Indigo dyeing is such a magical process! In case you missed the pics on Facebook and Instagram, here’s a little gallery of the fabulous work produced by the students on my recent indigo dyeing workshop – Nature’s Beautiful Blues at Open Studios Altrincham. Starting with setting up the indigo vat, we clamped, printed, stitched and […]
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OCA – Mixed Media for Textiles – Textile
One of the frustrations of having had a broken back has been that my OCA Textiles Degree work was effectively on hold between March and December. As I was supposed to have finished, not only Module 2 – Mixed Media for Textiles – but also Module 3 by the end of September this is not […]
Workshops and Classes for 2017 – Now bei
Workshops and classes for 2017 are at long last starting to appear on the website. In addition to some favourite regular venues, I’m thrilled to be able to announce our new venue, Open Studios Altrincham, which is a lovely art studio in the centre of Altrincham, Cheshire. Easily accessible by Metrolink, train and bus, Open […]
Make a Card – Share a Smile! Thank you e
Latest news from Make a Card – Share a Smile! Phew, all the cards have now been dropped off! The lovely people of Sale, Trafford Young Carers, Brooklands Primary, Ravelry and the knitting, crochet, craft community have made well over 200 cards to be distributed to older people in Sale who might not otherwise receive […]
Dyeing to Spin & Spinning to Knit
I rarely offer spinning tuition as it’s my ‘me time’ but I had a lovely email requesting some one-to-one tuition and felt I couldn’t refuse! Jess asked if she could learn to prepare yarn, starting with the raw fleece, carding, dyeing and spinning. We started by washing some soft as butter Shetland and lustrous Leicester […]
Make a Card – Share a Smile!
Calling all card-makers and crafters! Welcome to Make a Card – Share a Smile! This is a special request to ask you to make a greetings card for an older person who might not otherwise receive a card this Christmas. In the excitement of Christmas and the hustle and bustle of festive shopping, it’s a […]
Eco-printing for beginners – new kit – “
We have had so many requests and messages from customers about eco-printing, slow textiles and eco-bundling! It seems that there are lots of you out there who have been admiring the eco-printing phenomenon from the sidelines and would love to give it a go but aren’t quite sure where to start. Because we can’t resist […]
Dyeing silk fabric – Achieving deeper sh
I had an interesting question from a customer recently about dyeing silk fabric for playsilks and I thought it might be of wider interest. Celine wanted to dye some playsilks for her daughter’s birthday. After an initial dyeing, the colours weren’t as saturated as she wanted. The fabric is pure silk and they were dyed […]
Dye history – exciting new book acquisit
Textile history books hold a fascination for me, in particular industry manuals that cover the 1800s to 1900s and the transition from natural to synthetic dyeing (bear with me, it’s not as boring as it sounds – ok, maybe it is a bit dry if you’re not a dye history enthusiast!). If you have heard […]
Free sock pattern download!
As I’m working through my back catalogue of designs I thought it would be nice to make some of my most popular designs available for free download. The first one is my Super Simple Socks pattern. It’s a top-down sock knitted in DK yarn. Our alpaca/wool/nylon sock yarn is perfect, but any DK yarn with […]