rockpool candy

Incredible Inedibles

Picture the scene:
It's a fresh, bright autumnal day here in Northern Ireland. The neighbourhood is just waking up, and I'm out strolling with my hub, lifting my face to the sky and generally soaking up as many rays before the big fireball in the sky heads off on its winter hols 'til April.

And I am stopped dead in my tracks by a dewy lawn sparkling in front of me.

But it's not the dew, or the lawn, that are calling to me. It's the gargantuan array of fungi spreading before me.

Now, being an opportunistic sort, my raccoon-like senses started tingling. Here was a whole weekend-full of free dyeing waiting to be gathered.

It being early, I didn't want to ring the owner's doorbell, so I slipped a card through their door requesting to be let loose.
More excited than it's really reasonable to be at the prospect of them calling to say it was OK, I headed back to the house and got together a foraging pack - sealable plastic bags, gloves, camera, that sort of thing.

Generously, the owners called and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you quite how fast I legged it around to their lawn and started collecting.

My favourite (and I haven't boiled this up yet) was this tiny orange 'shroom.

This one looked evil. It gave off a thick, black ooze. NOT nice. But I got three bags of it.

Some were spectacular in their detail.

Others, just down-right rude.

"I hope you took an identification book!" I hear you cry.

Well, no.

Here's why. Recently, (when arriving home in the wee small hours, just a little tipsy) I wrenched some peculiar looking fungi from my own lawn and threw them in a pot with some fibre for a good boil.

  Wanting to know whether I'd been dicing with death with this particular fungi, I sent pictures of the blighter to a friend and fellow Guild member who's a botanist and general experty type person at Queen's University. 

After much study, her considered opinion was that it might be a safe one, or .... could be as deadly as the death cap.

So we settled on this conclusion: Treat every fungi like it's gonna kill you. That way, you've got a fighting chance (and maybe an interesting colourway).

So I set to work boiling up huge pans of stinky, slimy, gelatinous goup and huddling over them like some old witch, all the time washing everything within range with a fervent paranoia unless I poisoned myself and the one I love.

And the results? Five pieces of mid-beige/browny/creamy/peachy/yellowy coloured bits of roving.

Were the end results worth it? NOPE.

Will I do it again? You know I will, because a spend-thrift and a freebie can never be parted!

Oh, my raccoon-senses are tingling again. I think I hear a skip being unloaded a few miles off. Catch you later.......

My Spinning Fibre For Sale At I Knit London Show

This weekend is the I Knit Show in London. There are still tickets available, so come along.
I'll be there with Moonspinning.

And I'm proud to announce that we will both be launching our new range of home-produced spinning fibres and yarns at the show.
My fibre batts have been created especially to give you a unique spinning experience. Slubs and noils are incorporated to be celebrated and embraced. The yarn you spin from it will be truly yours and no one else will have one like it.
Many of the fleeces I use are bought directly from UK farmers at fair prices, washed and dyed by me, and then carded into batts. The silks are fairly-traded from a women’s cooperative in India. This fibre is created with respect.
You are part of the wonderful cycle.
Because of its unique blend of many fibres - home-grown and exotic - your finished yarn will have its own personality.  Enjoy it. Relish it. It’s made just for you.

After the show, the gorgeous Gerard will be selling my batts through his I Knit Shop in London and of course, you'll be able to buy them through my site.

Meantime, here are a few close-ups of my fibres spun up to whet your appetite.

   

 

 

Pride in my Pom Poms for Peace

Right.

Think of three things that you would never expect to hear in the same sentence.

Pom pom.

Yurt.

Place of conflict.

So if I tell you that I'm going to be taking part in Amy Lamé's Pom Pom International Peace Tour, in a yurt, travelling to places of conflict here in Northern Ireland, you might be forgiven for thinking..."huh?"

But it's really happening, Reg!

Here are the dates.

Saturday 23rd August 

10am-4pm 

Lunasa - Bash at the Bann

Portadown

Co.Armagh

Sunday 24th August

7.30pm-11pm 

The Official Pride Ball 

(part of Foyle Pride)

The Corinthian Ballroom, City Hotel

Derry

Co.L/Derry

For which I've dyed up some special 'Pride Flag Roving' for proud fibre fiddlers.

Monday 24th August

4pm-9pm 

Share Village

Smith's Strand

Lisnaskea

Co.Fermanagh

 

Wednesday 26th August 

Time to be confirmed 

Crossfire Trust/Singing Kettle

Darkley House

Darkley, Keady

Co.Armagh 

Thursday 28th August 

2pm-5pm 

UNBCEP Cross Community Sports Day

Woodvale Park

Shankhill Road

Belfast

I'll be teaching folks of all ages and abilities how to spin, make yarns from recycled materials and to dye wool with Koolaid!

And all in a beautiful yurt built by the equally beautiful Nat at neck of the woods. 

So come on, set your cynicism aside and embrace the softness, the fluffiness, the pom pomery that is Pom Pom International's Peace Tour.

Oh, and it's free!

I'm the luckiest fibre fiddler alive!

