Printing

This morning I managed to grab a rare opportunity to do some printing. It seems like forever since my last session, and so of course the first few prints did not make the grade ...but perseverance pays off!
There is something so satisfying, almost alchemical, about peeling back the fabric to reveal the newly transferred image; the moment when one thing changes into something completely different. Magical :)
Hopefully these prints will become part of our new hemp dress design -I will keep you posted!

Autumn Knits

Oliver agreed to do some modeling for us - makes a real change to have a male model!

Here's our Pwll y Wrach pullover - in English this means 'Witch's Pool'. The water tumbles down from the Black Mountains above Talgarth, falling into a pool at the top of the woods before rushing on down through the trees in the valley. The whole of the wooded valley is a nature reserve - home to dormice, rare plants and much beauty.

As the sun shines through it creates splashes of brightness and dappled shade, reflected in the colour sequences in the patterning on the front of this pullover. The greens and yellowy golds come from weld, coreopsis, oak, and goldenrod.

Knitting in Colour

I've always loved knitting Fairisle type patterns. There's much debate over the name - probably better to describe it as stranded 2 colour knitting. The label 'Fairisle' should really only be used by Fairisle knitters, but it has come to be used as a generic term for this technique. There are many cultures around the world with traditional patterns knitted by stranding 2 colours in a row, and what we recognise as traditional Fairisle is just one.

Following my principle of using mostly undyed yarns, I've been working on some colour schemes for pullovers. In choosing the colours from our natural dyes, I aim to use those ones together that will still be defined after the colour has mellowed. This presents a challenge, as often the ideal combinations may not work in this way, and so compromises have to be made. But by using the undyed shades as a base for dying, the range is not as restricted as you may think. It just takes time to get it right when one has to go back to the dye pots!



The photo at top should, of course, be horizontal - just got to figure out why it insists on being vertical......the colours here are natural grey and brown with cochineal purple, cochineal and brazilwood pink, with a bit of oak and coreopsis for greeny colours.

The one below, faded hydrangeas, has white with oak, light cochineal on brown wool, and coreopsis for the gold.