Dyeing For Colour. . .

Last month, I attended a really fun workshop at Ovis Yarns in Liverpool.  In celebration of Wool Week, we got to test out acid dyeing on mini-skeins of different breeds of British wool, finishing up with the chance to dye a larger quantity on our favourite base.

There are lots of different techniques to hand-dyeing;  we dipped, painted, splashed, speckled, and smooshed the dye - both in powder and liquid form -   onto our wool.  Below is a mini-skein of Wensleydale that I dyed.  Once you are happy with the result, you wrap it up in clingfilm like a sausage and put it in the microwave to set.




And this was the finished result. The setting softens the colours and brings out more depth.  I was very happy with my efforts.



We dyed a mini-skein of Jacob - the natural brown of the wool  goes really well with the greens.

And this was a mini-skein of superwash Bluefaced Leicester.  I'll admit to going a little bonkers with all the colours, but it'll make a nice contrast toe or cuff on a pair of socks. 

I wasn't at all happy with my initial attempts on this mix of Bluefaced Leicester and Masham - I was going for teals and mustards and it ended up becoming a really insipid limey-yellow.  So I overdyed the lot with a mossy green and it turned out fabulous!

Practice skeins completed, we were then let loose on some full 100g skeins of 4ply. I had ordered a few extra skeins of the BFL/Masham blend (my favourite) in advance to get a garment quantity. I really wanted to try speckling and though it looked okay initially . . . 

. . . a little of the powder goes a long way.  It got too squished in the rolling stage and when it was set, it came out more variegated than speckled.  I still like the colours though and I think these are destined for a striped garment of some sort.  I have several undyed skeins of BFL/Masham in my stash. 

Then I tried to replicate my mossy green practice skein, but dyeing is a precise recipe and this was as close as I could get. I am still pleased with them however - I did get the deeper greens in places, and I quite like the hints of turquoise and yellow that pop out every so often.  I think I will turn these into a summer top and alternate the skeins while knitting. It will be fascinating to see how they knit up.

There were five of us in the workshop and part of the fun (apart from getting to know some very friendly and inspiring knitters), was seeing all the different colour combinations that we came up with. We all had very different palettes and were drawn also to different styles of dyeing.  These group shots do show however, the similarities in tone and undertone that the different sheep breeds offered.

Jacob:

Wensleydale: 

BFL superwash: 

BFL/Masham: 

But my absolute favourites were these gorgeous skeins dyed by Jane. They look so professional and she nailed the soft autumnal colours that she was going for.  I can't wait to see these knitted up.

If you are in Liverpool, do check out Becky's workshop schedule here.  She's also starting to offer drop in dye sessions where you can bring your own skeins or purchase some from her.  I will conquer those speckles yet!

Too Hot to Blog, but not to Knit. . . .

July has come and gone and it's still hot and the UK still needs some prolonged rain.  How have you handled your urge to knit amidst the sweaty hands and a pile of wool sitting on your lap? I've been lounging under a leafy tree in my back garden and it's been fine, especially in the mornings. And, when I tote up what I've been working on last month, I've been surprisingly productive.  Probably because with the heat, I haven't had the energy to do more physical things, such as housework.  At least that's my excuse.  It probably helped too that I was glued to the telly for a good chunk of time - World Cup, Wimbledon and the Tour de France are all excellent opportunities for knitting. 

I finished my Anni and this cotton top has gotten a lot of wear.  It was really quick and fun to knit. I love how the colours work with each other, I used some deep stash and I still have several balls of the grey and olive so another top combining the two may be in the works. 

I made a few modifications including knitting an extra pattern repeat and also creating a split hem.  I really hate weaving in ends with cotton, so I left off the ribbing on the sleeves too - they had nice slipped stitch selvedges and I think it looks fine.  I did recently come across an excellent article by Kate Atherley on weaving in ends with a few techniques that I've not tried before, so if this is something you dread or procrastinate on, check it out here.

July was also the month of mystery knit/crochet-a-longs.  The Skimming Stones crocheted shawl is finished and this is my version.  I found each clue a bit similar each week so wasn't as engaged with it as I could have been.  I finished off the last bit - those ripples at the end - in the main colour rather than the mini-skeins as I just couldn't bear to weave in any more ends.

