Colourwork Knitting at the Yarn Barn

Undaunted by the recent snow my intrepid bunch of knitters arrived brisk and early for a colourwork workshop at the Yarn Barn in Milnrow. My lovely group enthusiastically got stuck into mosaic (slipstitch) colourwork knitting, Fairisle and even knitting continental-style with a yarn in either hand :-)

With Judith as our lovely hostess (and her lovely, spacious shop to be tempted by!), some lovely wristlets and wristwarmers were produced...

Thanks for a lovely day ladies :-)

Oh, nearly forgot -  I'll be doing more workshops for Judith throughout the year, including beginner's crochet, knitting in the round, socks, illusion knits and more, so be sure to check the programme for details :-)

Workshop news! - Blockprinting on Card and Fabric

Fancy a creative Friday workshop blockprinting? I'll be showing you how to make a lovely tote and cards using these beautiful Indian stamps at The Make It! shop in Chorlton. It's fantastically simple and you can create great effects with just basic acrylic and textile paints - and best of all, no drawing or painting skills required!

 Here are some simple examples I printed up on card and fabric.

And here's my finished cotton tote.... fun, fast and easy!

New workshops! Felting at the Make It shop

I've been having some fun with needle felting recently - it's a fab way to make quick and easy gifts and decorations without needing lots of expensive materials or equipment. And of course, it wouldn't be fair to keep all the fun to myself so I've been running some workshops, too :-)

It's always lovely when a new crafty venture opens but especially lovely when it's a friend's latest adventure! Danielle of Rubbish Revamped fame has just opened a great new shop in Chorlton. The Make It! Shop is packed with craft supplies and there is an exciting timetable of craft workshops and taster sessions if you fancy a couple of hours trying a new skill or making something special.

Last week we were making cute needlefelted robins and gorgeous Christmas ornaments. I'm afraid my camera was having a bit of a meltdown so the photos aren't great, but I thought you might still like to see some of the lovely pieces the groups made.

I'll be running another needlefelting workshop in January - join me at the Make It! Shop on 10th January and make one of these cute owls and a stylish brooch/corsage.

We've been on the telly :-)

You may recall that earlier in the year I had a great time being filmed at Armley Mills Industrial Museum by the BBC for a new series, Glorious Gardens from Above. The programme showcased our Growing for Colour project - a community dye plant and edible garden - maintained and nurtured by Hyde Park Source and their group of enthusiastic volunteers and there was a short piece by yours truly showing our heritage dyeing group dyeing knickers (I know) with a selection of plants from the garden.

The series is now airing and our episode is part 4, currently available on BBC iplayer here. It will only be available for 4 weeks though, so don't delay!

If you're a gardening enthusiast you'll no doubt have heard of the show host, Christine Walkden. Her passion for the gardens she visits is amazing and she visits some beautiful gardens during the course of the series - well worth watching! (and no, we didn't get to go in the hot air balloon).

Dyeing al fresco!

A good summer has had an added, unexpected benefit - al fresco workshops!

Rachel's lovely shop at Sitting Knitting just outside Birmingham is in a beautiful old building but it's even nicer when we can take the tables, pots and pans outdoors.

Introduction to dyeing was the order of the day and the group produced a super range of sample cards and some very inspiring mini-skeins.

By the afternoon they were in full swing producing beautiful colourways....

Beautiful, no? And if you'd like to see more, including some lovely finished projects, have a look at Rachel's facebook page

Thank you to Rachel for a lovely day - we'll look forward to seeing you again soon!

Summer School 2015 - The Dyer's Recipe Book

Hand-dyed wool samples with synthetic dyes

 I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that I'll be tutoring again at the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers Summer School next August (2015) :-)

My course this time will be an in-depth focus on making your own dye recipe book, creating repeatable colours and colour theory using synthetic dyes. There will, of course, be lots of scope for putting your knowledge into practice, trying out some fun dyeing techniques and generally having a great time with colour exploration but if you're keen to get a good grounding in predicting and planning colourways, this will be an ideal course for you!

You'll find lots more info about the venue, prices, course programme and how to book on the Summer School blog here. For information about the Association in general (and some great pics of last Summer School) the main website is here.

And, if you'd like to see some of the photos from my last Summer School courses, there's a tiny taster selection here

If you've never been to a Summer School before it is an amazing experience - a whole week of textile exuberance - expect to see spinning wheels round every corner, knitters in every nook and cranny, weavers beavering away into the wee small hours and wall-to-wall chatter about all things textile-related! Heavenly!

Growing for Colour Project at Leeds Industrial Museum

Growing for Colour is a new project I'm really excited to be involved with. The project is a collaboration between Leeds City Council, Hyde Park Source and DT Craft & Design (that'll be me, then!) to convert part of the outdoor space at the Leeds Industrial Museum site at Armley Mills into a colour garden, filled with interesting traditional dyeplants. Working with volunteers we'll be clearing the garden area, planting lots of exciting dyeplants, and dyeing fabrics and yarn with our homegrown and locally foraged dyestuffs.

Yesterday we had our first session. The sun shone bright and warm and the rain the previous night had nicely softened the ground, perfect for weeding and digging!

We had a bit of work to do refreshing the beds and borders after winter, and some of the plants have made themselves very much at home!

 A quick survey of the beds did reveal some tentative shoots of goldenrod,

tansy

and a couple of possible woad plants.

A nice healthy crop of madder was also spotted so I think we can look forward to some good reds!

I've been busy taking photos so I can do a bit of plant-spotting before next week as some of the plants aren't quite big enough to identify yet, although there may be some hollyhocks. We also have dyer's chamomile enjoying the spring warmth in planters along the front of the mill cottages.

A spot of seed planting after a picnic lunch courtesy of the Armley Town Street Hub's Pay as You Feel Cafe

After a hard day's work, our borders are almost ready for planting and our first crop of seeds is sown...

If you'd like to join us, simply come down to the Museum between 11am and 3pm on Tuesday. All materials are provided but bring a packed lunch and outdoor clothing (we've booked sunshine but you just never know!). Our next session will be preparing our yarns and fabrics for dyeing, doing a spot of foraging for local, wild-growing dyestuffs on the site and having a look at what you can re-purpose from your kitchen and cupboards to produce lovely colours - see you next week!

Felt-making - Felted Jewellery in Blackpool

I do enjoy my trips to visit the lovely Paula at the Westcliffe Hotel in Blackpool and not just because I get a very nice breakfast on arrival (!). Paula's knitting holidays are always popular and the guests are so warm and friendly - you'd think they'd all been friends for years!

 Felted jewellery was on the menu this time and the group quickly got to grips with making their felted fabrics. We started with felt-in-a-bag (aka minimal-mess felt!) for brooches later on.

Then it was on to felt "sausages" for bracelets and necklaces and beads for bangles.

After a very nice lunch everyone got busy assembling their felt, making some lovely brooches, corsages and jewellery, embellishing with beads and stitching..

 

Self-patterning yarns - dyeing workshop at Purl City Yarns

I love this particular workshop because it combines not only the essentials of learning to dye yarns but it also brings in some real creativity around developing colourways and creating a planned yarn. It's also fun working out how to use chairs, tables and string to make improvised skein winders to make 10 metre long skeins!

And if you're not sure how this works, here are our skeins-in-progress, upstairs in the lovely workroom at Purl City Yarns in Manchester...

Colourways and patterning....