Tart and Tatties...

Off to St Abbs in the morning, for the wool festival. Looking forward to a great mix of stalls with old friends and new - felters Laura and Anna, weaver Janis, fibre dyer Jon, wheel builder Rod, yarn dyer Alice (and her stylish Wensleydale sheep), rag rugger Jane, spinners Jennie and Gill, and the Borders Textile Group, and stacks more talented makers. And rather fine refreshments at the Ebba Centre too. All set on the most dramatic piece of heritage coastline, with a great gallery five minutes walk away., A glorious way to welcome Spring!

Read more about the wool festival and The Woolscape Project here - then you'll know what the whale is all about!

On Sunday, I'll be at Springwood in Kelso for BOG Potato Day! In amongst the amazing selection of tubers and seeds and all things veggie, will be some quality stalls. I am delighted to know I will have Gill of Savour the Flavour on one side of me and the Great Northumberland Bread Co on the other!

I've shown this image before but I am just celebrating the fact that it's on the back cover of the new What's On, with details inside about my Stitching the Blues exhibition at the end of March :)

Of Mice and Hens*

It is mouse weather - the attic space resounds to the sound of pattering feet. Well it does if you are awake but I am generally oblivious in the wee small hours when they are at their most scurrysome. We'll draw a veil over their fate, though, as sadly there are too many electrical cables up there to just let the beasties multiply undisturbed.

It's also hens deigning-to-lay-again weather. Two or three have started and with luck the others might catch on. After eating their weight in pellets many times over through the winter months it's the least they can do, to my mind.

And, it is quite definitely soup weather. Tonight's was a silky smooth sweet potato/carrot/spice conconction by Hugh. But on Sunday 16th March there will be several homemade wonders to choose from, accompanied by breads baked by real people...and in aid of a very good cause.

Hugh is building up his biking and hiking in preparation for 3rd and 4th May - a 31 mile cycle followed by 23 mile walk along the Great Glen between Fort William and Drumnadrochit
Probably includes some of these

Meantime I am pedalling too, though in rather more comfort. Legs a veritable blur as I spin up new yarns in time for St Abbs Woolfestival on 1st March 

And more indigo dyeing of lovely BLUE MOON yarns, of course, but I will spare you yet more blue wool pictures

And lest you think that every member of the household is being productive, I give you Ash and Midge, pictured from above as they focus on nothing very much in front of the stove

 * contrived? moi?

Sunshine on a Sunday

= an opportunity to photograph fibre and yarn!

I love using my Classic Carder to produce batts of blended fibres ready for spinning. Yesterday afternoon was fibre prep time. These giant rolags will be spun up tonight, and I blended several other shades for working on the rest of the week.

I restrained myself on Friday morning. Only skeins of yarn went in the dye pot. No extraneous lengths of fabric, scraps of unidentified fibre or experimental bits got dropped in. I even timed the whole process. Dyeing is fun. Rinsing and clearing up is not and takes forever. 

Sunday afternoon and the yarn is now dried, tidied up, twisted into neat skeins and labelled.

I've added new yarn bases to my small but select range. Blue Faced Leicester in dk and a lovely laceweight - images above and below - (at a generous 800m per 100gm, this is not for the fainthearted knitter!). 

Fair fa yer honest sonsie face...

Ours was a Macsweens' veggie haggis, cooked on Friday evening to celebrate the bard's birthday a day early. We enjoyed a fine meal and great company last night too, at a neighbour's birthday bash. Back to reality today, though, and out with needle and thread. Dallied briefly with acrylics and a block I made to mimic running stitch. I feel like I am making progress now with the work I want to have ready for April. Just as well, really, as I must start spinning in February to build up stocks again.

I've been making copious plans too, about everything from how to display yarns better to new labelling, a Tart banner (ideally handstitched but in reality probably printed), re-opening an online shop, dyeing more yarn without turning the house blue.

My bedtimes are getting later and later and the 'shine' element of 'rise and shine' is a bit lacklustre. But it's January for goodness' sake - come the lighter mornings things will be better. Won't they?

 

 

Working away quietly..

I am still here, keeping a low profile and happily immersed in creativity and experimentation. I am working towards an exhibition at the Borders Textile Towerhouse in April and have set myself all sorts of challenges along the way. They may not be visible to the innocent viewer in the final display but I will know what's gone on to reach that point!

a little indigo and stitch book nearly finished

 Over Christmas I did finally finish a pair of socks started rather earlier in the year - oddly they are stripey and predominantly blue... 
And started a sweater which might be finished this winter - red and blue stripes (!)

stylish socks, finished at last

The first WARPED event of the year was a lovely workshop day that Ali, Janet and I ran at Foulden for the Borders Textile Group. Mine was considered the messy table: I encouraged lots of experimentation with paint and blocks and wax as participants created surface decoration on recycled papers. 
We plan to have this Spring's workshops listed on the website very soon.

happy makers at Foulden

A Few Textile Treats

 In March I was in Glasgow with Jeni, Swati and Murji, touring contemporary textile makers. One highlight was the showroom of Timorous Beasties.

In springtime a carload of us headed down to Farfield Mill near Sedbergh to enjoy a great display of contemporary quilters' talents - 
 including Pauline Burbidge and Lynn Setterington

 In July I loved a trip to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Admired so many diverse styles and themes (and succumbed to some traditional kekfesto fabric squares which patiently await transformation any time now into...err...)

 In the summer I was able to do some indigo dyeing outside - what a treat!

 And stitch up a few block-print birds, inspired by cradle toys seen in Gujarat.

 

I've spun many yarns this year but almost the last I did was this one, which Pat Douglas of Carlenrig Farm (have you seen her lovely work?) knitted up to keep her Italian grand daughter warm this winter.

