Northern Exposure

Heading up to Dingwall on Friday with a jam-packed car in readiness for Saturday's HIGHLAND WOOL FESTIVAL. Such a wealth of textile talent will be on display, and as makers keep posting sneak peaks of their products online I find myself saying 'must go and see them.... and their stall and ...ooh, look at that, I just have to meet that weaver, that stitcher, that dyer...'
Fortunately my good friend will be there to help The Border Tart so I can make sorties out to other stalls during the day.

I was delighted by sales of hand spun at Art@Ancrum but it does mean that although I have spun for long hours in the last fortnight my stock of skeins is not overly generous.

the yellow skein on the left only just made it in - it was still on the line at 3pm

On the other hand I have dyed a lake's worth of indigo so Blue Moon yarns will be well represented. And I have lots of lovely buttons, of course, including some delicious new lampwork glass buttons that I collected from Laughinglass today right here in the Borders.

I made the momentous (for me) decision to cut up the fabrics I brought back from India into fat quarters and half metre lengths, and they are heading north with me too. I wonder if Dingwall is ready for block prints...

Today has been...

...a mixture of some of this

chunky merino yarn emerging from indigo dyebath

    
and this

lightweight blockprinted cotton tied, indigo dyed and drying on the line

 and a little of this

washed skeins of handspun in the breeze

 and quite a bit of this

grateful thanks that some things here happen by themselves

Tomorrow will be more of the same and getting organised for an early start on Saturday. Warped will be off to the North East Embroiderers Guild Regional Day with our wares. 
Little plug - still some spaces left on the Warped workshops coming up next Saturday 31st, both involving block printing so lots of opportunity to get messy....
And on Sunday a Woolgathering -  It will be lovely to catch up over stitching, knitting and cake!

Washing Blues

So happy that it was dry and breezy today. 
Twenty two blue skeins hanging on the line, from palest 'summer sky with clouds' to deep ocean shades. All had a fine airing and are almost ready to twist together and label up. 
A batch of new indigo products was also drying quietly but I am not ready to reveal them yet..... ;)

Last weekend was great! I had a fine time at Art@Ancrum, welcoming a wide range of visitors into the little barn beside the shop. Lots of oohs and aahs at the pile of indigo yarns on display but some lovely appreciative comments about my framed artwork too. I spent my days spinning and chatting, with occasional forays to the shop for coffee. All of the artist participants were pleased at the sheer numbers of visitors and I was very chuffed by surprise visits from far-travelled textile friends on each of the three days. Thank you all for coming to see me!

Hugh had a strenuous weekend of biking and hiking for Maggie's Cancer Care Centres. He and his team mate managed the undertaking in a very creditable time. He suffered no ill effects except tiredness and is now considering a different bike/walk challenge for next year...

Ready to Roll

 

Work is framed, 

labels are made, 

lists have been written 

and ticked off, 

and added to, 

and scored out,

and rewritten....

so it must be time for Art@Ancrum!

 
I had to be at least semi- organised because we were away for a long weekend, to indulge in a grand family get-together. Hugh's cousin had booked a big house at Symonds Yat (on the River Wye) for us to share and it worked pretty well. 
On Sunday morning Hugh and I finally had a go on segways...and I didn't fall off - not so much as a wobble.

The previous day we'd had a great walk alongside the river then up through wild-garlic-smelling, bluebell-hued woods.

 

 

 The journeys there and back for the weekend were less lovely - long hours of rainy motorway stop-start driving. As we headed north and the roads became quieter and infinitely more beautiful, it felt good to be homeward bound.

So, Friday's private view then a long arty weekend for me, while Hugh zooms up to Fort William to do his bit in the Maggies Bike and Hike.

Works in progress...

...are all over the place this week. And every time I start a new piece I have to resist being side- tracked by all the other interesting salvaged papers and lovely threads in my collection, crying out to be incorporated into yet more projects. The list in my head just keeps getting longer...

Once I have my weekend home set up at Art@Ancrum I will be sitting down to spin again. The wheel has been a little neglected this month but I want to make more yarns for the following event which will be the Highland Wool Festival (over fifty stalls of wool and yarn and felt and weaving and lots of textile supplies = bliss).

          
Talking of events, I am very excited to have had my place at this year's Yarndale confirmed. So book yourself a yarny treat for the weekend of 27th and 28th September in Skipton - it's going to be glorious!

