New Year, New Plans

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely festive season and have lots of plans for fabulous fibre-y projects in 2015.
I've been making plans for workshops for the new year! But unfortunately the tab for the page with workshop dates seems to have disappeared and so no-one can find it, so here's (edited to fix link) the  link.

I'm planning some experiments with Icelandic and Scottish Valais Blacknose fleece,

Icelandic sheep and lambs at Grunegerdi

Scottish Valais Blacknose sheep at Braco Show

Scottish Valais Blacknose fleeces delivered to my house!!!!!

lots of dyeing experiments

including getting into the blues (indigo),

and of course loads of knitting projects.
Currently on my needles I have this:

Jamieson & Smith yarn and pattern for Hairst, designed by Sandra Manson and modelled by Ella Gordon

a Hairst sweater (designed by Sandra Manson, with a traditional Fair Isle yoke), a Persian Dreams (Jenise Reid) hexagonal cushion in handspun and hand dyed yarn and the next in my Traces series (see last post).

I have a lace scarf to block, and on the sketch pad another Knitsonik inspired design, this time based on an antique book binding,

and a tunic for some hand dyed and blended yarn I spun last year. 
There will be a series of workshops in Auchterarder (Perthshire),here's (edited to fix link)   the  link to details for the first half of the year. There's spinning for beginners on Feb 15th and March 22nd; Solar Dyeing in the morning and Spinning Multicoloured Fibres in the afternoon of April 26th; Blending Coloured fibres on May 17th and Spinning for Texture (art yarns) on 21st June.

Even more exciting than these, the renovation work on my seafront flat in Oban (Argyll) is now underway. It will provide a fantastic space for knitting and spinning, with a sea view

and a wood-burning stove for colder days. Once the works are complete I will be planning some spinning and knitting retreats, workshops, maybe some guest tutors and hopefully a monthly knitting group on Saturday mornings. I'm also going to 'branch out' and offer a book-origami workshop, so let me know if you are interested.

upcycled books

Plans are also afoot for spinning workshops in Florence in March and near Turin in May, and for a return to Shetland Wool Week in September/October. Jamieson & Smith have invited me to repeat the popular beginners' spindle spinning and fleece preparation workshops that I ran there last year, and I'm cooking up something else too - so keep an eye out here on the blog, and/or on my Facebook page, for updates!

I hope you'll join me for some of the activities and adventures I have planned, and that 2015 gives us all time to complete at least some of our projects!