Ysolda Teague's Gloamin-Tide mystery shawl by contrast has been a completely engaging and intriguing knit.  I am just now finishing the last clue which is to fill in this square in the middle. I have certainly never constructed a shawl this way before and have thoroughly enjoyed working on this.

I still need more summer tops, so have cast on a Talavera from Pom Pom, Issue 13.  I am using an interesting yarn for this - the Scheepjes Woolly Whirl 4ply is a blend of cotton and wool and is a gradient with various marls in the colours. It comes in balls of 1000 metres, plenty to make this top but I will have to get a bit canny with matching the colours when I divide for the front and back.  Fortunately the colour changes are quite long but weaving in ends in lace is the worst! We'll see how this goes. . .

Look, two sleeves!!!!  These belong to Bressay, by Marie Wallin and are part of the Nature's Shades KAL from the Knit British group.  There are 22 rows of colourwork on each sleeve before you join it to the body and do the yoke.  Best motivation of all to get the boring bits of the sleeve done.  I'm now a few rows from finishing the body and hope to join them up next week.  Yarn is all from stash - the main colour is a luscious Wensleydale from John Arbon and I'm using bits of Zwartbles, and J & S Shetland Supreme for the other shades. 

And finally,  I am on the bottom hem of my Lotta dress.  I can't see the need for a woolly dress anytime soon, but this feels like an epic knit and I can't wait to get it off the needles.

My Year of Kate Davies. . .

Definitely more knitting than blogging going on here lately.

2018 is already turning out to be the year of Kate Davies. Last weekend, I finished my Warriston sweater and have been practically living in it ever since.  This is an older pattern of hers, but feels just as current and creative as her latest designs.  Sometimes you just want the satisfaction of a quick, chunky knit. I started this back in December, had knit most of the body and then put it aside. I was then working on a lot of projects on tiny needles; I really needed to pull this out and finish it and I'm so glad I did.

The yarn is Jamieson's of Shetland Aran in a rich chocolate colourway called Broch. It has flecks of deep blue and a bit of orange in it. It knits up a dream.  I decided to add a contrast colour for the pocket linings, just for fun. This is some Hebridean aran that I've had in my stash for yonkers. I like the unexpected pop of purple.

Kate's West Highland Way club is now in full force and everything she's released so far has been gorgeous. I used some of my remaining Milarrochy Tweed to knit the first pattern - the Craigallian hat.  I used all of her neutral colours and added just a teeny bit of the vibrant Stockiemuir green. Against the soft grey it comes out quite muted, but I like the effect. At some point I'll get around to casting on the accompanying mittens. 

Next up was the STUNNING Strathendrick which I cast on almost immediately.  It's a monumental bit of knitting - a huge, boxy, sweater - but I have nothing like it in my wardrobe and the fitted sleeves and split hem give it a very modern look. I'm not the biggest fan of flower motifs so have just removed them and left some white space.  I am loving the colours and yarn I have chosen.  It is all Jamieson & Smith jumper 2ply with the exception of the red which is Cambrian Wool 4ply in Welsh Red.  I bought four balls of this last year at WonderWool and have been waiting for the perfect project to show them off. I am smitten with the colour and think I'm even going to enjoy knitting the sleeves on this one.

I will be quite some time working away on Strathendrick, addictive as it is.  My aim is to finish it for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March.  However, that doesn't stop me planning my next Kate Davies design. This week she released this beautiful yoked cardigan completely at home among the mossy landscape of the West Highland Way.  I've been inspired to dig out my Hebridean wool for this. My precious 4ply from Uist Wool has also been waiting for the ideal project.  I have a few skeins of Alice Starmore's Hebridean 2ply that will hopefully work with it. It'll be a softer look than Kate's but I'm excited to cast on.  Though patience is definitely not one of my virtues, I will try to wait until I'm at least up to the sleeves of Strathendrick. Can't promise though.

This is my inspiration photo for the cardigan (which I may knit as a jumper - not decided yet). It's the view from the top of Eavel in North Uist and one of my favourite hikes from last year's Hebridean holiday.

