A Celebration Of Wool

UPDATE, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Just to let you know of my next Event at Quarr Abbey.
I'm very excited to be taking part in this new event and it will be so nice to be exhibiting at Quarr in early Spring time for a change.
If you are on the Island we hope to see you there.

Meanwhile we will be busy in our home studio making new items to sell through our online shops

Muted Colour Inspiration

 A Sunrise on the south coast of the Isle of Wight- Ventnor.

 Steep Hill Cove Beach- Ventnor
Peddles, rocks and sea

Looking across to Ventnor Harbour

A seaside collection of driftwood

 The promise of Spring- Snowdrops

Muted Colour Inspiration

These wonderful colours were just singing out to me on a beautiful February day.

I'm drawn to the blues, greys, lavenders, the soft tangerine oranges and browns. Light is so precious in the winter days and to be bathed in the gentle winter sun absorbing the muted hues of the sky, sea and land is so inspiring.

I gather my yarns to plan a weave.

Weaving on the David 2 Loom

 My first blog post for 2020 is the very first weaving I made on my new David 2 Loom.
It was hand woven back in October last year, now as promised you can see the loom all dressed and producing cloth.

I used a linen cotton blend from Rowan for this first weaving something that is easy to warp up with. I wanted to avoid any problems such as broken warps or sticky threads so this was a perfect choice while I got to know my lovely new loom. I dressed the loom with a 5 metre warp a pattern of 3 wide stripes 120 ends.

 On the warping frame, then chained off ready to use

 The David 2 Loom is dressed from the back to the front, using lease sticks and the built in raddle.
So simple and very satisfying to do, it was easy to load 5 metres of warp on to the loom without assistance.

 In these two photos you can see the raddle at the top separating the warp threads and spreading them out to the correct width. In the bottom photo you can see the lease sticks holding the cross for ease of heddle threading in the correct order.

  The warp is rolled onto the back roller of the loom, I use strong paper to wind it up with, this keeps the warp threads neat and tight.

 I thread the heddles

 I sley the reed

 Then I was ready to weave, the David 2 Loom offers a beautiful wide shed to throw the shuttle and weave the weft.

 I wove this project in Plain Weave or Tabby, the tie up only uses two treadles.
I wanted to just understand and get the feel for the loom as well as produce something beautifully simple from the exercise. Having three colours of equal width across the warp and weaving a border at either end of the runner gave me an interest of design I was looking for.

 The grand first cutting the cloth off the loom was so special! Once washed my new table runner and two mats look and feel pretty good for a first project off the loom.

The whole process was brilliant, I know I made the right decision in choosing this particular make of loom. David and I are going to get on very well indeed.

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