The focus for the day was spinning. We had demonstrations of combing, blending board and picker. As usual there was also a lot of chat and a bit of show and tell! Sheila had brought her double weave samples to give people a clearer idea of what the May workshop is about. Aileen was wearing a jumper knitted from thick handspun singles – it looked great, was lovely and warm, and, even better, quick to make! Susan’s show and tell included all three of our core crafts: fibre she had rainbow dyed as a demonstration for the dye group had been spun and plied with black to make the colours pop, then knitted into a tube on Ann’s circular knitting machine; she also had a throw woven from yarn dyed in autumn colours and a long sampler of different patterns woven on the same warp. Denise had a hat knitted from handspun samples.
Ann demonstrated combing with full size wool combs. These are fearsome looking objects with four rows of long sharp tines, and are used to prepare long stapled fleece for worsted spinning. To start with, one comb is fixed in the stand with the tines facing upwards, and loaded with fleece to about a third of the way up. The fleece is loaded one staple at a time, with the butt ends on the tines and the tips facing forwards. It is best to remove the staple from the fleece with a sharp tug so that it comes out cleanly without pulling the fleece out of order. Once the comb is loaded it is rotated a quarter turn to the right and fixed in this position. The other comb is held with the tines facing downwards and swung down so that the tines engage initially with the tips of the fleece, then gradually moved in as the fleece opens up. Once most of the fleece has transferred to the second comb this is swept sideways across the first comb from right to left, still with the tines facing downwards, until most of the fleece has been transferred back. The process is repeated until the fleece if fully opened up. The fleece is then drawn off the comb through a diz to make a sliver. A diz is a concave piece of shell / bone / wood / plastic with a small hole in the middle – the hole should be the same diameter as the yarn you want to create. To get started you twist the ends of the fibres on the comb just enough to thread them through the hole in the diz, holding it with the concave side towards the comb, then gently pull through, alternating your hands to get an even pull. Keep going till only the short fibres are left on the comb. The sliver is then gently rolled up to store till you are ready to spin – no need to draft, just add twist!
Liz showed us how to use a blending board to make rolags and batts. A blending board is a piece of wood with card cloth fixed to it. Liz loaded it by anchoring fibre at the top of the board and then pulling it out into a thin film, repeating this across the board, leaving gaps to load another colour – she used two shades of blue. After building up several layers she smoothed them down with a brush rather like a flick carder, and then used two pieces of dowel to make rolags. You trap the fringe at the top end of the board between the dowels, then lift them, attenuating the fibre, and roll. Liz gets three or four rolags from a board. It is important to hold the dowels with a bit of space between them, otherwise it’s hard to pull them out of the rolag! Liz then loaded the blending board again, this time with more fibre, and rolled it off as a batt. She uses these for felting, but you could also spin from them.
Susan demonstrated the use of the swing picker, another fearsome looking piece of equipment, used to open up fleece prior to carding. The swing part has a curved base with nails projecting downwards. This moves across a base with nails pointing upwards. Fleece is fed in at the back (ideally not with the hands!) and the swing is lifted backwards by its handle and pushed forwards, pushing the fleece over the nails. The opened out fleece is projected forwards. It is important to ensure that no-one is standing close to the front of the picker as they could get caught by the nails as they swing upwards. The picker very quickly opened up a quantity of fleece.
Our first face to face meeting for two years – how lovely it was to meet up again! There were 30 plus members present, spread around the outside of the big hall at Strathpeffer Community Centre, mostly with spinning wheels, though Ruth had brought a marudai and was weaving a kumihimo braid, and Susan was using a drop spindle. The room is airy, with a high ceiling, and the front doors of the centre were open, so it felt safe, and we wore masks when moving around. There was a lot of chat! Not everyone had remembered to bring their challenge scarf, but we had a very impressive array, which we displayed on the wallbars. As ever the end results were as varied, individual and creative as our members! They included a shawl knitted from the winning thread of one of the Bothwell longest thread competitions, and gifted to one of our members. Denise had brought the runner she has created from inkle bands. Michelle had brought examples of her dyeing. As a special treat we had cake too!
