Bonjour, Oui, le printemps approche lentement, le temps des bourgeons et des germinations. Il est encore trop humide pour commencer dans le jardin de teinture mais les plans sont déjà en place.

Du 8 au 11 mai je donnerai un atelier à l'Atelier de Montbrun. Ce sera un atelier de 4 jours produisant 26 couleurs ou plus. Pour plus d'informations contacter directement l'Atelier ci-dessus

Le printemps est aussi une période d'oiseaux et de nidification, et vous pouvez le faire avec le pull Kea conçu par Bristol Ivy avec sa bordure et son empiècement de plumes fascinantes ...

Hello, Yes, Spring IS slowly approaching, time of buds and sproutings. It is still too wet to start in the dye garden but the plans are already in place.

By July it will be high summer and the dye plants will be in bloom and at their best, I hope. There is still a place or two to share this with us on this year's July workshop.

Spring is also a time of birds and nest building and you can do just that with the Kea Pullover designed by Bristol Ivy with its border and yoke of fascinating feathers ...

J'espère qu'il n'est pas encore trop tard pour vous souhaiter à tous une nouvelle année saine et paisible, pleine de couleurs et de réalisations.   Le mois de janvier me tient habituellement occupé à organiser les ateliers de teinture naturelle de l'année et les marchés où nous espérons vous voir cette année.

La première occasion de nous rencontrer et voir nos couleurs, nos kits et toucher la laine sera du 10 au 11 février à Crest en Drôme. Ici vous pouvez télécharger la brochure et la liste des exposants. Comme d'habitude, il y a beaucoup d ...

I hope it is not yet too late to wish you all a healthy, peaceful New Year, full of colour and achievement. January usually keeps me busy organising the year's natural dyeing workshops and markets where we hope to see some of you this year.

The first opportunity to meet us and see our colours, kits and touch the wool will be February 10th-11th in Crest in Drome. Here you can download the flyer and the list of exhibitors. As usual there are lots of exciting woolly experiences awaiting. See you at booth 16.

We will be just a ...

In the cold winds of January I have begun to ponder warm July days whose theme will be wool and lots of colour. Yes it is the yet to be dyed 2018 5-day Natural Dyeing workshop to take place July 23rd- 27th, here in my humble dye-house in the Ariege. Here is a link to the general information about the workshop. If you would like to come you can download the booking form here and here is the information about accommodation

And of course a few photos of what to expect:

Japanese Indigo in the dye garden.

Sulphur Cosmos in ...

Oh look at those boots!

Loved this warm felty glow.

Wooly heaven.

Cuddly and Bio

Things are not always what they seem.

Nice sheepy

Dog tired

Dog tired Granny

Take a stand

Piles of blue wool..woad

Granny's stand

Early trader, 3 odd-ends of embroidery wool for €100.. wrapped of course

Sun soaking with Grandpa

Read here in English

On me demande souvent ce que l'on peut faire avec un écheveau de 25 m de la laine dentelle ou avec des écheveaux laissés par les Renaissance Stripes ou Bohemian Rhapsody kits. Annette de Annette Petavy design a trouvé une réponse amusante. Un calendrier de l'Avent crocheté, qui progresse jour après jour tout au long de l'Avent en étapes faciles à suivre. Il y a beaucoup d'images et de liens pour expliquer les explications en anglais et en français.

Donc, prenez dix minutes de votre journée chargée et offrez-vous un Calendrier de ...

Lisez ici en français

I am often asked what can be done with a 25m skein of lace-weight/crewel wool or with left-over skeins from the Renaissance Stripes or Bohemian Rhapsody kits. Annette of Annette Petavy design has come up with a fun answer. A crocheted Advent calendar that advances day by day throughout Advent in easy to follow steps. For nervous crocheters like me it is easy to follow as there are lots of images and links to stitch explanations in English and French.

So take ten minutes out of your busy day and give yourself a hand-crafted Advent ...

Introduction to The Use of Vegetable dyes by Violetta Thurstan.

"Is this 'vegetable dyeing' that we are hearing so much about less trouble than chemical dyeing?

No it is more trouble.

Is it then quicker?

No, it takes much longer.

Is it a faster dye?

No, a really fast chemical dye cannot be surpassed by any vegetable dye.

Is it cheaper?

No, the cheap chemical dyes in packets cost only a few pence.

Why then should anyone trouble to learn how to use vegetable dyes?

Because of the beauty of its results, Those who use them claim that no chemical ...

Somewhere in one of those memory compartments that I haven't opened for decades are images of the Kalavala, meteoric iron and autumn. This is a Finnish folklore poem that contains elements of the Michael and the dragon imagery.

It joggled back up to the surface today as I am in the process of turning some brilliant summer wool dyeing in to autumn colours with the aid of iron.. not meteoric alas just plain old homemade iron acetate (a future blog post!). Though I bet meteoric iron would work better! This treatment with iron which is known as saddening has ...