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

Pay it forward, with some caveats...

I saw this blog post and decided that it would be fun to play - so I'm in! (especially since I have a year to come through).  

Since I've just received an email from Lucy asking for my address, I'm so excited and can't wait to see what comes in the post!  I'll put up an image when it arrives, but in the mean time, here are the rules!:

The first three people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It’ll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it’s going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Who’s in?


If for some reason three people don't comment within a couple of days I'll open it up to people without blogs... but blog-people get first dibs :)

Back in the loop!

Hi all

I've not really blogged properly for a few months now, what with selection to exhibit in Paris, the birth of my granddaughter, snow and computer problems!   Anyway, now that all is a bit quieter and I have a new computer I feel I can now start to blog again.

At the beginning of this year I heard that Craft and Design Magazine are running their awards again so up until 30 April you can vote for your favourite designer make.  I'd love it if you would all consider voting for me by following this link:  www.craftmaker.co.uk/alisonyule


Alternatively you could go to the website by clicking on the banner, which will take you to the page that tells you all about the awards and how to vote, then just search for Alison Yule!

Publish Post
Many thanks,  Alison

Weavers Knots

I came across this nice new blog, quite by chance while looking up Universal Tie-up!  How Google thought it was relavant, I don't know, but never the less it's a really useful, but different way to tie a weavers knot!  While you're there take a look at some of Jenny's other posts, too!
http://jennybellairs.blogspot.com/2010/01/fast-pictorial-guide-to-weavers-knot.html

The Textile Blog

This is another really useful blog, full of wonderful history, inspiration and detail:
http://thetextileblog.blogspot.com
It's a really huge resource and again well worth a scroll down to older posts.  The Islamic section has some wonderful patterns.

Colour Inspiration

If your looking for colour inspiration, take a look at this beautiful blog: Kris's Color Stipes

Beautiful colour stripes inspired by the bloggers life and fabulous textiles.  Well worth a scroll down the whole page!

More Places to buy Pure Tinctoria Extracts

You can buy Pure Tinctoria Dyes from the following places:

Eco-Haberdashery Shop

Unit 1.10 OXO Tower Wharf, facing the river.

Opening hours: 12pm-6pm, Tues-Sat.

http://www.anniesherburne.co.uk/shop.html

Jane Deane

Duchy Square Centre For Creativity

Tavistock Road

Princetown

Devon

PL20 6QF

Tel: 01822 612338

Email: jane@janedeane.co.uk

http://www.janedeane.co.uk/puretinctoria.html

We will be having a stockist in the Netherlands soon, so watch this space!

Trying a new presentation!

Selected to exhibit at Maison & Objet

I've been selected to exhibit at L'Espace, part of Maison & Objet, in Paris. Six members of Design Factory have been selected and are being sponsored by Atelier d'Art de France, their version of the Crafts Council, so it's quite an honour. UKTI have also given use some funding, so it will be a great experience and partly paid for.

I can't tell you how excited I am!

Creative Spinning in Kent

Last week end I was invited, by Kent Guild of Spinners, Dyers and Weavers, to tutor a Creative Spinning workshop.

This annual members event runs from 11.15am to 3.30pm so there wasn't a lot of time for them to get their heads round Creative Spinning using an image as a source of inspiration.

Here are a few photographs of what can be achieved in so short a length of time!

Inspiration ranged from photographs of gardens;

Images from gardening magazines;











Images from the front of greetings cards;











And images from other magazines.

All in all the results were spectacular and all the members who took part felt they'd learnt a great deal about new techniques and how to interpret images into beautiful, inspirational yarns.

By the way, I drove down on the Friday evening, so as to be fresh for the start of the workshop, and stayed with Kent Guild member Valerie Selden and her husband John. They run a lovely B & B in the village of Mersham, called Glebe Place and if you're looking for a place to stop on the way to France or to explore Kent then try their hospitality!

100% More Success

Hi all

I've been back about 3 weeks from 100% Design. It was a huge success this year, loads of contacts which I've been following up, and I got an order.