Around 20 of us turned up to see how much or how little we know about our crafts! Once again Serena had set a challenging and fun quiz which extended our knowledge as well as testing it. The first section was about archaeology, with pictures and questions about ancient textiles. Next, 10 anagrams of the names of people associated with our crafts, some of whom we have had as tutors. See how you get on with these:
1. Find in Tail
2. Roses Balm
3. Hank R Fringer
4. Chiesa Silk
5. Bat Oxen Jar
6. Lipd Gin
7. A Plura Job E Funny
8. Yo Real Block
9. Greet Pod Oil Clown
10. And a Farm on a Hand
A section on silk was followed by a section on sea silk, obtained from a shellfish with fringes – an endangered creature, so not something we’re likely to be trying, though it sounds fascinating. This was followed by questions relating to the longest thread competition held at Bothwell in Tasmania. We were impressed and astonished at the length of plied thread produced by winners. Next, more anagrams – this time of the processes of turning wool into cloth, and a little easier than the names:
A literary section was followed by dyeing, then assorted general knowledge questions, and finally quotations. Many thanks, Serena, it was a great morning!
Janet describes herself as textile designer rather than a hand weaver: she starts with a design brief, constructs the weave, then works out a threading and lifting plan, rather than the other way round. This is the way she learned to work in her first weeks at Galashiels. She uses a table loom to sample and works multiple section sample blankets, using different threading and lifting sequences. She studies the patterns produced, taking time to do this thoroughly, then selects the patterns she wants to explore further and samples again. She recommends using a light warp and dark weft for the initial sampling so that the patterns stand out clearly. (During her first year at college the students worked only in black and white, with the occasional red thread to define pattern areas.) For her second or third samples she may experiment with different colour combinations. Once she has decided on her design, she works on a 24-shaft dobby loom, but is tending to create designs which require no more than 8 shafts. She likes the cloth she designs to be functional.
To start a completely new design Janet draws a picture on a grid (e.g. a diamond) in two colours. The colours represent warp and weft, so only two are needed as either a warp or a weft thread will be on the surface of the weaving. She then looks to see how long the floats are likely to be and adjusts her drawing so that they are no more than three threads long. Next, she adds a range of notation marks to indicate different weave structures. Finally, she creates a lifting plan by looking at how the ends of the threads interlace.
As part of the sampling two or more patterns from the sample blanket may be combined as either stripes or blocks. Warp colours may be changed by cutting and joining in as if a thread had broken; threads such as ribbon yarns can be added as supplementary warps. Janet may cut all of the warp and rethread the reed to see the effect of a different sett, starting with 24 ends per inch, then 28, then 32.
Weaving a colour gamp will show how colours mix – opposites on the colour wheel tend to mix to brownish shades, closer colours enrich each other. Changing the background colour makes colours appear different. Weavers often do colour wraps, but a plait will give a better idea of how colours will combine in weaving. For stripes, Janet recommended using Fibonacci numbers, but not necessarily in sequence (this surprised me as I’d always imagined that it was done in sequence!). Janet likes to dye her own yarns. Using cold water dyes she can dye her prepared warp – a long length of guttering is useful for this!
Different types and qualities of yarn can add design elements: e.g. alternating bands of wool with bands of silk on a silk warp – when washed the wool pulls in, leaving the silk softly pleated. Use of energised or elasticated yarns give a naturally pleated fabric.
Janet summed up her approach to design:
– Work a multi section sample blanket on a table loom
– Study results, select and sample again
– Try different setts
– Use Fibonacci for stripes
– Use an idea source for colour and form – e.g. cut a strip from a photograph and use this to decide on colour proportions
– Join together samples you like
– Try colour changes in the warp
– Try mixing yarns of different fibre and weight
– Try using supplementary warps.
The Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (AGWSD) holds a week-long Summer School every two years, with an exhibition in the year in between. The exhibition was cancelled in 2020, but after some uncertainty, the Summer School did in the end go ahead in August 2021. It was held at Writtle University College near Chelmsford in Essex. Three Guild members were able to attend: Denise Carroll, Katharine Bagshaw and Serena Mason. Serena was unable to join us, but several people who had attended previous Summer Schools agreed to share their experiences.
Denise had tried to get on a Summer School course several times previously, but been unsuccessful. This time the application form had a tick box for those who had not been to the previous one, and they were given priority. The course she attended was tutored by Janet Phillips and was for beginners to 4-shaft weaving. The tuition was excellent, and Denise has come back with a sampler of 4-shaft patterns, a netting shuttle bought from the trade fair, which will work as a shuttle and pickup stick combined, and a lot of ideas. She had also learned from Christina Chisholm that the AGWSD has now developed a Foundation Course in Weaving for which Christina is a tutor. We will try to get her to come to a Weaving Group zoom to talk about this.
