Exciting news – After nearly four years of working from home I now have a proper new workshop! It actually comes with a whole new home. The stone workshop at the bottom of the garden was, in fact, a major factor in buying the whole place. But the house is very much a work in…
DetailsThis is a lovely, slightly wonky and very old little crochet blanket. It’s about 120cm square. It was found bundled into a box outside a charity shop a few years ago. Perhaps because of its wonkiness, felting and seams coming open it was only a couple of pounds, probably destined for nothing more than a…
DetailsWhat a year it’s been. And it’s not over yet. Time for some stash busting. But, if (like Tom Daley) you knit and/or crochet you have an invaluable resource to help you get through these strange times. It is creative, labour intensive and mindful, perfect for long winter days when there’s nowhere else to be.…
DetailsThe Great Wheel, or Walking Wheel, was the first spinning wheel used in Europe. It is a spindle wheel, working on the same principles as wheels already known in the East for cotton spinning and adapted for wool spinning. This lady, depicted in the Luttrell Psalter, is spinning on a great wheel whilst her friend…
DetailsAfter the spinning and weaving. this is the end of the project: Now it’s all about the Cloth. And time to make a piece of clothing. It began earlier in the year with raw fleece. See Parts One and Two for the spinning and weaving process. This was a Lockdown project and a half; to…
DetailsThis is the second part of the weaving and spinning Project. (Part One is here). It’s time for the weaving. First of all there was the matter of winding and wrestling over 7m of warp onto the loom. This is a vintage Weavemaster table loom with a 14 dent reed 21″ wide. Using…
DetailsHand spinning and weaving is about as labour intensive as it gets. So this is the ‘Project’: to take raw fleece, process and spin the fibre. Weave that fibre into a length of cloth. And finally to make a wearable garment from that cloth. There was a similar project a year or two ago, to…
DetailsNatural dyeing adventures never stop. Yellows aren’t hard to obtain. But really good yellows are still to be prized. Here we have the traditional versus the modern. Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria is a common plant of field margins, hedgerows and waste ground. It is perennial, with long, strong stems of richly scented, frothy creamy white flowers…
DetailsSince starting on this natural dyeing adventure several years ago now, Woad dyeing was always a major goal. There is so much history and tradition (especially in Britain) tied up with woad as a dyestuff. Economically it was an important crop for centuries, protected by restrictions on imported indigo in Elizabethan times. It contains the…
DetailsEven though Stoke Abbott (the starting point for this walk) is only a few miles away, it seemed wrong to park up in the middle of someone else’s village during total lockdown. Now that restrictions have eased a bit it’s time to venture about and about just a little further from home. And, as Greta…
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