 

Hope you all keep warm and dry and merry this Christmas too!

11.12.13

 I like numbers - always happy when the odometer shows a pleasing figure, especially a palindromic one. And numerically pleasing dates are pretty fine too. Today is the last date this century with three consecutive numbers, (in this country at any rate - across the pond they will have 12.13.14)

But then I like irregularity too. Especially in my stitching, fortunately. This is the pantoran - wall or window hanging -  handstitched throughout - that I made as a sample to show Souter Quilters at the workshop a month ago.

 And you might remember I posted up some of the works-in-progress on the day.

Well Charlie's work looked like this - all planned out but still to be stitched.

 So I was delighted when she sent me photos of the finished work. Look at all that lovely kantha stitching highlighting the motifs she picked! I felt a wee glow of satisfaction that folk had such fun with needle, thread and hand printed fabrics.

Charlie Rutherford's work

As we head for mid-December, I have one fair left but this time I am simply arranging who goes where and then taking refuge in the hall kitchen to make bacon rolls and heat soup. Saturday's event is the little-but-lovely Christmas Fair in Southdean Hall - doors open at 12 noon and you can check out the hall's Facebook page to see some of the great makers we have rolling up on the day.

Sunday

This was the last Woolgathering of the year, held in considerable comfort in the village hall. The open fire threw out lots of heat and for a chunk of the day the winter sun streamed in the window. We had hot drinks and home baking to sustain us and some lively new faces were made very welcome. 

Round the table there was baby jacket knitting, embroidering of felt Christmas trees, beading on a new wee bead loom, quilting, fine cross stitching, knitting of a cowl in Noro yarn, more fine stitching on a frame, quilting of recycled fabrics on a floor frame, and finally I was embroidering a piece of Indian block print. A really productive day for all of us and despite the appearance of universal concentration in these images, there was much good humoured banter too.

Lately I have found it a bit blooming nippy in Tart HQ. Spinning in the warmth of the kitchen is much more appealing and I am working on building up some stock again...

Yarning

When I was in Ahmedabad I visited the Gandhi ashram, on the anniversary of his birthday. I am sure there is always a serene atmosphere there by the banks of the Sabarmati river but that day the place was filled with visitors quietly (and musically) paying their respects.
A replica of the charkha - spinning wheel - he used was on show and you could try your hand at spinning cotton on it. Elsewhere in the compound was a painting of Gandhi at work.
Checking the spelling of charkha, I found this article where one of his portable wheels has just sold for £110,000....

The simple hand-driven wheel design is not uncommon but when I saw a wee Chinese replica wheel online I thought I might give it an appreciative home. It's about five inches long and travelled safely half way around the world to Tart HQ.

Here's my most recent batch of indigo-dyed skeins, hanging close to the kitchen stove. They did not all come back home again from the Art and Design Fair, I am pleased to say.

Nearly ready..

...for the excellent Crafters Art & Design Fair starting on Saturday. 
 

 
I have labelling and packaging to sort, fibre to card, collages to wrap. Might even polish the spinning wheel and treat the bearings to a little oil. It deserves some tender loving care considering the miles it has clocked up in the last few months. 
 
Sadly the spinner herself needs something substantially more drastic to rejuvenate her.

But there are some local food producers showing at the fair too so perhaps a sampling of their wares will help, as well as the goodies the Macmillan cafe has on offer. I'll be pedalling the extra calories off again. (cough)

I'm aiming to get to Berwick to catch the Border Textile Group exhibition tomorrow, on a recycling theme. Promises to be a glorious display of creative textile work - you can read more here.

Hands On

I love leading Indian inspired workshops! People have such fun working with bright block print fabrics, simple templates, a little bling and lots of imagination. It's so good to be directly in touch with your materials, assembling everything by hand. Wavy lines and uneven stitches are good, they tell a story and show that a real person stitched the piece with pleasure, slowly and thoughtfully. 
 

  
These images are from the day I spent with Souter Quilters in Selkirk recently. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and look forward to seeing some of the finished bags and cushion panels in due course.

Since then I have been to St Abbs for a fine Wool Festival.  Enthusiastic knitters and spinners came along to browse our stalls and partake of some excellent refreshments. I had the company of my felty friend Laura Brittain on one side and Alice from Whistlebare on t'other. Such a good name for a farm, isn't it? You can just feel the wind howling across the Northumberland landscape where Alice and family keep angora goats and Wensleydale sheep.

During tomorrow evening and Saturday I will be one of the craft stall holders at the Roxburgh Federation SWRI Show in Kelso. (Scottish Women's Rural Institutes, just in case you don't know, are groups of women who meet together across Scotland - they are interested in country life, home skills, family welfare and citizenship and they promote the preservation and development of Scotland's traditions, rural heritage and culture. With an awful lot of laughs along the way!)

The craft stalls are not the main event. On show will be the combined labours of local members who have entered over sixty different creative classes - an impressive array of talent by any measure. Many will come to visit the show over the next couple of days so I am hoping to tempt them with haberdashery supplies rather than finished goods (and invite them to our Open Days here in December, of course)

Festival time

It's Knitting Season so I am off to St Abbs 

tomorrow for a fine festival of woolliness!

 If you really don't do yarn and fibre and buttons 

and needles and felt and weaving then we will 

still let you come in for delicious refreshments.

If you just fancy a bracing walk along the clifftops 

and a visit to the lovely No 4 Gallery that's OK

 but you could come into the Ebba Centre

 - you never know, you may fall in wool-love

 

 And Christmas could be a lot easier for you

this year if you snapped up some woolly

gifts for your nearest and dearest.

 Just saying...