The course Katharine initially chose was cancelled, and by then her second and third choices were unavailable, so she chose entrelac knitting from the courses which still had spaces. This was something completely new for her, though she had done entrelac crochet before, and she enjoyed learning a new skill in the company of other, mostly middle aged, women of widely differing backgrounds. Katharine also spoke about the exhibition at the end of the week, which included submissions for the Association’s Certificates in Achievement (C of A), which are judged at the Summer School.
Sadie Paige had attended the exhibition at the 2017 Summer School just to see the C of A entries as she had just started work on the C of A for Tapestry Weaving. There followed quite a bit of discussion about the requirements of the various C of A courses and the apparent emphasis on good presentation; also the facilities provided for display at different Summer Schools.
By coincidence Mary Paren had attended the 2017 Summer School (we didn’t know Sadie then) to do a spinning course: Flora not Fauna – focussing on developing the skills to spin all sorts of plant fibres. She also commented on the C of A displays and the contrast between an obviously artistic display and one where the work was simply placed on the table.
I showed some photos from the Summer School I attended in 2011, then in the afternoon, Fiona Dendy who was unable to attend in the morning showed photos from the tapestry course she did at a later Summer School.
The photos show: some samples of Katharine’s entrelac, C o A submissions in 2021 and 2017, and pictures from the course Mary attended.
The afternoon craft and chat session included more discussion of Summer School and C of A submission, as well as samples of spinning, knitting and dyeing members had been working on.
Tania Jane “The Button Lady” of T J Frog tutored our November workshop. We had the opportunity to buy a kit from her beforehand which had all the materials needed to make 2 decorations which could be hung on a Christmas tree. I almost didn’t buy one as I thought I could probably assemble enough bits and pieces, but I was glad I did. It was nice to have everything to hand, and meant I could focus on the process without having to worry about having appropriate materials. We had a choice of three colourways – I chose blue and white.
Tania started off by saying there are four basic techniques to making Dorset Buttons, and that these can be used at any scale:
1. Casting
2. Slicking
3. Laying threads and beads
4. Rounding
She worked through each stage with us, showing us what to do, and with great patience undoing and re-doing till we got it! She also talked about the history of Dorset button making while we completed each stage.
Casting, the first stage, is covering the ring, which forms the basis of the button, with blanket stitch. A rule of thumb for calculating the amount of yarn needed for this is to convert centimetres to metres (e.g. a 3cm diameter ring needs approximately 3m yarn). The blanket stitching needs to be evenly tensioned and close together. Once the ring is covered the blanket stitch is rotated so that to ridge is turned to the back (slicking). The yarn is not cut – it is needed for the next stage.
The next step for us was to add beads to the yarn. In the kit, Tania had provided an ordinary sewing needle threaded with a short piece of yarn, knotted into a loop. This was for threading the beads onto the yarn used for casting, as a darning needle wouldn’t go through the beads. With the end of the yarn looped through the thread on the needle it was easy to get the beads onto the yarn – 24 in all.
Tania then made laying the threads and beads look easy as she worked round the ring as if it were a clock face, neatly distributing two beads at each side as she went! We were slower and needed some repetition! The point where the yarn finished after casting is 12 o’clock. The first wrap goes from 12 down the back to 6 and back again, with two beads left at the front by 6 and two by 12. The wraps then go 7-1, 8-2, 9-3, 10-4, 11-5, leaving two beads at the front by each number on the imaginary clock face. The needle is then taken up the back and in between 11 and 12 and across and down between 5 and 6, then up between 2 and 3 and across and down between 8 and 9. This makes a cross which holds the spokes in place, and is secured by taking the needle through the threads at the back. The cross might need a bit of a tug to centre it properly. The spokes can be manipulated into a better configuration too if they are not evenly spaced.
The final stage is rounding. First, we worked two rounds of backstitch (over 3 threads, behind 2) at the centre, then we slipped one bead down each spoke to the centre and worked another row of backstitch around them. With the rest of the beads, we alternately pushed them to the centre and to the outside, working backstitch around again, then a final round of backstitch round the outside. The curtain rings in the kit had an eye at the top, so we blanket stitched around that for completeness. The we just had to attach the ribbon, and the decoration was ready for hanging.
