h.Art herefordshire art week approaches

 

We are making preparations, looking forward to welcoming folk, hoping for good weather so as we can use the garden for displays and demos.

We are thrilled to be chosen from over 400 artists to have a photo of my weaving on the official flyers this year!

We will be opening our studios here at Hillside Cottage

from 10.30am to 5pm each day

 from Saturday 6th September to Sunday 14th September.

Sue Wright | Herefordshire Art Week

Hope you can pop along.

More for 2024

Weaving Cloth 

Hello, Welcome back to our blog. We are all fired up and ready to get stuck into lots of projects for 2024. 

I hope you will find items of interest and inspiration here on our blog as well as over on the

 Woollen Tree You Tube channel.

We have enjoyed the Christmas/New Year break. It has been lovely to ease up a little after such a busy 2023. Time with family and friends, time to re energize. I have spent January playing and experimenting in the studio, doing a bit of sewing and busy weaving cloth for myself and the home.

Pete has been busy building better storage in his own workshop as well as in my studio.

Sample Weave

Techniques on a Rigid Heddle Loom

We are back to it now and all set for more in 2024

Weaving, spinning, knitting, wood turning, dyeing and running workshops and open days.

Our garden is showing signs of Spring and we can't wait to get started on the growing year.

Our dear Hillside Cottage has had a fresh coat of exterior paint and looks beautiful and happy.

Heritage White.

So we do hope you will join us for 2024. We will be stocking the online shops over the coming weeks and opening up dates for workshops again.

Our  blog for 2024 will feature our country lifestyle, growing the garden and designing our home, along with sharing our love and joy of working in our chosen crafts in wood and wool.

We love our cottage life here, it isn't always rosy, things can be challenging as with everyone's lives.

Our workload is full of plumbing, fixing things up. The cottage needs attention and we are slowly doing up the place. 

We have a good garden and we are working to be as self sufficient in fruit/veg as possible. 

It is very special here, we have magnificent views, wonderful hills and woodlands surround us, a land steeped in history and dark skies at night filled with stars.

Hillside is home and it is magical. 

  

 

H Art and Upcoming Events Before Christmas

 

It has been a busy time here at Hillside Cottage. We were delighted with our first h. Art event!

What a wonderful week!

We had a mini heatwave, the sun shone every day, perfect for all our lovely customers to relax in the garden, purchase our  handwoven and wood turnery work from the Cabin. Lots of them enjoyed the weaving demos in my studio and signed up for some "learn to weave workshops".

Pop over to our Woollen Tree YouTube video to view.

(13) h.Art 2023 Venue | Woollen Tree - YouTube

We will be opening again for H. Art Christmas Open Studios the weekend of  2nd to 3rd December from 10am to 4pm. There will be a different feel to this event as the Cabin will be cosy with the little stove lit. The shelves will be filled with items to buy special gifts for the festive season. The garden will be decorated with fairy lights and weather permitting the Jovi tent will be in place again to offer a hot cuppa to customers as they browse and shop.  

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

We are now heavily into the pre Christmas season of craft fayres and shows so ;

Before our event at Hillside Cottage, Woollen Tree will be attending two more shows.

The first is Orleton Handmade and Gift Fair

The following is Made in HR6

 If you are in the local area we do hope to see you there!

We will be stocking our online shops over the coming weeks too, so please click on our links to view our Etsy, Folksy and Ko-fi sites (right hand column on web view site of our blog)

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!

Aymestrey Village Fete

We have been living at Hillside Cottage for ten months and we feel so at home here. The village has an annual Fete and this year we have loved taking part in a wonderful day.

For such a small village it was a really well attended event, with people travelling near and far to be with us all on a beautiful sunny day.

All the usual  entertainments were set up to enjoy for kids and grown ups alike!

Classic car clubs paraded their vehicles and the farmers proudly drove their Vintage tractors around the arena. 

Competition a plenty of course, from dog shows, throw a welly, tug a war and duck races.

And of course there was a big marquee for the garden produce, home cooking and craft competitions 

Yeap! my handwoven throw won First Prize!

Woollen Tree also had a stall in the small craft marquee where we were able to sell our work. So pleased we made a roaring trade. 

We actually won three prizes in total 1st 2nd and 3rd.

Thank you for visiting our blog, 

We have been so busy lately with the house, garden and our crafts so if you would like to see and hear more about what we do please visit our other online sites.

You can click on the links from the right hand column or below.

Sue Wright Handknits- SWH and WT at Woollen Tree on Folksy

Wood and Wool Naturally Hand Crafted by WoollenTree on Etsy

 

Woollen Tree - YouTube

(3) Ko-fi.com - Your Ko-fi

 

Natural Dye - Dandelion

 

In the Orchard area at the bottom of our Hillside Cottage garden we have an abundance of dandelions! So I decided to brew a little dye pot and capture a little of Nature's colour  growing there.

I wanted to use the flowerheads only for this dye bath. I placed them in a pot of water and boiled them up on our little camping stove. It was good to sit in the orchard, enjoying the spring sunshine and watching the wild life around me, baby rabbits squeezing under the hedge nibbling the long grass, kites circling above and the garden birds singing their many songs.

 

After about an hour of extracting the dye from the dandelion heads, I strained the liquid from them and added a couple of iron nails to the pot to help lift the colour a little.

My pre mordanted wool skein, 

 Shetland fleece handspun-alum mordant 

Then I added the wool to the dye bath and gently simmered the pot for another hour until the wool had absorbed all the colour 

Hanging the skein up to dry in the tree.

