This Fowey Woods art yarn, by Jane Heynes, epitomises Art Yarn. It was inspired by a photo taken from the yacht “Steady’ while anchored in Fowey, Cornwall last month. The yarn includes my hand dyed Angora goat locks (mohair) that bring colour and texture reminiscent of the fresh new leaves just opening up in Fowey […]
The joy of socks is all-embracing. Someone asked me the other day if I ever wear anything I have spun? Well Yes,I do. And so do lots of other people too. Mostly it is socks; from the joy of spinning, through knitting and wearing them or, better still, giving them to someone I love to […]
Dyeing fleece, an essential technical and creative skill, along with fibre choice, colour skills, spinning technique and yarn architecture, is a basic element of yarn design and a sure way to lift the spirits! Dyeing is with Ashford Dye and the technique is called rainbow dyeing and described in the book. The curly fleece is […]
Dye workshop in my studio came up with a whole range of fibres in toning colours to be spun into yarn for a Shetland Hap. My pupil dyed all these colours in the studio workshop – a one to one learning zone where mistakes are not failure or wrong, simply part of the learning experience. […]
Dyeing with complementary colours a new workshop Dyeing with complementary colours a new workshop takes place at Knuston Hall on Wednesday this week. Dyeing is always fun and doing something different even more fun. This new workshop is a chance to find or discover a few things for yourself. – see Events If you can’t […]
Mohair locks and blue faced leicester top went into this yarn made by Jane who attended my lBeginners Long Draw day at Knuston on 6th September. “Inspired by your session at Knuston last week, I made a skein using the lovely dyed curls carded into some blue faced Leicester top. After spinning, I plied using […]
Dyeing for a weekend is a development of my workshops at Loddington. See Events page .A day is just not enough, so I am currently planning my first weekend SpinAway Retreat there from 10-12th February for spinners, weavers, felters and dyers. Although you may be DYING for a weekend away, you don’t have to DYE all the […]
Dyeing and spinning silk workshop had an interesting event when a candidate who had never spun before spun this silk and an Ashford traditional wheel. She watched the demonstration about how to spin a long worsted draw – yes, a long worsted draw, not two inches but a satisfying long arms length worsted draw! – and […]
Summer school on Thursday was about structure in spinning and weaving. We made boucle yarn, and did lots of weaving on knitters looms.
Art Yarn: What is it? is a question I’m often asked, followed by ‘What do you do with it? Over the next few months I hope to answer these questions in a practical way at my Tuesday Workshops. We know art yarn when we see it, but to define art yarn we need an understanding of what we […]
My new art batts comprise, merino, silk, spun yarn and these lovely angora locks, all of which were dyed in the same bath
Julia was spinning a lovely art yarn at Woolly Day last Saturday – the colours are set off agains her new Ashford wheel
This Saturday you can inspire or be inspired in an inspiring place with inspiring people. No need to book, just turn up. Never been before? Then we’d love to see you at Woolly Day this Saturday (4th Saturday in March already!) Bring something woolly, or just come along for a good lunch and meet woolly […]
There is a lot of fun to be had with some fibres and dye, particularly with lustrous fibres which react with light and take dye differently to other wool
Tuesday’s workshop produced some of the best boucles I’ve seen, everyone really worked at it!
Its a bit humbling when your pupils produce something better than you can!