Trisha Gow is a tapestry weaver, who discovered fungi dyeing when she attended the Battleby Gathering in the 1980s. She is a member of the Scottish Fungi Dye Group, and has attended the International Fungi and Fibre Symposium several times. Apparently, there is no historical record of the use of fungi dyes – research began in the 20th century. Unlike other natural dyes fungi dyes are not available commercially, and are not normally grown as garden plants so learning to identify dye producing fungi in the wild is important. Trisha suggested getting a mycologist to lead a fungus foray. Fungi dyeing is generally ecologically sound, so long as only the mature fruiting body is collected and only a few taken from each site – once the cap is fully opened it will have shed most of its spores.
The colours obtained from fungi include a range of reds, yellows, greens and purple, but no blue. Trisha advocates using an alum mordant then using an after bath to modify – ammonia and soda to brighten, iron to sadden. If fungi are not to be used immediately, they can be spread out to dry on absorbent paper – cold water soak to reconstitute before use. To dye, bring up to just below boiling point (you can use a pan of water, slow cooker, microwave, solar dyeing – but nothing you are going to use for cooking food!). The PH of the water should be around 9. Large bracket fungi should be broken up. The caps and stalks of some fungi give different shades, so try them separately the first time. Don’t throw the fungi away after one dye session, they may have more dye to give, and they can be dried to use again. Keeping records is important – quantities used etc.
Trisha went on to show us some of her samples: a tapestry woven from fungi dyed wool, a silk scarf, a spindle bag; and also some of her record books. Guild members who had been on the fungus foray with Trisha then gave feedback on the results from the fungi samples they had been given.
In the afternoon the dye discussion continued with samples of dyed skeins and fibre; plus some lovely samples of felting.
I wasn’t able to attend this meeting, so the write up is thanks to Liz. I clearly missed a very interesting meeting which looked at spinning, weaving and dyeing cotton, with contributions from several of our members. It’s attached here as a document: Cotton spinning
Cally gave an inspiring talk on her life as a weaver from how she got started to the work she is doing now. She described her journey as a series of accidents! Cally lives and works in Dundee and her walk from home to her studio in an old jute mill takes her through a park, which is a source of inspiration to her. She makes scarves and wraps for retail, but not in huge quantities – each one is unique. She runs courses at her workshop, and now on line, and has been involved in a variety of collaborative creative projects.
Cally’s weaving career began in 2003, when her mother was unable to go to a weaving workshop she’d booked, and persuaded Cally to go in her place. She was hooked, and came home with a second-hand loom. Two years later she signed up for the Bradford Textile Course 2005-2007. In 2010 she acquired a Louet Megado 16-shaft mechanical dobby loom, and in 2012 was able to rent studio space in the newly refurbished Meadow Mill. The space was bigger than anticipated and enabled her to start running workshops. In 2019 a different space became available at the mill – lots of windows, so unattractive to artists who needed wall space, but ideal for weaving. In 2020 a Toika computer operated loom, ordered to replace the Louet Delta Cally used at home, arrived just as lockdown was starting, giving her the ideal opportunity to explore its possibilities.
Cally went on to talk about her weaving and how she produces some of the effects. First she showed us two pictures entitled Faces and Lines – a twill on the right with colour shading in the warp, and on the left a piece showing colour effects from changing from weft emphasis to balance to warp emphasis. Using double weave threading and a range of colour and treadling sequences she produces pieces with subtle curving lines; Mystery Beyond the Mountains is woven mostly in cotton, but the red thread between the black and white squares is wool, giving a 3D effect when washed. The pattern on the Graffiti scarves was not planned out beforehand, Cally improvised while weaving; however Yardage was carefully planned to get the tessellated leaf shape. The patterns headed Data reflect environmental statistics. Lost Ice for example represents the extent of the Polar ice sheet in 2016 (one pick represents one day) compared to the 30-year average.
Sound of the Sea resulted from a collaborative project with 5 other textile artists, and represents the spectrogram of the sound of the sea at Pittenweem. In 2019, Cally and brass worker Jen Stewart, using the sound waves from hand washing to Happy Birthday, created protective armour (Ceremonies of Safety). In October 2019 Cally was one of four Scots on an Applied Arts Scotland residency in Halifax Nova Scotia. They were paired with four locals – Cally with Andrea Tsang Jackson, a quilt maker. They used offcuts of material from a firm which makes children’s rainwear from recycled plastic; the end point of their work a video animation which Cally showed us. The residency was one week, so most of the communication was by phone, zoom etc. Cally’s current project is Sound + Weave + Video.
