Twenty Twenty Three

 

Good Health Cheers

Well here we are already! The year is drawing to a close. Once again the year seems to have whizzed by.

All the good intentions of keeping up to date with this blog, so much I could have written, perhaps I will do better next year ;)

We hope our Woollen Tree YouTube along with other online sites have been of interest. Thank you for your continued support. 

We endeavour to bring you a little insight into our lives at Hillside Cottage, deep in the North Herefordshire countryside and love to show you our makes in our studios.  

2023 saw us

Building and fixing;  

Hillside Cottage has been having lots of renovations.

New heating system, external repairing and painting.

A brand new Creative Cabin studio in the garden.

Growing;

Garden harvest, bumper crops of fruit/veg

all pickled or made into chutney, jams and frozen.

Crafting for;

 Weaving workshops

Art Open Studios

Craft shows

Being inspired to continue; 

Weaving, wood turning

Spinning and dyeing

Handwoven cloth

Woollen Tree has found a good place to grow, its roots are deep in this beautiful place now. We are constantly inspired by the wonderful countryside around us.

I revel in all of Nature's amazing colours and try to produce handwoven cloth that reflects this. I have been growing plants and using them for natural dyeing in our garden.

Pete is enjoying sourcing local wood for his wood turnery. I will definitely be filming a bit more in his workshop so as you can see how the beautiful pieces are made.

Lots of plans for 2024 but for now, we have closed the Etsy and Folksy shops for the Christmas holidays and look forward to some family time. We will open again in January 2024

We wish you a very Happy Christmas time and a healthy and Peaceful the New Year.

 

H. ART HEREFORDSHIRE ART FESTIVAL 2023

 

We are holding our first Open Studio Event at Hillside Cottage 

as part of 

H. ART HEREFORDSHIRE ART FESTIVAL 2023

The event runs from Saturday 2nd September to Sunday 10th September.

We will be open every day from 11am to 5pm 

Sue Wright | Herefordshire Art Week (h-art.org.uk) 

We are looking forward to showcasing our work, our new "Creative Cabin"  will be full of items to purchase, the studio will be open for demos and the garden an ideal place to relax and be inspired.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Blog on

 Well, here we are nearing the end of 2022 already. As you may have noticed our blog is a little less full with chit chat this year. You know when "stuff happens" things not in your plans and you just have to get on with it and make it up as you go along- well we have been having some of those times.

Also now we are up and running on You Tube and Ko-Fi along with our online shops time at the computer tends to be spread over all these platforms. 

However we really want to keep this blog going for the projects and activities we would like to share with you all in more depth, whether it be on weaving, spinning and dyeing or wood turning, garden and home renovation. There really is plenty to talk about and get stuck into next year.

Meanwhile we just want say All Good Wishes for the Festive Season and Peace, Health and Happiness for the New Year. 

Thank you for reading our little blog, watching our YouTube, supporting us on ko-fi and purchasing our work. It really inspires us to create, develop and keep our "Woollen Tree" growing

The photo above is of a beautiful old Oak Tree in the field on our way to the woods opposite Hillside Cottage. It offers strength, wisdom, stability and endurance in the storms.

 I say hello and hug it as I pass by, I love to be near it and look up into its mighty canopy. 

New Home, New Studios for Woollen Tree

GARDEN STUDIO

Well the reason there was no blogpost for September is -

We have moved house!

After many happy years on the Isle of Wight, we have found a delightful cottage in Herefordshire to make our new home. so much to do, so many plans.

We are so thrilled and excited.

We have a much bigger garden, so I will be able to grow more veg as well as plant a weaver's dye garden.

We both will be setting up our Woollen Tree studios. 

Mine for weaving. spinning and dyeing, Peter for his wood turning. 

  

GARDEN STUDIO

I shall have the garden studio to start and plan to build another studio alongside so as I can run my workshops all year around.

THE BARN STUDIO

Peter will be setting up in here. We shall post updates on our fitting out and setting up our creative spaces.

Pleased to have gorgeous views of hills and woodland all around and a flock of sheep in the field next to us!

The village has made us so welcome, we just know we have found our forever home.

There are lots we want to do with the cottage too, to make it eco friendly such as solar panels etc.

I think we will have plenty to share with you in our blog as we start this new adventure.

Meanwhile we continue to unpack boxes and settle into our new home. We have opened up our online shops after a short break and will be loading more stock for the new winter festive season ahead.

 

Our YouTube Channel

New and exciting things are happening at Woollen Tree

We are pleased to announce we have our own Youtube channel

It's very early days and we have uploaded a short video on Saori Weaving Cloth as a taster.

here is the link 

Woollen Tree - YouTube

We have so many ideas and plans for this new venture.

 Please  click the Subscribe/like/comment buttons on the site to increase our presence there and help our little  Woollen Tree to grow. thank you.

It will be good to share our skills, experience and passion for our work and I hope you will enjoy tuning in and discovering more of what we do in weaving, spinning, dyeing, knitting and wood turnery.

Of course it is a whole new learning curve for us in photography and film making! luckily we have two sons who know a lot more about tech than us, so we will be seeking their help as much as we can.

There will be more videos there just as soon as we have them ready Enjoy!

 

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.

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.

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.

Weaving Part 2 -Woven Weft With Hand Spun Natural Dyed Wool

 Back in October last year, I blogged about the Warp of my weaving process. This post is about the next part of weaving to make the cloth.

 The Weft -This is the crosswise thread on my loom that passes over and under the warp to make the cloth.

