Dye House News
Juliets Natural Dye Garden
Juliet Sargeant , the award winning garden designer has been visiting Renaissance Dyeing with a camera crew from the BBC's Gardener's World.
After visiting my non-award winning garden and looking at the madder and woad plants there, Juliet had a go at naturally dyeing with woad, one of the plants that will be growing in her natural dye garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show.
Producer Richard Holmes and researcher Simon Rice are zooming around the garden exhibitors filming for their special Hampton Court Flower Show edition of Gardener's World which will be broadcast on Friday July 10th... moreSock Yarn Up-date
Our naturally dyed sock collection is gathering pace with the addition of two new colours Linden and Rosé.
You can see our new sock range here.
Both are in the Rêve range, a blend of merino, silk, bamboo and nylon.
The yarn is first wound into 100 gm hanks.
Then it is washed and mordanted with alum. Before it is dry it is shibori tied and then dyed in cochineal. During the dyeing process new ties were added to vary the cochineal colour. On emerging from the dye vat each hank already had its own distinctive colouring.... more2009 Calendar
A must for every serious yarnie, for 2009
The 2009 calendar from the French based Atelier a leading French member of the European Wool Group
Each month there is a picture of a step in the processing of wool. Starting with three modern shepherds watching their flock, and continuing through shearing, washing, carding, combing and spinning.
Then for the second half of the year you will be able feast you eyes on the uses to which we put wool. Knitting, weaving, felting, mattresses, dyeing and art.... moreMohair
You can see the results of a bit of tricky natural dyeing on the Bergers Cathares web-site.
Five naturally dyed shades on a wonderfully soft yarn of mohair spun on a silk central thread.
The dyeing proved difficult as the mohair is so fine it felts very easily and had to be heated up from cool temperatures to simmer very slowly and carefully , given lots of room in the dye bath, leading to smaller dye lots and moved with extreme care through all the stages of washing, mordanting, dyeing, over-dyeing and washing again.... moreSummer Sale
Feeling a little like a bit of retail therapy in this unseasonable weather?
Have a look at our sales page.
There are several different shades of our naturally dyed fine lace-weight merino in 125 g hanks, that is approximately 1,490m or 1,692 yards!
Perhaps you have a project in mind for which Nell for instance would be perfect?... moreSock Yarn
In case anyone thought that Renaissance Dyeing was dragging its feet regarding Sock Yarn, tis not so!
You can see our new sock range here.
It is in the pipe line or should I say in the vats.
Here is a sneak preview of the De Nimes shades airing after just coming out of the Indigo vat.
Our Naturally Dyed Sock Collection will feature:... moreNew Shopping Cart
Hello All, The new shopping cart is now complete, so I thought it would be a good idea to explain all the newness to you.
First of all you might notice in the top right hand-side, just above where it says " Natural dyers of fine threads" a little drop down box. Here you have 4 choices of how you see the shopping cart.
At the moment the site is only in English, we will be translating it into French in the near future. in the meantime you may use the Google translation service.... moreNatural Dye Extracts
Our natural dye extract range is soon to be enlarged by three new shades: Mulberry, Cochineal and Valonia Oak. They will be up on the website as soon as they arrive in a day or two. Meanwhile here are a few photographs of my samples and experiments. Please feel free to leave any comments below.
A Selection of silk and wool threads dyed with Mulberry Dye Extract. Underneath is a silk hanky which will be exciting to spin and at the top is a pair of socks that I cold mordanted with alum and then painted with mulberry and cochineal extracts.... moreNew Shopping Cart Phase one
Hello Everyone, Phase one of our new shopping cart is up and running. It has lots of added features for me, so I can put goods on my shelves and price or discount them as and when I wish. However it also has new features which concern you.
The new shopping cart will remain connected to PayPal so that you have peace of mind and a swift service.
Phase Two will be following shortly when you will be able to choose to view the prices and your shopping cart in 4 different currencies: Euros €: Pounds Sterling £: U.S. Dollars $ and Japanese Yen¥.... moreNews of The Redpaths
Some of you may have noticed that I was away from the dye-house in October. I was in Marlborough, England where I met with David and Margaret Redpath. It was so lovely to see them again and even in a short lunch time meeting there was so much to glean from their vast knowledge of natural dyeing.
After lunch we met with Susan Pearson of the Merchant's House in Marlborough with whom we had come to discuss the natural dyeing of wool for their 12 sixteenth century chairs that are being renovated by a group of volunteer embroiderers.... moreOur New Web-Site
Our new web-site is up and running, we hope that you like it.
To celebrate, we have introduced a few new items for you, all naturally dyed of course!
These include
Please give us feedback on what you find, we would particularly like to know if you would like us to provide more dyes.
The site is not quite finished yet, as we still have to clarify the colour swatches on the Individual Skeins page. Soon I will be adding a Sales Page , which will mainly consist of dye lots which have not quite reached the desired shade for some reason and experiments with different yarns. Also Woad dyed knitting hanks, and Punch-needle Kits are on their way... moreNew Punch Needle Kits
Over the years we have been asked to provide kits made with our naturally dyed crewel wool. One of the designers using our threads for kits is Canadian designer Joni Black of Fully Wooly Primitives. She designs Punch Needle kits that are based on the rugs designed by people. we in Europe, would call earlier American pioneers.
The designs have distinctive motifs, very earth based , such as black crows, sheep, pumpkins and trees; the lines of which are rather soulful and strangely pleasing.... moreWashing for Harrogate
Here in Le Fort, which is the tiny part of our village once occupied by a Roman fort, the shared washing line has been given up for Renaissance Dyeing's naturally dyed wool, wash pegs have been lent and photographs taken.
In a day or two we will wind it into skeins and hanks. Wool, silk, cotton, cashmere, merino, local organic 4-ply; some will be bagged into co-ordinated kits, some will be left loose so that at Harrogate you can order lengths to suit yourselves.
In a few weeks or months it will be all over the world used in embroideries, tapestries, knitting, weaving and all the myriads of creative uses you invent.... moreRain Water
The wonderful news is that it is raining! For the first time since Christmas. Tap, spring and even river water (I've tried them all) in our part of the Pyrénées are very very hard. While some natural dyes positively glow in this, dyes such as brazilwood, logwood and cochineal do not and these we usually dye in rain water. We are running very low in shades produced with these natural dyes, so we are very relieved to see the rain.
As always at this time of year demand is increasing and I have had my fingers crossed for quite a few weeks that I don't have a run on some of the purples or reds.... more