This was Susan Godlington’s idea – what a great meeting! The books members chose to recommend included poetry and novels, history, inspiration, books they learned to spin or weave from, and books they go to when planning a project. I’ve put all of the recommendations into a booklist: HGWSD June books
Catherine Freeland had trouble just selecting one or two to talk about, but chose first the book she used when starting to weave: Rachel Brown: “The Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Book”. Very well used as you will see from the pictures! This is excellent for all types of looms. Her next book was “Knitting in America”. The author Melanie Falick travelled all over America, North and South, collecting information and profiling knitters, spinners, weavers and fibre producers. Catherine also spoke of being inspired by the work of Sheila Hicks as it has developed over the years. She mentioned: “Weaving as Metaphor”, which shows Sheila Hicks’ work over a 50-year period. (This is on Amazon at a truly astonishing price!) Catherine sent me details of the above books after the meeting and added the following recommendations from her bookshelf: Anni Albers: “On Weaving”; Peter Collingwood – anything of his; Clara Creager: ”All About Weaving: a comprehensive guide to the craft” (occasionally seen in second-hand shops); Bernat Klein: “Bernat Klein, Textile Designer, Artist, Colourist” – tweed design, colour and texture; Jenny Dean: “Wild Colour”; Jill Goodwin: “A Dyer’s Manual”.
Hilma read a poem from “Weaving Songs” by Donald S Murray. This little gem of a book has photos of tweed production on the Isle of Lewis interwoven with Donald’s poems. Hilma’s second book was “The Big Book of Weaving”. This has excellent instructions for projects and the practicalities of setting up a loom.
Ann Johnson used “The Essentials of Handspinning” by Mabel Ross when she first learned to spin. Her second book was “The Shetland Dye Book”, which has basic recipes using native plants, and including their local names (e.g bracken = trowie cairds). It also has a list of plants to include in a dye garden. Ann also recommended: Harriet Tidball: “Woollens and Tweeds”, which looks at the evolution of patterns and includes pattern drafts for some of the estate tweeds. She showed us a well illustrated book on fungi: “The Mushroom Book”, but said even with this it was difficult to distinguish between similar fungi and identify those best for dyeing. Later in the afternoon she added a light note with “Pocket Pompoms”!
Serena recommended “A Stash of One’s Own”, a collection of essays, edited by Clara Parkes, in which people like us talk about their yarn and fibre stash habit! She also recommended: “The Secret Lives of Colour” by Kassia St Clair, and “Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans” by Jenny Balfour-Paul.
Denise recommended “The Book of Looms: A History of the Handloom from Ancient Times to the Present” by Eric Broudy. This is quite an old book, but when I looked on the web it seems it’s being re-issued in September this year. “Byways in Handweaving” by Mary Meigs Atwater deals with card weaving and inkle weaving, and includes patterns from Scandinavia and South America. Another old and prized book Denise recommended is “The Colour Cauldron” by Sue Grierson. This scholarly work is about the history of natural dyes and dyeing in Scotland, with notes on the plants, and the process Sue used to extract the dye and the colours she got. It has been out of print for some years. A spinning book Denise particularly values is: “Spin Control” by Amy King – excellent for making you think about what you are trying to produce. For knitters Denise recommended “Kaffe Fassett’s Pattern Library”.
Aileen said if she could only keep one book it would be: “Traditional Fair Isle Knitting” by Sheila McGregor.
Fiona Recommended “Colour Works” by Deb Menz. This is an excellent book about colour relationships and helps you think about how colours work together. Her other book was: “Scottish Home Industries” by Alexander Ross, first published on 1895, reprinted in 1975. It includes spinning weaving and dyeing, as well as a range of other crafts. Fiona also showed us a beautiful book about woad: “Le Pastel en pays d’oc” by Sandrine Banessey. It is printed in French and English.
The book Andi goes to for ideas is: “The Handweaver’s Pattern Book” by Marguerite Davison. This has a complete range of patterns for 4-shaft looms. For 8-shaft she uses “The Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns” by Carol Strickler, which is an excellent basic ideas book. She had bought “Weaving with Echo and Iris” by Marian Stubenitsky, but needed the On-Line Guild course with the author to really understand it. For inspiration she showed us “World Textiles” by John Gillow and Bryan Sentence – lots of colour pictures illustrating a wide variety of textile techniques from around the world.
