Back in the old days (whenever and wherever they were) Michaelmas was one of the big land festivals when people would gather together to exchange goods in preparation for the winter and also find new work as at the end of the busy summer season, itinerant land workers sought shelter for the winter. Both men and women looked ahead to hard winter times lightened for both by the thought that when the cold work was done they could draw around the fire and spin or knit and listen to the old tales that thrilled their hearts and guided them to an inner understanding of the being of things.

Nowadays we can still do that, some of us might be lucky enough to be part of knitting groups, sole knitters often turn to podcasts and audiobooks to expand and ease their souls through times that chill.

At Renaissance Dyeing we also seek to ease these chilly times not only with warm garments, shawls and pure wool but with the assurance that our wools are produced in the artisan tradition, using good knitting wool that is as local, chemical free and fair-traded as possible and dyes that often enhance rather than damage our local habitat, in our case our garden and eco-forest.

So here are our Michaelmas offerings.

We had run out of Blue-faced Leicester wool which we have replaced with the French Merinos d'Arles but since many of you have inquired about The Renaissance Crescent shawl we have ordered some more BFL and redyed the 18 colours for Kieran Foley's popular shawl which is once more offered on the web-site in a limited edition, of which 14 remain.

African Queen shawl, a new kit from Hélène Marcy.. With this colourful super soft shawl, French designer Hélène Marcy continues to explore modular knitting, this time from a central square, to which the two wings of the shawl are attached successively, then the borders, all without any seam. You can of course chose your own combination of colours from the web-site.

New items in Bundles and Batches

• More Blue-faced Leicester in the form of bundles of 4 x 25 gm hanks. Ideal for socks,yoke work or any fairisle work. This will match with all 4-ply 'fingering' weight yarns. Summers End only 8 packs available
  

• New variegated Merinos d'Arles yarn also in small limited edition batches. This is dyed with our super ecological fermentation method, using madder and weld, afterwards the hanks are dipped in the indigo bath.

Since we last met there has been a new delivery of indigo pigment from our suppliers in India. To celebrate the abundance we now have of this high grade natural pigment (between 45%-50% indigotin) 100 gms is now selling at €16,80 until 10th October.

And finally if you want to experience a combination of nature's autumn colours and an unsurpassable French wool fête, we'll see you at Les Journées de la Laine in Felletin 25-27 October.

Yep, the link features our rack of 250m lace-weight wool, All naturally dyed of course!

See you there maybe and have a good autumn!