And finally - the last club of 2012!

Inspired by Vicky and by watching the amazing Frozen Planet with David Attenborough over Christmas, December's club was "No Two Snowflakes Alike"...

Corriedale roving for Roving Medley members...

Silk hankies, Corriedale and Teeswater for my Fibre Adventure Club

And some squooshy alpaca/wool/nylon for Supersock Medley members

Dyes Past and Present

Our final outing of the year was to Buckinghamshire Guild for a talk and natural dyeing demo.

I'm fascinated by dye history but in particular, modern dye history, and over the last couple of years I've been amassing an interesting and much beloved collection of sample cards, samples books and recipes, dyes and all kinds of dyeing memorabilia. I realise that this wouldn't light most people's fire but I love researching old dyeworks and tracing the development of today's dyes from the early days of natural dyeing through William Perkin's revolutionary discovery of mauveine to the dyes we use today.

On which subject, one of my recent acquisitions was an original letter from William Perkin to fellow scientist, Dr Gladstone, from 1876, just 20 years after Perkin discovered Mauveine.

I don't have photos of many of the items in my collection but I'll try and take some and share them with you when I get a few minutes. (Don't worry, I'll flag up the post so that if this is about as exciting to you as someone else's holiday photos you can skip it!).

Anyway, I digress. The visit was most enjoyable - a lovely Guild and a very pleasant session. The mystery tour that was our journey home after a complete closure of the M40 was a different story but we got home safe and sound and that's what counts!

Thank you to the Guild for the invitation and for a lovely afternoon.

Nearly caught up - November clubs..

Almost there with the club catch-up pics!

November was inspired by fireworks but not, as you might think, the pop/bang/exploding kind. In a fantastic book at my in-laws I found pictures of the Fireworks Galaxy and it was so beautiful I thought it would make a terrific colourway.

This is the fireworks galaxy...

And this is the colourway it inspired...

Sparkly merino/nylon yarn with star-bright silvery stellina...

Softest grey Merino roving...

Silk noil, Suri alpaca fleece, black Shetland and a little swirl of sparkly trilobal nylon...

I have to say that for a bit of extra glitz I was very impressed with the dye take-up on the trilobal nylon using my procion dyes (acid dye method). I've only just started stocking this undyed and the colours were so rich and intense - yummy!