Not many wool collections nowadays can boast that the shepherdess and the wool spinner can be seen in the same photograph, but here they are, Sheila the Shepherdess of the Organic Poll Dorset Flock and Carmine from Biella, The Wool Company, caught on camera at the historic moment of the loading of the last bale.

A big THANK YOU to Nigel and Carmine of Biella the Wool Company for taking the time and milage to go and collect the wool. THAT is customer service for you! And of course thanks to Pete for driving the front loader! Last but not ...

A quick look at the dye garden on a dry May day. It hasn't rained here for weeks. The Cosmos and Coreopsis are waiting to be planted out, they are big enough already but with no rain in sight. I don't want to risk losing them.

The mass of fluffy foliage in the image below is the two woad plants I left to go to seed when I took the rest out earlier in the spring, the yellow flowers are almost gone and the tear-drop seeds are still this light fresh green that would look spectacular on a ...

We wish you all a happy, creative and colourful 2011.

I hope that you have not had too much snow and that if you have you have had enough wool to see you through it! If not you still have time to snatch some of our January offer, which is 20% off the Blue-faced Leicester collection. The discount code is BFL (in upper case).

Our year ahead is looking interesting, the first outing will be Isend 2011 just after Easter. Adriaan and me will be taking a stall and I will be doing a demonstration of surface dyeing of felt ...