The pale yellow colour achieved is gentle and almost a soft lemon.

This wool will be used in my Saori weaving, when woven with other naturally dyed yarns it will give me a way to highlight, lift and lighten a piece of cloth.

This is my first natural dyeing at our new home - Hillside cottage.

It is thrilling to be able to source my colours from my garden. 

We have been busy creating a Weaver's Garden. A place to brew my colours on the firepit surrounded by home grown dye plants.

We will show you more over on our  You tube channel

shortly.

(63) Woollen Tree - YouTube  

A Day at Wonderwool Wales

 Now we live less than one hour's drive away from this venue it was great to visit Wonderwool Wales.

So much to see and buy! 

 I really enjoyed seeing the weaving that the students from the Carmarthen School of Art had been working on.

Jacob sheep and lambs were so friendly and seemed to be loving their day out too!

I came home with my little stash of goodies. Three extra large skeins of variegated dyed wools, a very big bag of coloured tops for blending and spinning. A soft lilac organic cotton spool to add to my weaving stock colours and a collection of paper patterns as I intend to start making my handwoven cloth into garments. 

That should keep me busy for a little while.

 

ODD SOCKS- Handknitting projects

 

Just delving into my knitting baskets and bags and noticed I have ODD SOCKS on the go!

When we used to have our little yacht handknitting was my "go to" craft. I would be able to take a bag filled with squishy balls of wool and knit away to my heart's content when at anchor or on our mooring on the river. Many pairs of socks and hand warmers would be knitted up while I sat and enjoyed watching the wildlife and Nature's colours on the water, 

Now I can see how I sub consciously chose my yarns of colour, very often taking the hues and reflections of the colours from the Sea.

And today, I still do.

In my bag I find soft hues of aqua, greens, turquoise and blues.

My two styles of socks on the needles at the moment are my slouchy sock

and my magic loop knit toe up afterthought heel design.

The slouchy sock is so comfortable, they are loose and soft, great for padding around the home.

Knitted on two needles, I enjoy knitting different coloured heels and toes with this design.

The magic loop system of knitting uses a circular needle and I tend to go for self patterning wool yarns to make these, I do often knit different coloured heels for contrast,

(knitting starts at the toe and the afterthought heel is added at end of knitting the main part of the sock). 

So today I think I will settle in and knit the other sock for each of these odd socks.

It's a grey old day, wet and drizzling outside so I will sit near the window and watch all the baby birds in our beech and holly tree in the garden and get some knitting done.

Look out for these two pairs of socks  in our online shops very soon!

Socks, Hand Knitted Slouch, footwear, clothing,... - Folksy

 

Lambs in the Fields

New Lambs in the fields at Quarr Abbey

Just spent a wonderful two weeks at Quarr Abbey holding our first exhibition and Craft show since December 2019 (due to Covid 19 restrictions).

It has been so good to be back and to meet some lovely customers, sell our work and catch up with our regular clients and friends.

The weather was cool and sunny, ideal for selling our hats, wraps and scarves for the Spring season.  It was pleasing to have new stock to offer in wood and wool along with organic cotton items.

Great to show off our new logos for Woollen Tree with each purchase and be able to share a little of what we do with the visitors. I took my spinning wheel to do some spinning demos which always interests young and old alike.

Families come to Quarr Abbey and enjoy feeding the piglets. As for me I'm always drawn to the fields with the sheep and new lambs!

Aren't they just adorable? and so full of mischief, curiosity and fun.

Doing our craft event has really given us a boost, we feel inspired to grow our Woollen Tree business. Selling our work means we can keep doing what we love and develop our designs and ideas.

Do pop over to our YouTube channel where we plan to show you more videos of our crafts in wood and wool.

 

Cast On, Warp of Possibility.

Back Roller Beamed

Winding a warp for my Saori Loom is always lots of fun. I love the way I can be completely free with my creativity. I selected some wool yarn from my stash and put them in a basket ready to make my warp. 

All the colours reminded me of happy days on the beach, looking closely at the rock pools, studying the sealife that lives in the warm shallows as the tide retreats.

It is a whole miniature world of beauty and mystery. When I started winding the warp I used "two threads in the hand" and mixed the different balls of yarn together in a random way. The hues and tones blended and became a gorgeous combination of woolly goodness!

Lease sticks for the cross

Warp ends on raddle, ready to thread heddles and sley reed

So now I have a Warp of Possibility!

It is completely unique. It awaits - calling me to come and weave.

My inspiration comes from those little rock pools, my next selection of yarn for the weaving will again be taken from my stash.

Just think all this is within my loom room a place to escape, imagine and smile fondly at happy memories to help me through the cold January days in Lockdown. 

 

Spinning Wheel Repair

It is great that Skipper is a Wood Turner.

I have been running some "Learn to Spin" workshops and this Ashford Spinning Wheel belongs to one of my clients, she bought it along to learn on but it required some repairs, so a little visit to  "WrightTurned" workshop was needed.

As you can see in the photo, where the treadle connects to the main leg of the wheel the wood had  become chewed up allowing the treadle pin to keep falling out, it was held in place with some cord.

First the hole was drilled out to make a clean purchase for a new piece of wood. The new wooden plug was hand turned on the lathe.

Shaped to give a perfect snug fit and hold firm. Then cut to size and rubbed down.

This is called a visible repair. It has strengthened the working part, is functional and looks in keeping with this lovely old wheel. 

The wheel was then given a service, buffed, oiled, fitted with a new double band and was all set to keep spinning for many years to come. As you can see it spins a treat!

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.  

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.