For this particular project, "a small wall hanging", I chose some of my handspun wools which I had naturally dyed in my garden over the summer (please view earlier posts for this process).
A small selection of  Shetland, Jacob and Suffolk fleece were handspun on my wheel then dyed with various natural colour sources such as  woad, logwood, brazilwood and eucalyptus.

 The balls of wool always look so inspiring and beautiful together when naturally dyed.
I do a rough plan for how I want to weave the colours through, so as I develop a gradient flow of  colour in my work.

 The material is then wound on to either stick shuttles or my boat shuttles ready to weave the weft.

I love the rhythm of weaving, the absorbing nature of working with my hands and feet.

Slowly seeing the cloth grow and the colours blend together.

The thrill and satisfaction of taking a fresh fleece and spinning, dyeing and weaving it into something that is naturally beautiful.  

Ancient and Modern

Blue Woven Cloth

I have been busy weaving some cloth on my Saori Loom, enjoying the process, using my blues, purples and grey hued yarn to blend together in the warp and weft to make a soft subtle colourway. Adding handspun and hand dyed slubs as I weave to create texture and interest making my cloth unique.

My weaving has a modern twist, but the method of weaving cloth is an ancient craft.

My loom is a modern style, designed by  Misao Jo, but there are hundreds of different ways to weave and many different looms that have been made.

http://www.saorinomori.com/eng/index.html  

On a recent visit to Cardiff we spent an enjoyable morning looking around St Fagans Museum of Rural Life. It is a work in progress and well worth a visit, unfortunately the weaving mill wasn't open for our visit which was disappointing, but here is a loom set up in a Round House setting.

https://museum.wales/stfagans/

We were pleased to find while staying in the area the (forest and rivers) far Open Studios was on. So of course we had a little tour of galleries and studios, chatting to the artists and makers and being inspired by the work produced, particularly enjoyed spending some time with two lovely weavers.

Here are the links to their websites. Really beautiful work and it is so wonderful to see the energy, skill and enthusiasm of these talented young women. 

https://www.rhianwymandesign.co.uk/

  

https://www.gabydevitt.co.uk/

 Weaving from the Ancient to the Modern is an absorbing craft, the more I learn the more I want to learn, to improve and develop my skills. Hand weaving to make slow cloth - many hours, carefully made by hand and with thought and love.   

With the weather being so glorious Skipper and I just had to get on the River Wye again.
We hired a canoe for the day, took a picnic and made our way gently down the river around 14 miles of meandering bends and sparkling shallow shingle banks, watching the fish jump, herons sleep, swans and geese glide and seeing the hundreds of damselflies in countless colours dance above the water's surface.

Mid Summer Splash of Colour

 Well it's Mid Summer's Day today- the longest day of the year and it is promising to be such a lovely bright, sunny day too! I have lots to do, time to get outdoors to work and enjoy the weather. Taking my inspiration from the beach and our garden where everywhere is vibrant, colourful and full of energy.
 

 I have a Shetland fleece to work on. I shall get it carded and then hand spin some, as well as grab my dye colours to make some unique yarn.

 The rambling roses on our old cherry tree stump have mixed themselves up in a pleasing jumble of pale pinks and magenta, add in the shades of fresh green and a summer blue sky- a feast for the eyes! giving me a template colourway for weaving some cloth.
   

 Deep purple with red is bold and looks great in a hand knitted accessory. Remembering green  (as in Nature) balances the combination.

 Soft greens and whites makes for a soothing colour palette, great for knitted and woven homeware.

 Natural tones with highlights of neutral shades are perfect to use when wanting to pay attention to detail and textural structuring.

Using photos is a great way to quickly note, collect and capture an idea for a project.

Inspiring Colours

 There is plenty of colour inspiration at the Kaffe Fassett Exhibition currently running at

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont/features/christmas-at-mottisfont

It was lovely to visit and absorb all these wonderful colours on a winter's day.

This year I have been immersing myself in colour whether it be "naturally dyeing yarns" from my own garden plants or using prepared dye pots, it has been really good fun and the more I learn about the process the more I want to increase that knowledge.

And so back to my own Exhibition "Christmas Crafts at Quarr Abbey" It was another lovely week, the weather was sunny, crisp and very cold which was great for my sales! Hats, Hand Warmers and Scarves were my top sellers this year with some customers requesting " no need to wrap them I'll wear them now" which was very pleasing.  

Now we are in December already and the year has flown by. I think of all the places we have visited this year, the beautiful gardens and rivers and landscapes on the mainland in Devon, Herefordshire and Wales. Historical Castles, Houses, cities and towns all with little details that inspire- giving food for thought and of course our very own little Isle Of Wight's Downs and Beaches especially on a clear sunny day with the sea and sky so blue and the land so green. I have taken so many photos this year and gathered oodles of  inspirational ideas.

 I try to choose yarns and textures in my hand knitting and hand weaving to give a natural ease and simplicity to my work- following Nature's lead.

 Below photo shows some Hand Painted Rolags in the steamer.
These will be Handspun into soft gentle colourways.

 Here are some rolled up Hand Woven Light Weight Fashion Scarves

 The photo above I will use to plan a new design.
The photo below is of a length of cloth woven on my Saori Loom.

Looking forward to 2018

It will be the start of my 8th year writing my blog and I feel it is time for a bit of an update and re-design. I will be trying out a new layout and want to bring you more Casting on and Casting off Adventures on Wool and Water.

I hope you will pop back soon.

Wishing you all a Very Happy and Peaceful Christmas and New Year.