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~ dunwich heath ~

miniHoo | sock
10 in stock
£5.00
£5.00
  • description
  • yarn specification

The devastating wildfire at Dunwich Heath has destroyed a precious heathland habitat. Home to untold species, some rare, some less so, but all important. It will take years (some estimates say 25 years) to fully recover but the National Trust, who are custodians of the land, are already working to understand how to move forward and making plans to aid the regeneration as best they can.

Unfortunately, we aren't currently in a position to help financially, either personally or as a business, but with your help (and some especially beautiful yarn) we might be able to contribute a little bit!

This shade was dyed from memory. The memory of an evening walk through the heather and gorse in the 'golden hour'. The landscape lit by the softest, warmest light imaginable. Magical. We've walked across Dunwich Heath in sunshine, rain, fog, snow. With the sun on our backs and with teeth chattering. With children in tow, following nature trails and spotting deer, lizards, and the occasional adder, or just the two of us and the dog early on a Sunday morning while teenagers sleep. The dog loves it there (but oh, the deer ticks are something else!) Sometimes joyful, sometimes weary and grumbling. We've visited less since we moved further away last year but it's a truly special place in our lives and its destruction feels almost unbelievable. We could see the smoke rising beyond the treeline from where we now live and my Instagram feed has been full of local people who feel equally devastated. We know it will recover eventually but the loss will be felt by wildlife and humans for many years.

We'll be donating 25% of each skein sold to the regeneration fund (see here) which roughly equates to the profit, and I wish we could do more but things being what they are it's just not possible.

I'll keep dyeing new batches until they stop selling. The first batches are dyed on hoo | sock and miniHoo | sock but I'll be varying the bases and I won't be taking pre-orders, I'll just add batches to the shop as they are ready and we'll see how they sell! This is effectively a 'one of a kind with notes' shade so inevitably the batches will vary in intensity, colour dominance and appearance across bases but the theme will remain the same. A heather-covered landscape glowing under golden sunlight...

 

We dye our yarn in small batches using a combination of kettle dyeing for semi-solid and tonal shades and low-immersion dyeing for hand-painted variegated shades that may 'pool' or 'flash' depending on gauge. Even within a dye batch, each skein is unique as a result of our dyeing techniques.

Although this yarn is spun from superwash fibres, we recommend hand-washing in cool water to preserve the vibrancy of the dye. 

As with all small batch, hand dyed yarn that doesn't have dye lots, we also recommend knitting alternate rows from two skeins when working on larger projects to avoid noticeable changes between skeins.

We use professional acid dyes with good light and wash fastness and do our best to exhaust every dye bath and to reuse water wherever possible to reduce any further environmental impact. Occasionally a small amount of 'loose' dye may remain in the yarn after rinsing (most likely with deeply saturated shades) and we always recommend hand washing in very cool water and pre-washing your yarn separately if you are intending to mix light and dark shades in a single garment/project.