more ceramic buttons by Lynn Blanchard ... which I can't resist! (and also one of John's lovely big niddy noddy's) Although the visitors and members were select they were discerning buyers and bought a lot as well as buying all the plants, which Enys had let me have, within ten minutes of my arrival.

Plants

From Enys
I've obviously got time on my hands, ot maybe I just need a break from potting on seedlings. I potted on what seemed like thousands yesterday, it was actually about 150, Anthemis tinctoria and Persicaria tinctoria. I'm now looking at the Chinese woad, got two more tray to pot on. At least it doesn't matter if it rains, I just adore being in the greenhouse. I could quite cheerfully move in there, nice and quiet, except when my almost 4 year old grandson comes with me, he manages to make himself absolutely filthy, but at least making mud is a quiet occupation! He is actually very helpful, he fills up the pots for meand can usually manage about 20 before boredom sets in!! All the plants that are now large enough are being taken outside to be hardened off, bit of a drag having to take them in and out for a few days before being able to leave them out permenantly. My Madder has at last made an effort and I now have a few to pot on to the next stage, really exciting - that makes me sound so sad!!
Dog and I are now going out to take in plants - it never stops.
Enys

Sheep silk

Posted by Helen
I have been dyeing merino tops now for years firstly because I wanted to use naturally dyed merino tops myself in my own work then for my own workshops. I have had them for sale on my website but with a limited success mostly,I think, because the photography does not really do justice to the colours. However I have been selling more and more and getting lots of positive comments back so I have decided to have a big run at dyeing merino tops (I am so glad that I did not know till after I had been dyeing successfully fora number of years that -"you can't dye merino tops as they felt"). As my husband was working all over Easter I have had a free run in the studio. Apart form walking the dog in the glorious sunshine I have been happily dyeing and here are some of results.
Over the years I have developed my own technique for dyeing these tops with minimum felting. I am very proud of them and just love the feel as I run my fingers through the wool. I dye a lot of the 18.5merinos which is the finest wool we can get here and what I use for stoles and scarves.I feel most envious of India Flints 15 micron merino. What must that feel like? The 18.5 micron merino feels, as a friend of mine describes it, as the nearest to sheep silk .

Plants in the spring

Posted by Enys
Finally got some time to write in the blog, having completely forgotten how it's done and having to e-mail Helen to remind me how to. The whole of one side of the green house is full of seedling at various stages of development (I have allowed my husband to grow his tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and various other plants, he's very long suffering!) although I must admit I seem to have at least 3/4 of the space. The persicaria is growing really well, Helen has taken photos of them 60 +, Chinese woad - 3 trays of 20 per tray, lots of Coreopsis, Anthemis tinctoria, Carthamus tinctorus - the first time I tried growing Carthamus it was a failure 3 plants which didn't thrive at all, this year all the seeds germinated and have been potted on. Three weeks of panic - no sign of the madder, three trays of compost greeting me and nothing growing until a few days ago and now they are sprouting up in all the trays, guess they just needed some of the warm sun that we've had this last week, so that's really great. The Echium vulgare are already potted on, and the Indigofera tinctoria -already 4 seedling showing. Gallium verum, Cosmos, Woad are also coming along well. Baptisia Australis has overwintered in the greenhouse so I've got some really strong plants to put out in the main garden, Asclepeas tuberosa also overwinted well along with Anthemis tinctoria, Coreopsis and one Weld which was growing on the floor, it's now in its own pot and looking very happy.
I kept 2 Chinese woad plants in the greenhouse for the winter to make sure that I would get seed and they are now flowering. The Chinese woad overwintered in the garden and promptly got eaten by the rabbits (3 of which are now in my freezer- the rabbits not the woad!) But it is growing again. The rabbits are a real pest, I have no problem with slugs, snails or any other pest except the pheasants in the Autumn when the gamekeeper lets out the young birds, they tend to eat the veg and some plants. We are now going to have to net a vast area of the garden- b....y nuisance. Fortunately my other garden behind the house has not yet been discovered by the rabbits so the Chinese woad was safe there. My wonder dog Cariad (German Shepherd) loves to chase them but being a sheepdog is not into killing just trying to herd them, they don't even have to run very fast to get away from her. Back to plants, there are not enough hours in the day now, , everything is growing so it's the busiest time, potting on, planting, watering. Weeds growing really well, turn your back and the dandelions are back. I've got a real problem with bindweed, not the big white flowered one, but the small pink flowered one, very pretty but not when it chokes my plants. Sadly rabbits do not eat weeds. Some of these plants (not the bindweed) will go into Helen's garden and I've just revamped a small part of mine approx. 40 metres x 4 metres, I'll take some photos and post them for next time. Back to work. Dog walk- plant - dog walk and so on the pattern of my days, + the odd days when I work in other gardens.
Enys