macro~meadow – february
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Wandering through a meadow is one of my favourite things to do, and we've been lucky enough to live in and amongst meadows for the last twenty or so years. In Suffolk it's very easy to spend most of the time looking up at the huge skies but this year I'm going to focus on exploring what's closer to hand/eye. I'm going to hunt down the amazing micro-palettes in the blades of grass, the berries, the fence posts and field gates, and create shades that show another aspect of the fields all around us. I'm going to be looking at the textures and detail up close but most of all, I'm hunting for fabulous colour combinations to inspire beautiful yarn!
Each month I'll use one photo to create two shades; one variegated ~flash~ shade and a complimentary/contrasting semi-solid. I'll be focussing on fingering/4ply weight yarn and often the two shades will be on the same base but occasionally I might take liberties and dye something fluffy!
February – Oh my goodness, will it ever stop raining? As I sit here editing photos and dreaming up names for this month's macro~meadow shades it is a remarkable morning by virtue of the lack of wet stuff falling from the sky but it's a rare dog walk that hasn't been in driving rain and involved a fair bit of paddling and a lot of mud lately. This too shall pass (the sooner the better!) but in the meantime I am trying to find the beauty in the waterlogged landscape. And, of course, I didn't have to look very hard to find the perfect inspiration in the rain...
The first shades is called ~ a moment suspended ~ and it picks out all the rich chestnut brown, warm taupe, soft grey, and dusky pinks in a photo of a perfect raindrop suspended from a hedgerow twig. Within the raindrop there's an ethereal inverse image of the trees in front of me and the sky captured in that tiny droplet is luminous. The shade is called ~ a moment suspended ~ and it's dyed on hoo | sock, so perfect for socks but also great for shawls and scarves and lightweight garments.
The second shade is ~ while it was raining ~ and it's a rich, saturated combination of all the russet, ochre, plum, chestnut, and oak tones in the rain soaked twig. The hedgerow was filled with these tiny magical vignettes and it lifted my rain-soaked spirits as I walked the dog on another wet morning! Also dyed on hoo | sock, there are a couple of batches in the shop and ready-to-ship right now, and I'll leave pre-orders open and dye more next week if required...
We use professional acid dyes with good light and wash fastness and do our best to exhaust every dye bath and 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.
We recommend hand washing your finished projects in cool water to preserve the vibrancy of the dye and, 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.