What will Kate come up with next???

Happy Hebridean Wool. . .

Unlike my Shetland trip where I knew I'd have many opportunities to squish and purchase wool, my Hebridean holiday was planned guided walking within a group environment.  We were staying in some isolated B & Bs and we were going to be out walking all day i.e. during business hours, so  I thought the chances of coming across any wool would be fairly minimal and I was completely okay with that.  However, wool just seems to find me!

If you are ever in Ullapool on a Saturday, there is a small but delightful outdoor market set up in the parking lot across from the Ullapool Bookstore (also worth popping in).  And in this market are two wonderfully enthusiastic women originally from Harris, who take the Harris wool (that gets woven into the tweed) and ply three different colours together to create 100g balls of gorgeous marled yarn that knits up as an aran weight.  We arrived in Ullapool just half an hour before the market closed and since we had a couple of hours before the ferry to Lewis, I was just able to purchase some.

Doesn't this yarn look perfectly at home  in the Harris landscape?  I haven't decided yet whether to knit or weave with it.

Our second accommodation was a lovely hotel in the town of Tarbert on Harris.  And just five minutes away was the Harris Tweed shop.  It was closed when we arrived but again, as luck would have it, our ferry the next day wasn't until 11am.  So our guide arranged for a weaving demonstration.

This is Sean, the youngest in several generations of weavers in his family.  He's been winding bobbins since he was a small child at his grandmother's feet and he loves tinkering with these old weaving machines which are not only very fast with lots of complex components, but are quite noisy too. Here, he is weaving in a demonstration room but most weavers have these in their homes. He also told us that the cloth he weaves here actually can't have the Harris Tweed label attached to it; only tweed woven in the homes of Harris weavers can get that special designation.  Amazingly, there are only 192 weavers on Harris who supply all of that lovely fabric that is then sent around the world.  Sean donates his demonstration tweed to the local primary school in the hope that he'll inspire a future generation of weavers, but also some designers too.

I knew we were pressed for time and what you can't see in the photo above are the many shelves filled with huge bolts of the most gorgeous Harris tweed.  I was quietly miming to his assistant to cut me various lengths so I could quickly pay for it before we had to dash.  There was a huge cardboard box with some skeins of wool in it too.  How could I resist?

Here is my little haul.  It's fully my intention to improve on my sewing skills over the next couple of months. I certainly won't be cutting into this precious stuff for a while yet, but very much hope that the brown/burgundy/blue tweed will some day become a handmade skirt. Maybe with mustard or teal lined pockets.

Across from the weaving building was the Harris Tweed store where they sell clothing, bags, scarves, and all manner of items made out of tweed.  I unexpectedly found the coat of my dreams. It was a bit of a naughty purchase but I knew I would have regretted it, had it not come home with me. It will last me for years. so I see it as a great investment piece.

One of the places I had secretly hoped we would get to on this trip was Uist Wool. They had a lovely booth at last year's Edinburgh Yarn Festival and I just love everything about their backstory - the passion to re-invigorate the wool industry on Uist and pay the crofters a decent price for their wool, and their creative aesthetic and experimentation when it comes to their yarns, all of which are undyed, but offer an incredible choice in terms of colours, textures and blendings.  Their business flyer has a photo of Eavel on the back and I wore my Nuuk sweater, knit out of their Reothart wool, when I climbed it the day before.

Uist Wool was located fairly near to our last hotel. The night before our last day, I asked our guide if it was possible to visit but he said the planned walk was a long one and we wouldn't get back in time.  The next day however, the weather was too windy and he changed our itinerary to drive to Eriskay instead. So at breakfast he told me we could stop by on the way.  Only we were leaving at 9am and it didn't open until 10am.  Drats.  Of course I told him to skip it as the walking was more important.  At the end of the walk there had been plans for a pint at the famous Politician Pub, but when we got there, it was closed for the season!  Which then freed up about an hour, which then allowed us to get to Uist Wool just before closing!  Hooray!  And it was such a lovely store.

