Wairarapa Wool Weekend all shiny and bright

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The first Wairarapa Wool Weekend is done and dusted to a brilliant shine! I had a thoroughly enjoyable time trading, demonstrating natural dye techniques and generally chatting, meeting people, plus a little shopping myself. Thanks go to James from Joy of Yarn in Greytown for conceiving of the idea and making it happen at the Cobblestones Museum in Greytown.

James successfully lured Gudrun Johnston, The Shetland Trader, all the way from the USA to be the guest tutor. As well as Gudrun’s inspiring classes there was a tempting range of workshops, classes and talks from our talented NZ craftspeople. Attendees I spoke to were full of praise and enthusiasm for the various workshops/classes they had done.

My contribution was to deliver a close-up demonstration of eco-bundle dyeing for a lovely group of people. Time flew by and we managed to produce three very pretty variegated skeins of different colours using readily available local plant materials.

Walnut husk background colour

I’ve said before, and again….. I am so grateful for the purchases of Kindly Dyer yarns and the feedback and conversations about yarn, dyeing and making in general. These chats spark ideas and make a real difference to how I feel about continuing my dye practice learning and creating colours with new ideas in mind.

It’s interesting too to see what catches the eye of customers.

This time it was the little daisy mittens I’ve been addicted to making. The pink sample pair made with Kindly Dyer “Flora” 4-ply merino and a strand of variegated 2-ply mohair-silk sparked a lot of conversations, ideas for future colourways and the possibility of kits. I’ll explore the idea of kits a bit more and see if I can make this happen in time for Capital Fibre Fest and Woolfest in May. Gee whizz, that’s setting myself an out-loud goal.

There was plenty of variety on offer in the traders hall with selections of both sought after international brands and specialty NZ yarns. The camaraderie amongst traders made the weekend a treat to be part of.

Rewarewa station yarn cakes
Ceramic vase by Sarah Drake
Spincycle and Garthenor

I was delighted to come across a few things that piqued my own creative interest which meant I came home with some local yarn spun at Patrizia Vieno’s micro-spinnery on her farm, Rewarewa Station, at Tinui. Also, some Spincycle multicoloured skeins from Happy-Go-Knitty, a skein of organic Garthenor Shetland Wool from Newtown House and a beautiful little ceramic vase made by Sarah Drake that I just imagined holding little stems of dried flowers from my garden. The surface pattern is the imprint of a fragment of lace fabric. Possibly unusual for me but I already know what I’m going to create with these yarns. One project I’m thinking of will use a Kindly Dyer yarn that I need to dye specially and another needs some embroidery skill development. We’ll see how all that works out in a future post. Watch this space.

All in all, in my opinion, it was a very successful event with a great local vibe and I’ll be keen for the second muster of Wairarapa Wool Weekend in 2027. Meanwhile let’s look forward to May for Capital Fibre Festival and Woolfest. Now it’s time for some knitting.

Onwards into 2024

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First of all, Happy New Year! I wish you the very best that 2024 can bring to your lives.

After a lot of thought I’ve made the decision to scale back my natural dye work. I can’t bear giving it up completely just yet, but I won’t be trading at yarn festivals in 2024 as I just don’t have time for all the dye work to prepare. I have really enjoyed trading at both Woolfest Auckland and Capital Fibre Festival in the past and really appreciate the kind feedback and enthusiasm shown for my yarns. But I have other important and enjoyable activities with special people filling up my life. Being Nana is a privilege and delight and I want to make the most of this time.

I am intending to join Lisa on the Palliser Ridge stand at the Martinborough Fair days on 3rd Feb and 2nd March 2024 and will have a range of Kindly Dyer yarns available for sale including Merinos in DK and 4-ply weights as well as Palliser DK yarn cakes.

In the meantime I am continuing to supply natural-dyed Palliser DK yarn cakes for The Land Girl Cafe at Pirinoa and the Palliser Ridge woolshed shop.

As part of simplifying things I will be closing this website down early in 2024, and I won’t be selling on-line via Etsy or Felt marketplaces. However, if you have a question or yarn request you are welcome to contact me via e-mail, or Facebook or Instagram messaging.

While I am feeling a bit jaded about social media I will aim to post from time to time to let folks know about Kindly Dyer yarns and news. I thank you for continuing to follow me – I really appreciate your likes and comments - they give me a little buzz and provide the encouragement for me to keep going.

Here’s a few of my favourite projects and dye batches from 2023

Fun with bundle dyeing

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Recently I’ve had a real buzz from playing about with eco-printing, aka bundle dyeing. I’ve been doing this in a small way for a while with the Palliser Ridge Romney lambswool and wanted to try a different yarn base with the flowers and bits and bobs of foliage I’d gathered up. 

I knew, more or less, what I wanted the result to look like and had figured out how that ought to be achievable based on what I have observed from my dye pots over the last couple of years. As well I’m really grateful that other talented dyers write books, share video clips, pictures and stories of what they do – it all adds to developing my knowledge and practice of natural dyeing.