Now this image I have purloined from Helen at Ripples Crafts, dyer of delicious yarns. This here is a hat designed by Woolly Wormhead in Helen's yarn, and decorated with a giant wooden button from none other than The Border Tart! Read more on Helen's blog

ArtArtArtArtArt

Weeks are zipping along and I'm really enjoying making new work for Art@Ancrum which takes place on 3rd 4th 5th May. Twenty six artists in one lovely village with a great shop (does coffee and bacon rolls too) and a proper pub. Support the Borders and have yourself a fine day Bank Holiday day out!

My Stitching the Blues exhibition runs until 11th May at Borders Textile Towerhouse in Hawick so there's plenty of time to have a wee look and tell me what you think. As you might expect, though, there's still a distinctive Indian flavour to the work I am creating for Ancrum...

Sunday is Stitchday

Getting all my yarn and fibre and buttons

and threads together for Sunday!

Strangers in the Night

Well, you've read me rattling on about it for months but my Stitching the Blues exhibition is now on at Borders Textile Towerhouse in Hawick until 11th May. At Friday evening's private view Ian took some great pics for me and I will get more sorted and posted soon. 

On Saturday two friends and I hit the Vintage Fair at Hexham, all succumbing to purchases of one sort or another. Not really sure yet what I will do with the fabrics I bought but they are lovely furnishing weight pieces and, well, anyway, they were too good a buy to pass up...honest.

That same evening we were off to a quiz night at Southdean's hall, Usual good cheer abounded and we did a fine job of feeding all participants a generous hot supper too. Rural life can be incredibly sociable and we must have one of the busiest village halls in the Borders! 

Strangers in the Night? name of one of my most recent handspun yarns, destined for Rheged's Knit and Stitch Show next Sunday.

Juggling

 

lots of balls (of yarn) in the air this month. 

Busily finishing off preparations for forthcoming exhibition,

 

 and spinning and dyeing in readiness for the fair at Rheged near Penrith on April 6th.

 

Also trying to decide how best to develop my website to 

fit in a BLUE MOON shop full of indigo-dyed goodies. 

And I have started to gather images of lovely things knitted/crocheted/felted 

from Border Tart yarns and fibres by my equally lovely customers

 Knitted and felted handspun bags by Geraldine (great buttons)

 Felted scarf by Felicity

Whoop-de-Soup!

 

cheddar and chive bread, sun dried tomato and black olive bread,

carrot and cardamom soup, a big red tomato and lentil one, 

a corn chowder full of peppers and spice, walnut bread, 

Scotch broth, and more besides...

The kitchen smells glorious.

All in preparation for tomorrow's 

Sunday Soup at Southdean

in aid of Maggies' Centres

EVERYONE's WELCOME!

Do What You Love*

is an upbeat website which

'has given thousands of people in more than 100+ countries across the world the tools, advice and encouragement they need to make major changes in their life, monetise their passion and do what they love, for life.'

So there! Inspired by the lovely Rachel Hazell of Paperphilia, a friend and I decided to participate in The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap organised by DWYL in collaboration with Coats (the thread people)
And here's mine...

It's an adaptation of my 'heart in hand' logo, with hand stitching and a fold out block printed paper box hiding a ...... Well, that's for the recipient to find out, when it travels off from here to Susi in Illinois!

Spring in my step?

I'm definitely feeling brighter - sure it's the onset of spring and longer days.
I attended two lovely though contrasting fairs last weekend, St Abbs was busy and bright and full of yarn and fibre lovers. Springwood Park was busy and bright too, full of seed potatoes, plants, honey, compost, bread and all things good for you. That includes the best fudge I have tasted, from The Happy Fudge Company.
I know about these things, I am diligent in my self-appointed testing duties, with a sweet tooth inherited from my mother and no great efforts made to curtail it.

Just look at the two stalls I was sandwiched between...

 And yes, of course I brought home goodies from both.

My handspun supply was rather depleted after St Abbs, so I was spinning away to build up stocks before the next outing. I was pleased with reactions to my Blue Moon indigo range and encouraged to step up production. Kind friends are working on patterns for me too, so I'll have examples and ideas to get knitters casting on.

Then on Wednesday Hugh and I dropped off work at the Coldstream Gallery for the Crossing Borders Spring Exhibition - ir runs till 26th April so you can admire the range of artwork and stay for coffee and cake right through the Easter holidays!

And this weekend? I am mini-book making, stitching, spinning, knitting and making a postcard for this fun event!

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!).