I expect many of you have already discovered the American crewel embroidery web-site, The Noble Thread dedicated to the art of early American embroidery.

Peut-être que beaucoup d'entre vous ont déjà découvert le site de broderie américaine The Noble Thread dédié à l'art de la broderie ancienne américaine.

Its creator, Caroline follows in the footsteps of Margaret Whiting and Ellen Miller of Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, and her purpose mirrors theirs, to preserve, record, learn, teach, revive, and build upon the arts of early American women.

Le but de Caroline, son créateur, est de préserver ...

As summer is drawing to a close both Adriaan and me have warm memories of the exciting days we spent with the students on our natural dyeing workshop here in Montbel, you can see some more pics here on the blog.

Now the autumn mists are beginning to veil the lake in the mornings and there is a natural tendency to reach for the knitting needles of an evening. However we are far too busy for that sort of thing, YET.

I am dyeing and winding and Adriaan is winding and labeling, frantically! We hope to be in time to ...

So much to share, lots of pics, so here are a few of the daily highlights.

Winding and tying all that WHITE yarn.

First colour from the all-in-one Madder bath.

Some of the fruits of day 2 - Weld and Cochineal

Wednesday was Woad Day.

Weld and Indigo make green or turquoise.

Working those Madder bags...

....makes bright red maddered wool.

Gunilla brought along her amazing felted kimono for us to see.

Indigo diving!

Logwood wool cooling in its liquor.

Not much white wool left!

Decorating the washing line!

Pics of the wonderful Le lot et la Laine wool festival a few weeks ago.

Beautiful shades

Colourful Fred Boyer.

A sleeve from one of Merriley's nuno jackets.

One for the boys!

Our own stand, Thanks Zsofia!

THE Next event we attend will be here in the village.

AND the event after that will be on the 7th-11th October at The Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally, London.. STAND RCJ1

Grande Fête de la Laine et du Tricot dans le Lot ! Big fibre festival in the Lot region in the south of France.

Troisième édition les 11 et 12 juillet 2015 au Musée de Cuzals, Sauliac sur Célé.

Beaucoup de couleurs sera sur place donc vous pouvez faire votre propre assemblage de couleur en fonction de vos goût et de votre garde robe.

Nous sommes ravis d'avoir Hélène Marcy - Eclat Du Soleil à notre stand. Non seulement est-elle apporter deux nouveaux modèles mais elle sera sur eu tout au long du week-end pour répondre à vos demandes de motif ...

The Chateau de Gudanes lies further into the Pyrénées about an hours drive south west of here.

There this summer the Australian embroiderer and designer Deborah Mackay will be offering week long or daily workshops. Both crochet and embroidery projects will be using Renaissance Dyeing crewel / lace-weight wool and of course we hope you will be able to put aside your work to pop over and see our humble artisan dye-house.

Somewhere in most gardens there is a stinging nettle patch and I expect you like me have a history going back a long time with this interesting plant. I remember my fear of it when young and the rapidity with which I learnt to respect it and also to identify the dock leaf which would sooth its sting. Nowadays I use Weleda Urtica gel, known in English as Combudoron Gel, which is made of nearly 50% stinging nettle and surely must the epitome of the hair of the dog remedy.

A wonderfully child friendly use of nettles.

We use them ...

That the earth can produce such colours still amazes me after so many years. These colours have been produced by just a few plants.

• Weld for the basic yellows and the foundation of the greens and turquoises.

• Madder for the terracottas and browns.

• The insect cochineal for the pink that is the first layer of the purple.

• Finally indigo to transform the yellows and pink into turquoise, green and purple.

• A few grams of alum, cream of tartar and iron and you have a rainbow.

• Mineral, plant, animal and man or in my case woman.

• Earth, water, fire and air ...

Spring Sale

Now we are settled back in the dye house and winding room after the businesses of the Paris show and the arrival of our new grand-daughter, I have time to put some things for sale on the web-site. Thank you Mojo Cat for the idea!

Maintenant, nous sommes réinstallés dans latelier de teinture et la grange d'enroulement et avoir le temps de mettre les choses dans une vente sur le site web.

Le Lot et La Laine

As always we so enjoyed meeting so many of you at the Paris show in February and now we are ...