Grow Colour, Dye, Spin, Weave, Handknit.

                                                              Our Garden in Summer.


The end of 2019 already, my that was a fast year! Got a lot done, but still have so much more to do. Wintertime is always a bit of a struggle for me, cold, grey days wet, windy not my idea of fun. But I understand that Nature needs to rest and nourish herself to come back strong and fit.
 I love sunny warm days, blue skies and a happy sailing breeze. I look forward to the days getting longer and lighter.

However the winter days mean;
 I can start to plan next year's garden.
 I can get spinning the fleeces into skeins of gorgeous woolliness in preparation for natural dyeing from my garden plants.
I can sit at my looms weaving in colour, texture and joy to my cloth.
I can sit in front of a roaring fire knitting next year's stock of handwarmers, cowl and socks.

So as this year comes to an end and we start a new decade, I hope you will pop in and enjoy reading my blog. I will be updating its look, so please bear with me.

2020 will be exciting, I have plenty of posts to share.

A big thank you to all our customers, thank you for making Woollen Tree grow from strength to strength.
Wishing you all a Happy Healthy New Year!

Our Annual Craft Show At Quarr Abbey

We will be attending our annual craft show at Quarr Abbey. 

We open next Thursday 5th December and run to Tuesday 17th December.

Our online shops will be open every evening from 5.00pm GMT throughout this time.

My New David 2 Loom From Louet

 I'm so thrilled and excited, my brand new loom has arrived and it is absolutely beautiful, superb quality and a dream to weave with.
It is a David 2 Loom from Louet. It is a 90cms 8 shaft loom, if you would like to look up more details on this loom view this link to website of the supplier I chose to purchase mine from or go to Louet's own website.

https://www.georgeweil.com/home

My loom arrived direct from Holland on a pallet and was very well packaged. The Castle of the loom was already assembled as this loom operates a CAM system, also the shafts and heddles were in place which meant it was just a matter of following the instructions to complete the loom's construction.

Skipper was quickly on the case and together we enjoyed an afternoon of building the loom in situ.

 The Texsolv heddles surrounded by packaging all needed cutting apart ready to weave.

 The front legs fitted in place along with the 10 treadles.

 An easy to follow instruction book with photos makes life easy.

 Here we are all ready to weave, the warp beam, cloth beam, brake, beater, reed and so on all awaiting the first warp.

I'm using a linen cotton blend from Rowan for my first weaving. something that is easy to warp up with. I dressed the loom with a 5 metre warp a pattern of 3 wide stripes 120 ends.

I will let you know how the first weaving on my David 2 Loom goes!

Absorbing Nature and Her Colours

This September I spent a lovely day with WSD Guild Isle of Wight naturally dyeing our wools. Brewing up wonderful colours from Nature working outdoors on an open fire. It always feels magical when an old madder root or some dry old leaves and stalks give up some beautiful colours! 

absorbing Nature in the wool

Skipper and I also made our way to Devon for a most relaxing week in the hills.

I took my water colour paints and tried to capture the ever changing moods and colours of Nature,

quite impossible!! but I had a great time doing something different from my wool spinning, weaving and hand knitting.

However we were still in our element as we stayed on a working sheep farm in really lovely accommodation and we had the exclusive use of the summer house and fishing lake with a boat!

The sheep would come down to the lake to drink.

The water reflecting, the colours amazing. The Lake was buzzing with wildlife. water boat men, dragon flies of many colours, mayflies, kingfishers and swallows ever busy.

In the lake were so many different fish ranging from the tiniest minnow, small trout to big carp. 

We both managed to catch a few and admired their most detailed colourful scales and tails, simmering and full of life.

Absorbing Nature all around us

Putting them back in the lake gently saying "thank you" for the privilege. with a flick of their tails they dive back down to the depths of the water.

It is so good to "just be"

Taking some time to recharge, relax and be absorbed in Nature. no need to watch the clock, the Sun will tell you when to rise and sleep, your body will tell you when to eat.

I feel my colour senses have been  re-awakened. My energy levels topped up and I just can't wait to get the Saori Loom warped up to start a colourful weave using my newly dyed yarns.