Here's an image of part of my stand, sadly the image of the lovely linen and wool window panel got another image save over, so I can't show it to you. But I'm taking all my pieces to a professional photographer at the end of the month. Hilary Shedel photographed all my "Anthurium" collection and swatches from previous projects so I know they will be great. She has had a lot of high profile clients and her specialism is dance!

Stop Press - Week-end Weaving Course

Hi all

I'm running a rigid heddle (Knitters Loom) weaving course this coming Week-end at Willington Old School, where I run my Monday evening class.

Over the two days of Saturday17 and Sunday 18 October, from 10am to 4pm, you will learn to make warps and weave on a rigid heddle loom, which is ideal for those who want to dip their toe into the Weaving Adventure! On the Saturday you will learn to quick warping method to warp the loom and weave a scarf and on Sunday you will learn to make a warp before warping, use that warp to warp the loom and try one of a number of different finger manipulated weaves to make a second scarf or a sash or a table runner!

The price for the week-end includes tuition, use of equipment, all materials, refreshments and lunch and is £120. I have two spare places, so if you are interested in booking a place or would like to know more, please contact me at the following website: http://spinningandweaving.weebly.com/contact-me.html If you leave me your telephone number I will ring you back to answer your question or take your booking.

The images show some of the things that can be made on a rigid heddle loom, to whet your appetite.

Are Designers Influenced by Art?

There was a post on the Textile Designers Group of LinkedIn recently asking whether designers are influenced by art and artist which got me thinking.

I love art and, in particular, brightly coloured pieces! I met an artist at Banks Mill Studio's last year, Deborah Allitt, who's work is really beautiful, big, bright, bold and colourful. She uses texture in her work, too, which was also a big draw for me and she's allowed me to use one of her pieces as inspiration for a new collection, which I'll be working on after 100% Design.

So, in the LinkedIn post, apparently, some design studio's don't allow their designers out into the Art Galleries to be inspired by art during their working week, even for an afternoon during an "Art Week", for example. But, to me, that isn't necessary, you can be influenced by art in all manner of ways, for example, on my iGoogle page I have several "Art of the Day" widgets which I find very inspiring, today's Van Gogh piece was "A Young Scheveningen Women Knitting" which I've never seen and is really beautiful, soft greys and blues, sensitively painted. It would be great to use as a collection, as one of the current trends for A/W 2011 is dark inky blues!

Why would any one want fabric from a bespoke hand weaver?!

Well, I know a lot of perspective clients ask this question before they even ask to see my work and I can understand their concerns, after all a piece of hand woven fabric is really quite expensive compared to fabric from a retailer who's fabrics are mass produced and repeatable, even though they are beautiful!

So, what can I offer that's different?
Well here's what!

• My fabrics are designed exclusively for you. For example, one of your prize possessions can be used as the design source to ensure that the collection or piece woven by me will sit comfortably in your home and no one else will have anything like it!

• I will only use hand weaving methods that industry can't emulate. I can manipulate my yarns and weaves in ways that industry can only dream about! My designs can be current and cutting edge as a result.

• Top quality yarns, sourced in the UK or Europe, that haven't had to travel thousands of miles from the Far East, are my preferred choice, but I can use yarns that you specify, again ensuring something totally unique for you.

• You will have access to my sketchbooks and mood boards at all stages, enabling you to feel totally informed.

• I will present a set of woven swatches for you to choose from before I start to weave you collection or piece of work.

In short, you will have a collection or piece of work that not only reflects your self and your life style, but will have a little bit of me in it, and after all I'm an award winning textile designer!

Update on Longdraw Spinning

I've just completed two bobbins of singles yarn spun as I was shown at the workshop run by the Guild of Longdraw Spinners at the Derbyshire Guild a couple of Saturdays ago.

I spun part of a beautiful Portland fleece which has loads of crimp, which I hope you can see here. Being very fine and crimpy, I realised, as I was spinning, that I might just have a few problems with this method of spinning as it has a tendency to stretch the fibres and I felt that I might just have a problem with the crimp wanting to relax once plyed and off the bobbin.

