News

Our woad adventure began in May 2020 when twelve small plug plants arrived in the post from Plant Wild. By June they were ready to be transferred to my wee dye garden that I had created with my younger son during the first covid lockdown. Woad (Isatis tinctoria) is a biennial plant. In its first year, the leaves which contain insoluble indigotin can be harvested and used to make a dye vat. The second and final year sees it flower and produce seeds. Archeological evidence from the Mesopotamia area shows that blue dye vats have been used since the 6th...

Since March 2020 there's been a viral pandemic, a European war leading to a global energy crisis and a disastrous Brexit in the UK. All of this has led to the collapse of many small businesses here in Scotland. And even worse is the climate crisis which many national leaders refuse to put at the top of their agenda. So, how do you remain hopeful as a maker? How do you contribute positively to your crafting community? In an attempt to answer these questions, I started asking myself even more questions over the summer! What did I want out of Woolly...

I am delighted to have contributed to the very talented knitwear designer, Kate Davies's blog exploring the history, meanings and practices of colour which is accompanying her latest amazing collection of patterns called Allover.   My blog piece details why I consider my colour choices for each of my designs to be of equal importance to my patterns. If you'd like to read the blog piece, click the link below which will take you to Kate's website. Kate Davies Designs blog  

At the begining of 2022, I started the Maiwa School of Textiles "The Natural Dye Workshop". This online course, which was broken into ten modules with one released per week, seemed like an amazing though challenging opportunity to learn more about plant dyeing. Having started on my plant-using journey when I trained as a medical herbalist like my great grandfather, it seemed like the natural companion to other courses I'd taken over the years with, for example, Jules of Woollenflower and Flora of Plants & Colour. One of the most important things that the course emphasises is to keep good records. Yes, please! I...