As far as news goes, I am not sure where to start. No doubt the most significant happening for Renaissance Dyeing in April was that Ann the winner of the Great British Sewing Bee wore the Bohemian Rhapsody to the studio on week 3. You can see her wearing it here between 2 - 4 minutes into the video. It is wonderful to see the scarf being worn by such a competent needle woman. Although the scarf was not mentioned there are a lot of you who seemed to have known it and decided to make one for yourselves.

Which brings ...

I am not sure, if the term ' we are getting there' is a euphemism for it is complete chaos, but we seem to swing between the two as we continue our transformation of this old Ariegoise farm house into a artisanal dye house. As I am writing the roof of the wool winding room is coming off.

Here is a before picture, pretty isn't it but as a roof it doesn't work.

Here is the moment a few minutes ago when Adriaan moved a nest with three eggs to a safer venue, from there the chicks will be ...

It has been all go here hence the lack of Newsletters. We have moved house and been to l'Aigilles en Fête salon in Paris, It only takes one little sentence to write it but it seemed a lot more at the time! The new house is only 20 km away from the old one where Tee and Simon now live. The new dye-house is still in need of floors, windows, electricity and water, so I will be commuting to the old dye house for a month or so. Woad dyeing of the Poll Dorset will be the first in ...

I was recently reading on the web a description of how some shearers mistreat sheep. It has been haunting me, coming myself from an organic farming background I had no idea that these things could happen, What follows is an e-mail 'discussion' I had with Sheila Hendry the shepherdess of the Poll Dorset flock who provide our wool.

Sheila and her Gloucester Old Spots

Some shearers mistreat the sheep. I suspect this happens more on big farms where the sheep are bred as in a factory and where perhaps the shearers are not trained or selected with care.

We select ...

We would like to celebrate this happy family orientated time with all our friends no matter on which side of the pond by offering from Thursday 22nd November to the end of Sunday 25th a special 20% discount on the Gitane kits.

The code is : turkey

That't it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Nous tenons à célébrer ce moment orienté famille heureuse avec tous nos amis, peu importe de quel côté 'the pond' en offrant du jeudi 22 Novembre à la fin de Dimanche 25 une remise spéciale de 20% sur l'kits Gitane.

Le code est le suivant: turkey

C'est ...

Et voila, plus de détails sur les premières Journées de la Laine Ariegoises.

Nous espérons vous y voir.

Les associations Atoutlaine et La Maison de Montbrun sont heureuses de vous convier aux premières Journées de la Laine de Montbrun Bocage, les 1er et 2 décembre 2012. Ces journées ont pour objectif de présenter au public la filière laine dans son intégralité, du mouton sur pied au pull-over ou à l'isolation d'un toit, et d'échanger avec lui sur les différents savoir-faire et pratiques existants dans ce domaine. L'évènement se tiendra sur le stade municipal, sous des yourtes ...

Les Journées Internationales de la Laine in Felletin is a whirlwind of wool every year but this year it surpassed itself in every way. The organisers were friendly and helpful, even helping to carry in our wares for us and smilingly providing lunch and pancakes against the odds all week-end. Our fellow exhibitors were many and varied showcasing every aspect of wool and a good slice of the million creative things you can do with it.

Les Journées Internationales de la Laine à Felletin est un tourbillon de laine tous les ans mais cette année, il s'est surpassé dans ...

Bastet the Egyptian Cat Goddess was not the goddess of cats but a woman/cat goddess who protected the Pharaohs. She is usually depicted with a multicoloured collar.

Marylene Lynx has taken 5 autumn colours and with her magic crochet hook conjured up such a circular collar or cowl for us to wrap ourselves in this autumn and for many autumns to come. The Bastet Cowl is crocheted in hounds tooth stitch with a picot edging. It's super easy and quick to make and can be worn in several different ways such as short or double loop, close around ...

This week the 9th. Ethical Fashion Show will open in Paris. Can you spot our 'Wall of Colour' on the Ethical Fashion / labels page? Over the years this series of shows has built up a much needed and ever more popular awareness of the sustainable sources of the clothes we choose to wear. This year there will be a small but important stand from the wool workers of France, a bright flag to slow fashion. This has been organised under the collective banner of ATELER by the indomitable Marie-Thérèse Chaupin.

Renaissance Dyeing is proud to be one of the 9 ...

The new batch of Blue-faced Leicester has now been mordanted and cured so it is dyeing time. First on the list is the Cherry Coloured Twist. Once dyed, washed and given an initial rinse it needs lots of extra rinsing to get rid of the fine ground cochineal particles that stick to the wool. This is usually done winter and summer in the river at the bottom of the hill. We are very lucky to have this river at the bottom of our hot and dusty hill, in January Adriaan rinses the wool here, but in heatwaves Fleur and I ...