Make your own Fabrics!

Have you ever wondered how wonderful it would be to make your own fabrics, whether for suitings, skirts or for cushions, for example?

Do you think you need a huge loom that would fill your dining room?  Do you think that all you can weave on a simple loom is scarves and table runners?

Well you might be pleasantly surprised!  Most of the introductory courses I teach are on simple and affordable looms that not only allow you to weave scarves, but beautiful fabrics that can be used to make clothes.

If you attended one of the courses I run for Skylark Holiday, for example, such as the Introduction to Weaving course you would:

• Learn to warp a loom.
• Weave a scarf.
• Learn how to plan a warp for fabric for a chosen project.
• Weave a piece of fabric for a cushion cover or small article of your choice.
• Finish your fabric to that it can be cut and sewn.
• Finish the ends of your scarf without knotting.

Hear I am (on the left) wearing a suit made of hand woven fabric.  The swatches for this suit were woven on a simple rigid heddle loom.

Bibi (on the right) is weaving her hand woven scarf.   She designed the fabric herself and it was woven on a rigid heddle loom.  It could be cut and sewn to make a skirt, for example. 

So you see, it's not so difficult!

Workshops and Courses for 2010

Here is a list of the workshops and courses I will be tutoring in 2010:

Saturday 15 May - Creative Spinning - Abergele Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers.

Sunday 17 to Friday 21 May - Beginners Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Monday 7 to Friday 22 June - Natural Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 19 to Sunday 20 June - Creative Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 3 to Sunday 4 July - Start to Weave with a Rigid Heddle Loom - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Tuesday 13 to Wednesday 14 - Introduction to Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 25 to Friday 30 July - Learn to Weave with 4 shafts - Venue to be confirmed - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 26 September to Friday 1 October - Introduction to Weave Design - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 3 to Friday 8 October - Creative Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 16 October - Colour Blending in Spinning - Bradford Guild.

Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 October - Rigid Heddle follow on course - Flitwick - Ravelry Weaving Group.Saturday 30 to Sunday 31 October - Make the most of your Rigid Heddle Loom - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 6 to Sunday 7 November - Introduction to Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 20 November to Sunday 21 November - Creative Spinning - York and District Guild.

Saturday 27 November - Colour and Weave - Hallamshire Guild.Colour [ Color]-And-Weave Design Book: A Practical Reference Book

Funky Fancy Yarns Part 2!

Alet has sent use some images of the workshop in her studio in Zeeland, so I've selected a few for you to see the industrious goings on!

There were wheels of every type you could imagine and even some drop spindles
were used!













At both venues we were very well fed!  And the weather was very kind in Zeeland!

All in all we had a wonderful time in the Netherlands, both in the Hague and in Zeeland.  We met old friends and new ones at both venues and have been booked to run two, 3 day workshops next year, with the addition of Helen Melvin to our happy band of tutors.

Funky Fancy Yarns

Here are a selection of fancy yarns produced at the Funky Fancy Yarn Workshop organised at Alet Tienpont's studio, Textielwerk Wol en Zo in Zeeland, Netherlands, last week.

Jane Deane, Amanda Hannaford and I had been invited to tutor two, 2 day workshops in the Netherlands.

The first, organised by Dineke of De Spinners in The Hague included Creative Spinning with Jane, Woollen, Worsted and Cotton with Amanda and Natural Dye Extracts with me!   From the Hague we traveled to Zeeland in the south of the Netherlands where Jane tutored a Silk Workshop, Amanda Woollen, Worsted and Cotton again, while I tutored the Funky Fancy Yarn Workshop for Alet.

We were bowled over by the beautiful yarns produced in all the workshops and I have included just a few of the fancy yarns in this blog!

I hope you are inspired to have a go!

Pure Tinctoria Website

Hi All

I just wanted to update you about the Pure Tinctoria website, which is undergoing changes.  The company, Startershop, I have my e-commerce website with has decided they don't want to manage e-commerce sites anymore, so I am having to look for a new website and host.

I thought I'd found one as good as Startershop, but sadly  they have let me down, in fact, on more than one occasion.  What should have taken less than a week is still ongoing and therefore I am still with the old site, but having taken our an advert in a couple of magazines, to promote my new domain name, some new or potential customers will find that they can't access the new site, which appears as under construction and it feeds them to the wrong old site!

Please bear with me, I'm finding it very, very stressful, but will full fill all orders as speedily as usual.  If you hear of anyone who has tried to access either site and not succeeded, please direct them to my email address or telephone number and I will deal with their order that way in my usual efficient manner!

I hope to get a new site up and running before Wonderwool Wales, but am holding my breathe!

Best wishes

Alison