You will see from this image just what I mean! I have seen worse, but there is a fair degree of relaxing of the crimp that causes the yarn to be rather unruly, to say the least!











Once I realised what was happening, and remembering how Margaret Stove described how she relaxed the crimp before allowing any twist into the drafted fibres, I began to modify my spinning technique. If you don't know this technique, Margarets book is "Merino - Handspining, Dyeing and Working with Merino and Superfine Wools", ISBN 0-7090-4711-8.

Although this isn't a good image, you will see that the plyed yarn, at the top, is not wanting to relax and crimp up again.


So what have I learnt! Well, this method of longdraw is not to be used with very fine, crimpy fleece. Rather, is should be spun using Margaret Stoves method, only allowing the twist into the drafted fibres once the crimp is relaxed. I will try a small sample using my usual longdraw technique, where I prepare the fibres into rolags first and see if that produces a smoother less unruly yarn. I'll let you know anon!

The Guild of Longdraw Spinners

On Saturday I went to my guild for a lovely workshop with the Guild of Longdraw Spinners. Three lovely ladies, including the Chair, Pam, gave an interesting talk on how the guild formed, followed by a very informative workshop on longdraw spinning.

I've been using the longdraw method for quite a few years, mostly with very short fibres, silk noils, cotton, downland fleece, etc., where I prepared small tightish rolags before spinning. However, we were shown how to spin directly from fleece using the longdraw method, so this was something new to me. Pam was very passionate about longdraw and so was an excellent teacher and started by showing us how to twist a lock of fleece before drafting by hand without our wheel! This gave everyone the confidence to add the wheel into the "mix".

By the afternoon we were all spinning with the longdraw method and Pam and her collegues showed us how to us her "Tool Box" to improve our technique! By the time I left the workshop at 4pm I'd just about spun a whole bobbin of my lovely soft Portland fleece, now I've just got to knuckle down and finish spinning the rest of it! Using longdraw of course.

Two things Pam said was that longdraw was quicker than semi-worsted spinning because you get an arms length of fleece at a time which is quicker, but I would dispute that, as you have to ensure you have enought twist in the arms length before allowing the yarn to be pulled on to the bobbin. Her other note was that you should spin "in the grease" for best results. I'm afraid I'm not an advocate of that, I feel you get better results from washing as any dirt, etc., is not trapped in the yarn and is cleaner as a result. She did say, however, that each to there own and there is no right way or wrong way to spin and I do, whole heartedly, agree with that!

If you've always been a little afaid of longdraw spinning, do attend Pam's workshop, it will really give you confidence to have a good go at it.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've not had much time to post just recently, I've been busy at the week-ends for the last month and preparing for them during the week.

At the end of May I was invited by the York and District Guild to tutor a "Backstrap Weaving Workshop" at Coberhill just north of Scarborough. I had a lovely time, the weather was perfect, although we spent it in doors most of the time, the accommodation and food at Coberhill was good and the people on the course were a delight! When I find my camera I'll post some images!

The following Saturday I was in Amersham talking to the Buckinghamshire Guild about "Creative Spinning". After a terribly rainy start to the journey it ended in sunshine and a rewarding talk to the guild. Another lovely group of people.

Last week-end was our Guild Open Day. Beautiful weather brought out a lot of people and we all had a great time, not least because two of the husbands served the tea and coffee and the wonderful lunch we had all contributed to, leaving us plenty of time to spin, natter and shop with Vicky Smedley of MoBears, Janet Phillips of The Threashing Barn and Michael Williams with his wonderful drop spindles and spinning, weaving and lace making tools, amongst others.

This coming Saturday, I'm off to talk to the Oxford Guild on the Saturday afternoon and tutor a workshop on the Sunday. The talk is about how Jane Deane and I approached the Book and the workshop is "Creative Spinning". I really love what I do and enjoy passing on skills, ideas and encouraging creativity.

Then it's Woolfest! Woo Hoo! It's hard work, but so, so enjoyable and give everyone a great chance to catch up with old and new friends in the spinning, weaving and dyeing world. I for one am looking forward to the buzz of the two days and the Tatty Pot supper and Spin In.

See you there!