Mary Paren recommended “Learning to Weave” by Deborah Chandler. She used this when first learning to weave, and still finds it useful. Her next book was “The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs” by Sarah Anderson. Starting with basic fibre preparation and drafting techniques the book moves on to plying techniques, then to a wide range of yarn designs, with clear photographs to show the desired end results, and worked samples. “The Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook” by Deborah Robson is excellent for information on what a fleece from a particular breed should be like and how it should spin. As the book is American it doesn’t include all of the UK rare breeds. As a beginner spinner Mary found a lot of helpful information in “Learn to Spin” by Ann Field. Later Mary mentioned “This Golden Fleece: a Journey through Britain’s knitted history” by Esther Rutter
Norah’s first book was “Threads of Life” by Clare Hunter. This books gathers examples of how people from many countries and at different times in history have used stitching to express themselves, and to help them survive in difficult circumstances. “The Art of Tapestry Weaving” by Rebecca Mezoff is an in-depth guide to tapestry weaving. Norah’s third book is Alden Amos’ “Big Book of Handspinning, which she likes because it is irreverent and debunks a lot of received wisdom!
Sheila Munro, who has done a lot of spindle spinning recommends “Respect the Spindle” by Abby Franquemont. For weaving, in addition to books already mentioned by others: “Doubleweave” by Jennifer Moore. This book shows very clearly how doubleweave works, and has a sampler for 4-shaft, which works through a variety of techniques. It also includes several projects for 4-shaft and 8-shaft looms.
“Yarn-i-tec-ture” by Jillian Moreno, Liz’s choice, describes itself as a knitter’s guide to spinning, and aims to help you produce the yarn you want for your knitting project. It has information about different fibres and fibre preparations and how to work with them, and lots of samples.
The book Susan spoke about first is: “Colour: travels through the paintbox” by Victoria Finlay, a social anthropologist. The book is a history of paint colours – when and where they were discovered and how used, starting with ochre and cave paintings – a book to read rather than use for reference. Susan also mentioned “In the Footsteps of Sheep” by Debbie Zawinski. The author walked through Scotland, collecting and spinning fleeced and knitting socks. “The Indigo Girl” by Natasha Boyd is a fictionalised account of the true story of a young woman in South Carolina in the 18th century who learned to produce indigo dye to save her family estates.
My own suggestions? “Women’s Work: the first 20,000 years” by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. This is a history of textile production from Neolithic times to Classical Greece. The author is an archaeologist and also a weaver, and writes with understanding of the processes involved. It’s a very readable book. Mary has another book by the same author, which I’ve included in the booklist: “The Mummies of Urumchi”. “The Wool Pack” by Cynthia Harnett is a book for young teenagers first published in 1951. It has a lot of historical detail about the wool trade in the late 15th century, this considerably reduces its appeal for youngsters, but makes it an interesting light read for adults interested in textiles.
Pictures (sorry about the quality, some did not show up well on screen):
In the afternoon session first Norah showed us the miniature tapestries her school pupils had worked then she and Hilma showed us the results of their solar dyeing. Hilma had a good green from the wallflowers she started off as a demonstration at last month’s workshop, and lovely results from her layered skeins. Norah had good colour from daffodils, and mixed results from lichen – one jar showed an interesting pink, one a deep blue green, and the other no colour at all! Liz had some great results from indigo dye experiments, and some very chunky arm-knitted rugs. Sheila was spinning a black and red batt. Norah got some helpful tips from Denise on steeking for the Fair Isle pattern she is knitting; she also showed us a box of fibre from different sheep breeds that she’s bought in preparation for Tour de Fleece.
Normally in a dye workshop the person leading explains the process, shows samples and then participants are able to have a go. First measuring carefully, following rules, then, when they feel confident with the process, letting loose their imagination and having fun. This tine, because we couldn’t meet up, we focussed on explaining and hoped to give enough information to encourage people to try.