Four of us in the group were knitters and all of us had been so struck by the beauty of the Hebrides that falling for souvenir yarn wasn't hard (we all bought lots of yarn).  I went for all the dark Hebridean colours.

And so a trip that was primarily about walking, also turned into a celebration of wool too. It was made all the more special by having seen the sheep, and walked many miles of the landscape that had not only inspired the colours but contributed to the smells and textures too.  You can't get better souvenirs than that.  Now I just have to wait for colder weather to wear my new coat!

Shetland Part 2: Knitting Then. . .

A big part of our Shetland tour involved visiting museums and getting inspired by the islands'  rich history and heritage of both fair isle and lace knitting.

We were fortunate enough to have Ella Gordon, a talented Shetland designer, join us for dinner one night. She designed the Vatsland Jumper that I recently completed. She brought many pieces of her vintage knitwear collection to show us.  I really love the jumpers done in natural shades.

The Shetland Textile Museum in Lerwick is not to be missed. It's small, but packed to the rafters with lovely exhibits.  They opened the loft area for us and we were allowed to touch and look at all these swatches up close.

We even were allowed to handle these delicate lace samples.

This is my favourite all-over pattern - birdseye. I see a long stole in my future.

I definitely won't be knitting delicate lace socks though, much as I can admire them. I love the little hap on its mini-stretcher too.

Lace fingerless mitts?  Nope, won't be knitting these either.

We also took a ferry over to the island of Whalsay where their Heritage Centre was hosting a Fair Isle Through the Decades exhibit.

I love the fair isle scarves - they are knitted in the round and then tassels are used to close the edges.  Motifs are chosen that work in both directions so you don't have to graft in the middle.  I love the subtle shading of the triangles in the scarf from the 1920s on the left.  And these pops of fair isle from jumpers knitted in the 1970s, just on the hem and the collars, is very effective.

But THIS garment was the show stopper.  The skirt can also be worn as a cape!  We challenged one of our group who was just as fascinated by the skirt as I was, to recreate a pattern for it and knit one. 

The Shetland Museum in Lerwick covers a lot more than just textiles of course, but it does have a super display of historical knitting.  I wouldn't go to Lerwick without visiting this museum - it is so well done.  Lots of museums try to find a balance between different age groups who might be visiting, and while I understand the need to appeal to children and school groups, I get a bit tired of displays always needing to be "interactive".  I like rooms to have a theme, with some appropriate information and proper labeling of the artifacts, and I was very impressed with the clean lines and interesting groupings in this museum. (There is a computer where you can design your own fair isle jumper but it's unobtrusive).  Plus there's a lovely cafe and the gift shop is wonderful and well stocked, not only with books, but fabulous postcards and other souvenirs.  

Here is some of what is on display:

This lace is so tiny and delicate you had to look into the magnifying glass to appreciate the pattern.

Colourful fair isle and a gorgeous feather and fan top:

The museum was also very informative in describing the rise and fall of the industry that has evolved around knitwear in Shetland.  I loved seeing historical shade cards and weaving samples.

And I couldn't resist buying this in the gift shop:

We also visited the Heritage Center on the island of  Unst which has a wonderful display of lace knitting.  Photos aren't allowed as some of the shawls and garments are so delicate but you can see some photos on their website here.   I bought the accompanying book as there are several motifs I'd like to try.  As with all the museums, the staff and volunteers were just lovely - so friendly and open to questions, especially from knitters.  They also were happy to have us try our hand at spinning wheels and knitting belts.

Another great place to visit is the Croft House Museum where there are lots of historical knitting tools on display. The brown box hanging from the rafters is called a kist and was used to store clothing, both as a space saver and to keep it off potentially damp, dirt floors. I think there could be a modern use for these to store our stash!

Finally on our last day, we popped into the Scalloway Museum which featured this rather wonderful knitted dress from the 1920s.  The skirt is pleated with a triangular gansey pattern.

I never got tired of seeing examples of the many beautiful and complex knitwear preserved around the islands - it's such a rich and skilled heritage to admire and also inspire.  But we weren't just wallowing in the past; the knitting and textile industry is still alive and well in Shetland and we got to see that in action too.  More on that in the next post.