Category archives: Dye House News

In case you were wondering about the prolonged silence coming from Renaissance Dyeing, it is because I have been away teaching in Ruskin Mill in England for 6 weeks.

I am celebrating my return to the soft Pyrenean pastures with a new Thanksgiving shawl kit in shades of madder, for the same price as the indigo kit, that is €65,00.

Madder is a root which has been used for dyeing reds, pinks, corals and browns for millennium. It is the source of all those gorgeous reds and browns in Persian rugs. Madder is very fast to light and washing ...

The new Thanksgiving shawl kit, designed by Sharon Miller of Heirloom Knitting with naturally dyed wool from Renaissance Dyeing will be on sale by the end of the week.

The kit will include a printed pattern by Sharon Miller with written and charted instructions plus seven 250m hanks of naturally dyed wool in indigo.

As you can see in the picture on the right the design was inspired by the delicate feathering of a birds wing, the different nuances of our naturally dyed lace-weight wool perfectly lend themselves to the creation of this feather light shawl.

The kit is now ...

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.

Here ...

Arriving in a day or two, ready for autumn and those even chillier winter days, the new Renaissance Dyeing harlequin shawl kit.

It is a simple neckerchief size shawl measuring 120 cm / 48 ins across the top and it is 60 cm / 24 ins long. Harlequin is fine and light and is designed for everyday wear.

It is the combination of an easy traditional pattern and an intarsia technique motive which calls for a bit of experience or a lot of patience to give it a try.

The main body of the shawl is worked in a self decreasing traditional ...

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 brazil-wood, 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 ...

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 ...