Hilma talked about solar dying, showing how this kind of dyeing requires minimal equipment but produces good colours, even in cool spring weather. The process is simple: place the dyestuff in a glass jar, add alum for plant material, citric acid or vinegar for commercial dyes, put in your fleece or yarn, top up with warm water, place in sunlight and leave for a few weeks. Hilma demonstrated, taking a kilner jar and adding wallflowers (picked yesterday and stored in a paper bag), alum, fleece and warm water. By the end of the morning some colour was already showing. Over the last month Hilma had dyed with dried and fresh daffodil heads, red and white onion skins, dried marigold heads, safflower exhaust, logwood exhaust, wallflower, red cabbage and white crottle, and food colour dyes. She had also layered a skein: starting with buckthorn bark / yarn / madder / yarn / liquid indigo / yarn. She recommended: “Wild Dyer” by Abigail Booth, and “Wild colour” by Jenny Dean. The latter includes instructions for making a solar oven. You can download Hilma’s solar dyeing notes
Isobel has sent a list articles on solar dyeing in Spin Off and The Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers:
Spin Off Summer 05 “Sun kissed dyeing” and making equipment
Journal 165 March 1993: For Beginners: Solar Dyeing
Journal 188 December 1998: Cool Dyeing – The natural Way
Journal 234 Summer 2010: Solar Dyeing with natural dyes. Helen Melvin
Journal 245 Spring 2013: Slow colour, community and well-being
Stephanie talked about using Procion MX dyes, and had made short videos of the process. You can download her workshop notes. Sophie had used the same dyes and showed her colour samples, demonstrating the range of repeatable colours that are possible. There was lively discussion, with people recommending different kinds of dyes and talking about their experiences of solar dyeing. Christine had immersed pieces of copper pipe in a vinegar solution and got a lovely blue liquid.
Pictures below – the final one is Stephanie’s samples, the rest are Hilma’s.
The discussion continued in the afternoon craft and chat session, with people talking about dyeing with avocado and pomegranate skins. Mary showed silk and wool she had dyed with avocado. Sarah had made a felted cushion from fleece dyed with Gaywool Dyes. Ruth was weaving bookmarks on her new 16-shaft computerised loom to try it out – the computer lifts the shafts according to the pattern; the actual weaving is still by hand. Hilma and Norah showed the mini tapestries they had completed. Terry was spinning on her dealgan spindle, and Susan had been using her weaving to make pond “baskets”. Sheila finished plying a skein of beautiful silk which she plans to weave into her challenge scarf. Pictures below.
Guild member Sophie presented this workshop. There is a long history of flax growing in Friesland in the Netherlands where Sophie lives. As recently as 150 years ago everyone had a small field of flax, which the women spun into linen yarn for shirts, nightwear, children’s clothes, lace etc. The woman who taught Sophie to spin flax was taught by her grandmother.
Flax needs a well manured, well tilled sandy clay soil, a growing temperature of 10-26 degrees, full sun and plenty of moisture. The seeds were planted closely (about 2400 per square metre) so that the plants would grow tall and give long fibres – flax is a bast fibre like hemp and ramie: the fibre comes from within the stem. Traditionally the seeds were sown on the 100th day of the year (10 April), hand weeded after 2 weeks, and harvested around 18 July after 100 days of growing. The plants were hand pulled for maximum length, and gathered into stooks to dry in the fields. Then they were rippled to remove the seeds which can be used for linseed oil, medicine and animal feed.
Once the seeds were removed the flax could be stored, as it was no longer of interest to mice! It was generally stored over winter, then in April the retting process was begun. The flax was tied in bundles and put into ditches and ponds, covered in mud to make it sink and left for about 3 weeks. Retting can be done in salt as well as fresh water, and flax can also be dew retted in the fields. Retting dissolves the pectin in the outer sheath of the stem releasing the fibres. Because of the bacteria involved the smell was very unpleasant and there was damage to water life. Nowadays flax is retted indoors in tanks of hot water with chemicals. The retting is complete when the hard core of the stem can be pulled out.
After drying the next part of the process is scutching – using a wooden blade to break up and remove the hard outer coating. Then the flax is hackled to separate the fibres and produce fine flax for spinning. The shorter fibres were used for rougher yarn for rope and string.
A dressed distaff is used when spinning flax to keep the long fibres from tangling. Sophie has a distaff that attaches to her wheel, but a distaff can just be a straight stick with a cardboard cone on top. Sophie showed us how she dresses her distaff: take a small portion of the flax strick; take hold of some of the fibres at the end, pull them out and lay them on a table; carry on like this until the whole portion has been opened out, then it roll onto the cone, and tie a ribbon tightly round the top, then loosely crossed down to the bottom (see pictures below).