Autumn Winter is the busiest time for my business, with craft events booked and supply of new stock for shops to organise. Projects to knit and weave and with my weaving workshops now up and running I shall enjoy being absorbed snug and warm in all the woolly colours of nature!

At the summer house

The link to where we stayed 

https://www.independentcottages.co.uk/devon/oakwood-farm-ref1371

Solar Dyeing, Using the Sun to Natural Dye Wool in the Garden

 This is the first time I have had a go at Solar Dyeing some wool. It was so easy and great fun watching the colour deepen and very satisfying to achieve such a lovely sunshine colour from my garden.

The method to solar dyeing is so simple,
1st
Find a glass jar, this is an old coffee jar, make sure it is clean.
2nd
 Pick / gather fresh flowerheads, I chose calendulas and coreopsis from the garden, both are very good plants for natural dyeing.
3rd
Fill jar with very hot water, a pinch of alum, a pinch of cream of tartar, a pinch of soda ash (to mordent the wool). Add wool.

Leave jar in full Sun for about two weeks, turning and gently shaking every few days. I added a new flower bloom now and again too just for fun!

The Sun would warm the water each day and the dye colour deepened.

When I was happy with the colour I rinsed the contents of the jar in fresh cool water, removing the old flowerheads and leaving the wool out to dry.

Now I have a small sample of Shetland fleece ready to be carded and spun. I just know this will look amazing in some Saori weaving.

I'm now collecting glass jars so as I can have a full row of Colour Dyes made by the Sun in my garden next year.

A Day Out At The Rare Breeds Show

 Spent a lovely day at  The Rare Breeds Show at Singleton, lots to see and do. I enjoy seeing the multitude of sheep, so many different colours and types of fleece.
 As wool is the main material for my craft as a spinner, weaver and knitter, it is so good to witness the care, love and pride in their flock that the farmers, smallholders, families indeed shepherds young and old bestow upon their animals.
It is so important to keep these rare breeds going, they are our heritage and our the future.

The Champions of the Show 

The show was in a perfect setting at the Weald and Downland Living Museum 

https://www.wealddown.co.uk/

It is the location for the BBC Series The Repair Shop

https://www.wealddown.co.uk/bbc2s-repair-shop-filmed-museum/

As a living museum there is so much to do and see, demonstrations of old crafts from blacksmithing to milling, baking to weaving.

Beautiful old buildings with gardens planted out in the life long traditional way, so as to be used to supply the home for food, herbs and medicines and natural dyes.

These gardens were alive with colour, wildlife, birds, bees, butterflies. 

which can only be the best way to garden, happy, happy, happy.  

Brief Jottings on June

 JUNE  

A few notes and jottings for this month. Cropping the first lavender - hanging up in the studio to dry. I will use it in my hand woven lavender bags and sachets. I always put fresh sprigs layered in my fleece and wool storage too.
Harvesting my woad seed - I will dry them and pop them in a paper bag to store ready for next year's sowing.

 Had so much fun with sticks and wool by weaving some very organic artful  stick/ branch weaving
They will be little woolly accents placed around the garden allowing the flowers and plants to grow and intertwine.

AND

I held my first "Learn to weave on a Rigid Heddle loom" workshop.

Back in my March post I said this was something I had been planning to do for a while, so it was really good to introduce and share the joy of weaving with two students and thrilling to see their happy faces as they went home clutching their very first weavings. 

Coat Jacket - Hand Woven On My Saori Loom

Making the cloth

Here you can see the warp and weft of the cloth on the loom as I weave the colours and textures together.

Woven cloth rolled on the beam.

Newly woven cloth cut straight from the loom and laid out. Can  you see the small slits in the fabric at intervals through the right hand side of the cloth. These are where I wove the collar shapings as I created the weaving. It means that there is less cutting to do when I sew the jacket together so giving me a neater finish. 

Cutting and Washing the Cloth

I always have to take a deep breathe here. Double check, measure twice, cut once.

Then all the pieces are washed to Full the Fabric and hung out to dry on a lovely sunny day.

