[pre-orders have now closed. Your yarn will be dyed and posted before Friday 26th April]

#YarnFromTheMeadow takes inspiration from the small hay meadow that we live next to. A few acres of tussocky grass, grown to be cut for hay or silage, depending on the weather, and occasionally used as grazing for the cattle that are raised on the fields all around us. Bounded by an avenue of sweet chestnuts on one side, ancient oaks on the other and with a scruffy hedgerow bordering the lane, it's home to rabbits, mice, shrews, and voles; a hunting ground for a beautiful barn owl and untold kestrels and buzzards. Adjacent to fox earths, and badger setts, and criss-crossed with the well-worn tracks of the muntjac, fallow, and roe deer that pass through, I walk it with the dog, with Chris, and sometimes just to breath in the air and turn my face to the sun. And I take photos, endlessly. Of the views, the sky, the weather, the flora and fauna, the changing of the seasons.

I'll be using all of the above as inspiration for this year's limited-run series. Two shades each month throughout 2024, dyed on a variety of fingering weight yarn bases, using the dye technique that creates our gorgeous ~flash~ shades.

April – It's often a mixed bag weather-wise here, and this year has been no exception! We've had gorgeous warm days, grey cold days, soggy wet days, not to mention the sideways hailstorm and a most unwelcome frost! They all offer fabulous inspiration for yarn shades, but I couldn't help leaning into the warm glow of a glorious sunset. The west-facing field margin is lined with oak trees and right now, it's also our own tiny bluebell wood. This year the display seems extra magical (is it a particularly good year for bluebells?) and as I wandered along the track created by badgers, deer, and foxes and the sun dipped below the distant treeline, the blue/violet/periwinkle bells were backlit with a streak of fiery orange and bright gold. Both shades this month are dyed on cade | singles – our 90% superwash merino, 10% linen fingering weight yarn – and I've called this one sunset bluebells.

Although the farmhouse we live in isn't part of a working farm, and hasn't been for at least a century, the land all around us is still used to graze cattle and anyone who lives among livestock will know that means troughs, buckets, baler twine, makeshift fencing, and all manner of embellishments are dotted around. The second shade is inspired by the weathered patina of a galvanised 'creep feeder' that has been sitting in the meadow since the last time very young cattle were grazed on the meadow – probably about six or seven years ago. I'm sure the farmer knows exactly where it is and will retrieve it when he next needs it, but in the meantime it has become part of the landscape of our daily walks, and it offered some particularly lovely colour inspiration for evening creep feeder, don't you think?

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.
 

cade | singles
weight: fingering/4ply/sock equivalent
fibre: 90% wool - superwash merino, 10% linen
needle size: 2.00 - 3.50mm
metres: 366m per 100gm skein
care: Hand wash in cool water using gentle wool detergent