Flax has a natural twist to the left and is spun S (with the wheel turned anti-clockwise). It is best spun damp, so Sophie has a damp sponge in a pot hanging on her wheel. Grip the fibre near the distaff with the left hand, dampen right fingers, pull out fibre and feed onto the wheel. Instead of watching the orifice you watch your fingers. Change hooks often as the yarn loosens as it dries and it is easy to lose and end! For weaving the flax needs to be spun fine with a high twist. The linen yarn is often used as a single (i.e. not plied).
The linen skein needs to be boiled in a solution of soap (half the dry weight of the yarn) and sodium carbonate (washing soda). Rinse (can use cold water) and dry. Repeat the process if necessary. The washed skeins used to be taken to a weaving mill to be woven and bleached – moisture, light and air will bleach. Linen has several natural shades depending on the retting process – greyish from mud, slightly bleached from salt etc. It will not dye successfully until it has been bleached completely and only the cellulose remains. The yarn is about 25% thinner after bleaching.
The afternoon Craft and Chat session was lively. Sheila is following an on-line weaving course from Jane Stafford Textiles, and showed a beautiful woven sample she had done. A number of other people had weaving projects to share; Dave showed us his hand spun and dyed knitted garments and a fleece picker that looks safer than a swing picker; Sarah had been doing some embroidery.
Finally Dave demonstrated how to use a nostepinne.
Amanda Hannaford ran this workshop, which focussed on fleece – the different properties of fleece from a variety of breeds, how to process and spin them to get the best from them, and what the resulting yarn can be used for.
She started by showing us samples of short, medium and long stapled fleece processed in different ways. First a short lambswool, showing an even, bouncy yarn spun longdraw from hand carded rolags; then three Jacob’s skeins spun: without preparation, longdraw from rolags, combed and worsted spun; Zwarbles fleece she said varies from long and curled (ideally worsted spun) to short and crimpy (ideally woollen spun); Wensleydale she had flick carded and spun with a short, worsted draft to produce a lustrous, smooth yarn. All of this demonstrated the importance of good preparation and an appropriate spinning technique.
She then went on to talk about some of the fleeces she likes to use and which are available to her locally, and showed us samples:
Southdown and Dorset Down: short downs fleece with a crisp handle, ideal for carding and woollen spinning. The fleece had been put through a swing picker before carding. Both had produced sock yarn and Aran weight yarn. A very fine Southdown had produced lace weight yarn.
Cotswold and Wensleydale: lustre longwool. Amanda had produced enough 5 ply gansey wool for an adult gansey from Cotswold fleece, which would knit up at 7-9 stitches per inch. She told us she always counts the wraps per inch of her singles – the singles for the gansey yarn were 60 wpi. The Cotswold also produced an excellent curled loop boucle. The Wensleydale had been dyed and most had been combed and worsted spun: a few skeins had been tail-spun. This had been knitted into a shawl, with the tail spun yarn as an accent.
Romney: medium fleece with slight lustre; quite long, so best combed
Portland: rare breed; fine creamy fleece with slight lustre; can be combed or carded
Exmoorino: Exmoor Horn crossed with Merino; very fine; comb
North Ronaldsay is a breed more local to us. It is double coated, with a very fine undercoat, which will spin up to a thickish laceweight, and a longer hairy outer coat.
Soay, a primitive breed, sheds its coat naturally. The fleece needs to be gathered in bits and varies in quality from fine to coarse and in colour from blond to chocolate.
Dealing with raw fleece: unroll and spread out on a sheet out of doors; skirt: remove lower part of each leg, edges of belly and dirty fleece from the britch area; soak overnight just in cold water, then leave to drain; then put into hot water (more than hand hot, but not boiling) with a good squirt of cheap washing up liquid; leave for about 20 minutes, then rinse in gradually cooler water till the rinsing water is clean, and leave to dry. N.B. You can wash fleece a section at a time, you don’t need to do the whole fleece at once.
Amanda finished by demonstrating combing and the use of a diz to draw off the combed fibre into a sliver, and showed her hand carding video: Hand carding wool – YouTube. This is one of a number of handspinning related videos. Amada’s YouTube channel is ADHUK.
Pictures from the afternoon craft and chat session are below.