SEWING A GARMENT

 A little bit of sewing and the Jacket all comes together!
I hand knitted the drop sleeves, the collar and front trim.

THIS JACKET WAS HAND WOVEN AND INCLUDES HANDPAINTED AND NATURALLY DYED YARN WITH SOME HANDSPUN SLUBS IN THE CLOTH.

IT HAS HAND KNITTED SLEEVES AND FRONT TRIM.

WOVEN IN THE SAORI WAY, BEAUTIFULLY SLOW CLOTH.

Daffodils! Natural Dyeing

 I love the Spring I'm enjoying the fresh new colours of the Season.
Time for some more natural dyeing, this month with some Daffodils.
 

Using just the flowerheads Bubbling up a nice Dye Bath.

 Straining the plant matter ready to add the pre- mordanted wool.

 I used some of my hand spun Shetland yarn.
 Rather than do an exhaust dip to produce a lighter shade of yellow I divided the dye bath solution into two pans. One pan I added soda ash at the start of the dye process, the other pan I added the soda ash right at the very end of the brewing.

 This gave me some subtle shades of yellow along with a nice depth of yellow colour.

 Here are the skeins hanging on our Woollen tree to dry in the Spring sunshine.

You can probably notice in this photo that the ties that secure the skeins and stop them from tangling  are of different colours to the yarn, here- red, navy and orange. I always use contrasting colours for my skeins so as I know where they are tied to avoid accidently snipping the yarn when balling them up. I have to be certain that the yarn I use for this task is colourfast of course so as not to corrupt my dye colours.  

A small sample of approximately 150g of Shetland hand spun wool, natural hand dyed with daffodils.
I just know it will come in handy for my knitting and weaving projects.

Room For A Loom

 Of Course! There is always room for another loom. This Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom needed a new home, it was looking very sorry for itself with an old woolly warp tied on and a gathering of dust and dirt to clean. But as a weaver I saw the potential in this old loom. It is in very good working order and all it needed was a little TLC to get it up and weaving again.

 A good wash and clean with wood soap.

 Then a visit to the WrightTurned work shop, where Skipper got all the working parts running smoothly and  gave it a wax polish treatment and buffed it up to a beautiful sheen.

All warped up and happily weaving once more 

An Ashford Rigid heddle Loom is a perfect loom for the beginner. It is simple to use. Using one is a great introduction to weaving and as I intend to offer "Learn to Weave" sessions in the future this little loom will be very useful. It will certainly find itself busy once more.

Meanwhile I shall use it for small projects when they come up.  

Whorls, Weights and Beads - Ancient Ways

 Whenever I can I love to visit museums. I'm always looking out for anything to do with the craft of spinning, weaving and dyeing wool. I like to see old drop spindle whorls, weights for weaving looms and ancient beads for decoration. These are often made of clay or glass. Such small everyday objects are so fascinating as they give us an insight into the times past.

 A recent visit to Winchester museum inspired me to try and make some whorls, weights and beads of my own and I wanted to produce them in the old way. Now this is where having a sister who is a potter and a husband who is wood turner really comes in super handy!! 

 So first I begged some clay from my sister and made some very naïve simple shapes and forms. I pressed or drew various patterns into the clay form.

 Then allowed them to dry. I knew that my sister was going to do a "Pit Firing" so I handed my little whorls,weights and beads into her safe keeping and she was able to place them into her kiln.

Please pop over to her blog to read all about her Pit firing kiln session.

http://potsandpaint.blogspot.com/2018/11/pit-firing-2018.html

 I am absolutely thrilled with the results! The ancient way in which they have been fired means my little clay creations have taken on beautiful colours. The natural materials used in the pit to decorate them makes them unique.  

 Now I handed the whorls over to Skipper in his work shop where he hand turned a spindle to fit so as I could construct a Drop Spindle for hand spinning
 

I shall use the weights to tension any odd warp thread on my loom. I might use the beads in a knitting or weaving project by incorporating them into a bag or item of clothing.

The real adventure here was to try to understand and feel a little of the history of spinning, weaving and dyeing, so to have some whorls, weights and beads which look like the museum items that  inspired them gives me a happy smile.