made in 2013

2013 was a year full of making.....

....new friends - in workshops, while demonstrating and while travelling in Italy, Shetland and Iceland

 

 

 

I washed buckets full of fleece....

and used some un-washed

Zwartbles

 

.... dyed some of it....

Solar dyeing

....with leaves....
forsythia, silver birch, woad, eucalyptus, golden sorrel, bronze fennel,

Forsythia

Silver Birch

eucalyptus

.... flowers .....
red hyacinths, hibiscus, daffodils, red and yellow carnations, buttercups, campanula, alchemilla, lavender, salvia, verbena, lily, hydrangea, (not all successful but worth trying!)

Alchemilla mollis

Buttercup

daffodil

... wood...
yew, logwood, brazilwood

....roots.....
madder

.... fruit ...
worcesterberries, jostaberries, purple grapes, passionfruit

Passion fruit skins

.... and vegetables.....
red cabbage, red and yellow onion skins, beetroot skins

Beetroot skins

...in fact just about anything that came my way...
....including Kool Aid

Mixed Kool Aid colours on grey Blue Texel and white Shetland fleece
before and after drum carding

and synthetic dyes - I dyed some lovely multi-coloured braids of Blue-Faced Leicester tops but I've lost the photos!

I reorganised my dye samples library (it took ages) to make it portable

 

and added some new plants to my dye garden including a lovely (and expensive) eucalyptus tree

madder

woad

 



I did hours of carding....

Blue Texel on the Louet 36pt drum carder

....and blended undyed wool to create gradients of colour....

and mixed dyed wool and other fibres....

.... for delicious multi-coloured textured batts

I spun all sorts of fancy yarns in workshops in Perthshire, Shetland and Italy.....

spinning a marl yarn from a mixed batt

Navajo-plying a singles yarn spun from a space-dyed braid

the Navajo-plyed yarn knitted up

Some subtly dyed lustrous wensleydale

.... and some lovely solid-colour yarn for my beloved Fair Isle knitting.

And of course I knitted, almost every day, sometimes with commercial yarn....

a cardi for my friend's baby; in Trekking sock yarn

Betty teacosy designed by Anne Kingstone; in New Lanark aran and Betty Stoller alpaca

another Betty

A simple hat (my design) in yarn hand-dyed by Elbert Espeleta

La Digitessa designed by Yarnissima; in Dreams in Colour

Peerie Flooers designed by Kate Davies, in Jamieson & Smith Shetland wool yarn

My version of Sissal designed by Jamieson & Smith, in their Shetland wool yarn

Garter stitch triangle shawl in mohair boucle yarn shade-dyed by me using home-grown Japanese indigo

Divided socks (two-at-a-time, toe up) my design, in Mirasol yarn

Sheep Carousel designed by Kate Davies, my modification (tail) in J&S Shetland Supreme

Christmas baubles, my design using traditional Fair Isle motifs, in J&S Shetland wool yarn

a fur-lined trapper hat for Kirsty (she liked it, but didn't enjoy being photographed!)

.... but my favourite projects this year were knitted with my own handspun yarn

Yarn: Fractal-spun hand dyed merino top dyed by Jon Dun-Ballam
Design: Northmavine Hap by Kate Davies

yarn: hand-spun hand dyed Blue-faced Leicester,
Design: Flight Gloves (my design)

and 2013's top project - my Scatness tunic - I used two dyes grown in my garden, two fleeces grown within 5 km of my home, five solar-dyed colours, two undyed colours, all spun and knitted by hand.

Yarns: Hand spun Blue Texel (grey), Zwartbles (black), Shetland (green, dyed with Silver Birch leaves then Japanese Indigo), and Bose (Italian wool) (dyed with 60% Logwood, 40% Logwood, Logwood plus Madder, and Beetroot)
Design: Scatness tunic by Kate Davies, my modification (pockets)