on Chrissie Day is a textile artist who runs Teesdale Fibres. She has made it her mission to source local wool and her pedigree Teeswater and BFL yarns have been dyed by Yarn Garden , proving hugely popular at the wool shows this year. As well as finding time to run her wool production she is… Continue Reading British from Fleece to Finish
on ‘Combing fibre in the back garden. These are Louet mini combs and as they are my only combs they have to work very hard indeed. The fibre, I think, is a Texel X from Strathearn Fleece and Fibre in Perthshire. It makes great jumper yarn. Dutch knitters used to make Ganseys from Texel yarn, it… Continue Reading Combing fibre in the back garden
on We promised the other day when we showed you this lovely photo of Sally Antill taken by Jeni Reid that we would share some posts written by her during Wovember. Sally Antill and her other half – Michael Baxter – are breeding Soft Fell sheep. The idea is to produce a meat carcass acceptable to… Continue Reading Sally Antill: Soft Fell sheep and their fleece #1
on This song appears in a collection of Island and Highland tunes compiled by composer Hugh Robertson, in the 1950s. I had heard it referred to before as the Shetland Spinning Song, but that is quite incorrect as it features the kind of beautiful non-lexical vocables (think to Hickory-dickory-dock) which are present in Gaelic purit a… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Island Spinning Song
on ‘Blocking lace in the bath. A familiar sight to many knitters. The yarn is handspun BFL single, dyed with nettles. The pattern is Gossamer Stars by Kat Coyle.’ – Jeni Reid
on Here is a wondrous photo of Sally Antill taken by Jeni Reid. Sally will be writing for WOVEMBER later in the month and we love this photo because it sums up just how we feel about WOOL. ‘Sally Antill and one of her many fleeces. Sally lives in Cumbria and is one of the world’s… Continue Reading Sally Antill
on When I did my degree at the School of Scottish Studies, I loved nothing more than sitting in the sound archive and listening to field recordings and oral histories, which have been collected there since the school was founded in 1951. Over the last 60 years there are thousands of recordings of songs, music, tales,… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Shetland Claith
on This is it, folks, the last post of WOVEMBER 2013! Don’t worry though, as usual there will be a few afterwords… we still need to identify the winners of the WAL and of the photo competition! In the meantime, as promised, here are some of the BEAUTIFUL things people have been doing with WOOL during… Continue Reading The WOVEMBER WAL Showcase!
on Dear Wovember Readers, we have another evening with Ian Tait, who runs IST Crafts. Yesterday we heard from Ian in his own words, but tonight we’ll feature a new edition of a Q&A originally posted in the the Ravely Spindle Candy group. I feel Ian’s approach to spindle making, and his use of materials really resonates with… Continue Reading Ian Tait on Making Spindles – Part 2
on Dear Wovember Readers, tonight’s post and tomorrow’s post will go back to the Working With Wool theme, as we managed to get a last-minute contribution from Ian Tait, who runs IST Crafts. When I started out with spinning, I learnt on a drop spindle, and I didn’t get on with the cheap spindle I had… Continue Reading Ian Tait on Making Spindles – Part 1