Honey Fibre

I've spoken many times on the love I have for colour and how the dyeing process never ceases to amaze me.  I know that this passion is not unique  to me, take a look at ravelry at the dyers there and there is passion with a capital P in bucketloads!

In our winter black, it's wonderful to have bright splashes of colour to cheer up the dull days and lets face it, there have been many, many gloomy days that desperately needed a bright pick me up over winter.

So, now that the spring is starting to edge it's little nose carefully out of hiding, I've decided to dye something a little more delicate, something that is a contented smile rather than a big old shout.

Inspired by the singular bee I found in my kitchen, I thought of the difficult time the bees are having, my parent's well cared for hives didn't make it through this winter, and I picked on honey shades

As usual, I do want to spin these myself, but they're on my website instead and I'll be dyeing more over the next few days.

http://www.lazy-kate.co.uk/bluefaced-leicester-hand-dyed-fibres-13-c.asp


Please let spring stay.

The Unveiling of The Wool Room

So, while my daughter was off school over the Easter holiday and my husband was crippled with the lurgy for what seemed like years, we decided to move rooms.  It really was a seemed like a good idea at the time moment.

At the time, my workroom was on the first floor, with my daughter's bedroom in the attic.  Unfortunately not being able to have a wardrobe because of the sloping ceiling got her down and she needed  a 'normal' room.

A wardrobe was purchased from an antique centre (from the back actually, where you can buy for less money and do it up yourself) painted and dragged up the stairs by teenage lads who were indeed dragged away from the Atari or whatever the young people play these days.

Poor lad, the strain nearly killing him, although he is young and the wounds will heal with time.

Here's a before peak:

So here's my new room.

The room does seem to be leaning over to the right, which is down to the leaning curtain rail which could fall down any minute, so don't feel queasy.

The room looks out over the fields, I have a little heater and a cushion on that chair.  Could I be happier, no.

So I took some merino fibres from my stash and felted a little square,  stencilled, then machine embroidered a little welcome message.

This stencil set, available from Waterstones, just gives the outline to your text, allowing you to machine embroider over the top of it, really handy.

Can't wait to fill my new room with spinners and feltmakers.  Now where to put the kettle....

Fibre Surprise

How many times when you're dyeing do you look at the finished fibre with a sneer, purse your lips and think 'I may stuff a cushion with you matey.' 

I'm sure it doesn't happen that often, but, it does happen.  Over Easter when I was working, looking after children, a dog and an ill husband, my daughter and I came up with the most excellent plan of swapping rooms, her being on the second floor in the attic and my wool room being on the first floor.

During the move I found a bag of previously sneered at fibre and decided I might as well give it a go.  Taking it to the local Knit'n'Natter, everyone else seemed to be quite positive about it.  Strange.

So I've spun it up and Navajo plied it, (not my favourite of the plies) and it looks lovely, all heathery and subtle.  So we live and learn.  This has happened to me before.  I do sometimes refuse to learn, but I also love the surprise when a less than promising fibre is spun up and looks gorgeous!

I also stole the Aeryn fibre for my own spinning delictation over Easter, the silky threads through the fibre were just too yummy to resist.  This was a stunning fibre and is a lucious yarn too.

See you soon
x

Michael Brennand Wood's workshop

I attended a workshop yesterday at Preston College with the artist Michael Brennand Wood.  He is an extremely charismatic man, who was happy to share his knowledge and motivation.  His work is rooted in a love of historic crafts so he learns each craft and then uses it in his own work.

For instance, he studied lacemaking before producing this work, which is a huge piece entitled
Lost in Lace

He said

I first made lace in or around 1973, bobbin lace followed by a short spell working on an industrial machine in Nottingham. I loved the diagrammatic, schematic linear designs that a lace maker worked from. They reminded me of graphic contemporary music scores”.

He is inspired by Islamic work, the symmetry of rugs, it was incredibly interesting listening to him.

And then it all went horribly wrong because we were expected to 'create'.

The thing is, I'm a spinner and a dyer.  The creative part of my work is in colours and technique and anything else is out of my comfort zone.  I did want to try something out of my comfort zone, but it did not go well.

Oh the pain of being told to go away and play with an embroidery hoop, shells, poppy seed heads, wire and fabric.  But, not to do anything twee or pretty, to push the boundaries, to create layers, to rip and tear. To experiment in front of an internationally renowned artist and textile lecturers.

 

The hoop was wrapped with muslin squares and embroidery thread and shells were 'trapped' between the layers

My friend is a teacher at the college and was sat by me laughing.  Michael was lovely about all our creations and did really try to find something constructive to say about my work, but anyone could see that he was struggling.  I turned to my friend and said 'what did you make of what he said?'

'Rubbish, I'm afraid"  She didn't say rubbish, if you know what I mean.

I did learn something (apart from humiliation) which is that if you don't keep on experimenting, it's all the more painful when you do so i intend to keep trying.

And I came home with this beautiful shell. Worth every penny

Michael Brennand Wood

Having moved house in December and having all had our rooms decided (dd in the attic bedroom), we are going to have a shifty around, (dd in the first floor bedroom and me into the attic).

This is us just after we moved and I can't believe I'm going to have to sort it all out again!!

In other more exciting news, I'm off to a workshop with Michael Brennand Wood this week at Preston College.  Michael is a mixed media artist who uses machine embroidery, wood, paint and collage to produce his beautiful work.  I can't wait to see what he has to say.  I think it would be fascinating to incorporate handspun into work like that.

I will report back what I discover!

Angelina arty yarn

I'm a pretty steady spinner, I'm driven more by colour than anything else, but why would people necessarily buy a yarn they may be able to buy in a wool shop from me when it will cost more? Well because it's so high quality and a complete one off of course!

So in order to try something new, I decided to try something a bit off the wall for me and I retrieved my box of Angelina fibres from the top of the shelf and my carder and set to.

Here's the finished yarn, photographed on a notebook on account of the ridiculous March weather, this is a photo of my neighbour's garden in the blizzard (it's nicer than mine).

The Angelina fibres need to be pretty thick to have any effect on the plied yarn, but I do enjoy plying thick and thin and seeing the fibres flash here and there.  Now I just have to think what to do with it.

If we don't use our yarn for knitting or weaving, how can we use them?  Going to experiment and see what I can do with it.  Other than take it out of the box, look at it and then put it back.  We'll see.....

New Neons

Colours are often what drives textile lovers. Couldn't you just stand and stare at boxes of yarn or ribbons or bolts of cloth?

As a dyer, colours are always exciting, what shall I use, how will they mix, how different will they look when they're spun up or felted?

Now and again, if I have visitors or my daughter friends are over, I might ask them to pick a couple of dyes and have a go of dyeing the fibre. I like to do this because its always interesting to see what other people will put together.  I have my own thoughts on colours, but it's fascinating to see others ideas.

Hence the Hero dyelot. These are shades I would never have out together, I was surprised at my daughters friend Deborah's choices.  I was a little skeptical over how they would look once dried.  I was doubtful whether they would sell.  How wrong was I? They were gone within the first morning, the whole dyelot.  So here they  are again in all their neon glory.  Bearing in mind that neons are right on trend!

So thanks Deborah, just goes to show how it helps to have another point of view!

If you like the look of these fibres, they're here, along with some new more subtle shades

www.lazy-kate.co.uk