This time I used a fingering weight plied Merino (treated for machine washability) yarn base (expertly made by Wild Earth Yarns in Christchurch), and prepared it using a standard wash and Alum (plus Cream of Tartar) mordant process. While damp I inserted a planned selection of the plant material – one combination to give me bright bursts of colour amongst swampy neutrals and the other for a medley of bright floral colours on a light, but not quite white, background.

Freshly picked marigolds and coreopsis flowers, dried dahlia heads (these ones were blood red flowers dried to a dark purplish colour), Harakeke (flax) seed-pods, alder cones and 3 varieties of dried Eucalyptus gum leaves.As well I used ground cochineal grits saved in the cloth I use for filtering the cooked cochineal from a previous dye day. I cut this into strips and wound it into the skein.

  • Folded and wrapped
  • Out of the dye pot
  • Unveil the colours and remove the foliage

A pair of skeins for each colour combination – wrapped in gardeners frost cloth and lightly tied. One pair into a pot of dilute flax seed pod dye jus and the other into a pot of avocado pip and skin dye jus. Both brews had been prepared for a previous dye day and the left over jus frozen, and thawed for today.After an hour (ish) at required temperature the bundles were gently removed, drained and cooled slightly before opening to reveal the colours. This is so exciting. The colours and blends are MAGIC.

The results of this play are some of my best I think.

The intensity of colour from the fresh coreopsis and marigolds is fabulous and the dried dahlia heads have imparted a definite greenish grey that is a wonderful combination with the various brown-neutral tones of the flax seed pod and Eucalyptus leaves.

The success of this is just what I needed to inspire me to do more and better still.

Other than the cochineal everything used in today’s dye work is local plant material, from my garden or the neighbourhood. After dyeing is finished the discarded plant stuff goes into the compost, and all the water and dye jus used in the process goes back onto the garden.  All in all, a very satisfying day.

Here is a swatch of the bundle that was dyed in the flax seed pod jus. I’ve now finished making a Love Note sweater with this yarn held together with a strand of beige mohair that I had in my stash.

Constancy

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Well, hasn’t 2020 turned out to be a roller coaster! When 2019 ticked over into 2020 COVID-19 wasn’t on my to do list for the new year. But we all had to band together and do it.

To balance out the downhills I’ve had some absolute highlights – being mother-of-the-groom in January, becoming a second-time Nana in June,

and being part of the Palliser Ridge Country Calendar episode that screened last Sunday on TV1 NZ. It is a real privilege to be part of the Palliser Ridge story. I always talk about the good hands who touch the wool on its way from farm to yarn, and Country Calendar offers you the chance to see them in action.

Filming Country Calendar episode 23 Spinning a Yarn

Watching the episode reminded me how grounding nature is – the seasons arrive as expected, a constant cycle in the midst of turmoil. This week I’ve gathered seaweed washed up on the beach for the garden, I’ve weeded, pruned roses and dyed a batch of yarn a beautiful light olive green – spring green. The sure signs of impending spring are all about.  It feels good.  And as I’m writing this I’m enjoying watching the blackbirds flit and swoop about the garden. We have a birdbath and it’s popular – there’s frequently a queue to use it, thought it’s not in the slightest an orderly queue.

The thing is though, no matter the season there is always something to enjoy, and particularly for me, colours that set off my imagination and inspire what I want to try and create in the dye pots. Last year’s winter pruning inspired me to make these colours to partner with the Palliser Ridge rustic brown.

This daisy at a gatepost along the road from our place set me off on a pink and yellow path early last spring

and then my hydrangeas said try this…….

I’m percolating on another idea now, it will take a bit of organising and experimenting to see if i can make it work. For now, here’s a clue……

img_5170

Madder

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The urge to re-start blogging has been nagging away in the back of my mind for some time.  I really enjoyed blogging when I lived in Paris, (keirybeesparis) it made me look at Parisian life with thoughtful eyes and even more importantly was the best way to keep me in touch with friends and family at home and stave off the pangs of homesickness. The knitting community here was really developing, Wei Siew @Kiwiyarns was blogging about so many interesting people and yarns and I was itching to return and immerse myself in the local yarn-and-craft community. It is a hugely important part of my life, the connections and friendships fill my heart and I’m thrilled at how this community continues to flourish. (BTW, @kiwiyarns is writing on her blog again too, hooray.)

 

Now, with rāhui we’re ensconced in our bubbles and the need for community is feeling strong. img_6438I’m missing my little mokopuna; for the last year, 3 days every week, my toddler granddaughter has been a chirpy (and all-consuming) “helper” from early morning until evening while Mama and Papa went out to work. But our bubbles are separate and I have time to indulge that urge to start writing and fill the void.

 

I think I want to write about natural dyeing, my garden, wool, knitting and crochet projects, maybe some sewing too if I keep up my newly developing skills, pretty much all the mahi that is keeping me occupied, helping me feel that I’m still being useful somehow and in control of my day. Do let me know if you have a thought about something I could write about.

 

I’ll start with something I’m literally tickled salmon-pink with. Read More