macro~meadow – march
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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!
March – Signs of spring are definitely all around now. The blackthorn blossom is abundant, the hedgerows have a green fuzz, and the bird song is amazing but it's still pretty muddy underfoot and we've had a couple of sharp frosts this week! As I walked along the meadow on a greyish, still-soggy morning earlier this month, avoiding ankle deep puddles, and mud-slicked tractor tracks I found myself drawn to the lichen on windfall branches and hedgerow dead wood. Such an amazing colour palette all in microscopic form. Obviously I then spent twenty minutes crouched in one of the muddy puddles I'd been trying to avoid, snapping as much detail as I could trying to capture all the glaucous green, blue-grey, zingy chartreuse, and mucky olive tones in these amazing organisms!
The first shade is called ~ more than one thing ~ and it combines al those ethereal cool green hues with warm olive, almost-chartreuse and that hint of rust. The semi-solid shade is a perfect blue-grey companion for the cool greens and warm ochre tones and it's called ~ making a world ~
Both shades are dyed on ~ loke | fingering ~ our brand new base. A perfect blend of baby alpaca, silk, and linen, it's ideal for spring knits, and we're imagining perfect summer tees and cardigans, and stunning lightweight shawls.
There are a couple of batches of each shade 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.