I may be only 37, but boy, I feel 370 lately! I've been laid up on the sofa with a wonderful mixture of phlebitis, (the drugs for which, in turn, triggered my angioedema) and now a liberal dose of the killer flu. If I were a horse, the knackers yard would have been called weeks ago. But I am part of the wonderful world of fibre and I may be falling to bits, but life is great.

Surprise packages have been arriving thick and fast.

1st came Jimbo's chophook.
Jimbo is a guy living in the States, by Deadman's Crick, carving crochet hooks from the wood in his orchard and old chopsticks and selling them to fund the building of his cabin.
I came across Jimbo through ravelry and instantly fell in love with his handiwork, but on reading his blog, was also struck by this man's gentleness and generosity.

His friend's daughter has Friedreich's Ataxia, and wanting to raise awareness of the condition and the need for research into a cure, Jimbo decided to set up charitable auctions of his hooks online. Jimbo has also donated a travelling hook to the cause that will pass from fibre fiddler to fibre fiddler, creating crocheted wonders to auction and raise cash, whilst all the time being blogged about.
I've added my name to the list and eagerly await the travelling hook's arrival. Meantime, Jimbo sent me my very own chophook, with which I'm crocheting away. It's beautifully smooth and incredibly easy on the hands, as it's easy to hold. I'd also recommend it to people who maybe have problems holding smaller hooks. Go on! Get involved!

2nd came a bag of soda ash, from her Royal Highness, The Skein Queen.

She'd read about my dismal forays into banana fibre dyeing and suggested that I was using the wrong mordant. If this little bag enables me to create the sort of colourways she's selling on Etsy then I shall eternally grovel at her royally-slippered pieds.

3rd to arrive was a package all the way from Geneva.

Stuffed to the gills with squidgy balls of lurid and spangly acrylics perfect for the Coral Collective Hospital Project. Thank you Seamus!

Another day, another package. 4th came Ilidko's wonderful corals and their patterns. This woman is like yarn on acid! I asked her if she could see her way to helping me with a pattern or two for the Coral Collective Hospital Project.

She sent six! And they're SO beautiful. I'm indebted to her for her help. Visitors are going to love crocheting her designs.

And then there's Debi's package. Debi is over here in Norn Iron for a while and we're loving having her. She's always surrounded by a gaggle of women at the Guild meetings as she pulls Oak Hammock Farm fleece after fleece from her bags for us to ooh and ahh over.

I've dyed up some in luscious greens.

But as well as her lovely natural fleeces, she's like my cheap yarn pimp, bringing bulk buys of acrylic back from the States for me. This stuff is so nasty it could power a small town with its static. PERFECT for mad coral creations.

So now, all I have to do is clear the backlog of work that's sitting awaiting me after my desktop absence. Argh! There's never enough time to take in all the fabulousness of our fibre community. I need to duplicate myself.

Thanks to EVERYONE!

Spinning and acid dyeing

I spent a wonderful evening spinning with the wonderful Mrs Moon on Friday (something that I hope is set to become a regular occurrence). And yet again, I was bowled over by her abilty to create beautiful colourways when spinning and dyeing. So spurred on by her latest creation, I decided to try some dyeing with the Ashford dyes that my gorgeous husband bought me for Christmas.

How I wish I'd had Mrs Moon's expertise on hand as I started boiling up!
I used both un-spun corridale and some that I'd spun; wenslydale awaiting spinning; and factory spun wool/mixed fibre yarn.

I was trying to dye the corridale in hot pinks, scarlets and purples into a subtle sunset yarn...... that didn't quite work. But the result will still make a nice urchin.

Unperturbed, I tried again, this time with greens, blues and teal. EVERYTHING when dark green. Not quite what I planned. But as the wenslydale I dyed is quite shiny, I have ended up with wool akin to a mallard's head - not offensive.

And then I just chucked the two un-wetted-out balls of wool and mixed yarn into the green dyebath to pick up anything that was left. I wanted the dye to be deeper on the outside and see how much of it would seep through to the centre of the ball. These results were quite pleasing. Maybe a little too tie-dyed in effect, but the mossy greens and fading will look good when kitted into a coral. I'll definitely use this technique again with odd balls of yarn I have lying around.

But I still need help. I'll be trying to glean tips from Mrs Moon at the next Guild meeting tonight.

WIP & Spinning and Dyeing Workshops

It's hotting up work wise here in my rockpool and half of me is glad to say that there are not enough hours in the day to get artwork finished for people that want it, keeping me super busy (nice position to be in) and the other half would relish a lazy day, or 10, picking through my stash, pondering on what fibre to fiddle with.

Since getting back from Chicago, (ahhhh, 7 hours in the air with nothing to do but crochet....) I've been getting ready for the Belfast Vintage Fair next weekend, as well as to visit the Knitting and Stitching Show  in Dublin. I know that's going to hurt my pocket and bloat my stash even further.

My 'Stitchies' are multiplying, growing in their Staffroominess; suede elbow patches and sideburns appear out of nowhere, as do stuffy history teachers and beardy blokes.

As well as all my work, I've been attending weekend workshops at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum which is like stepping back in time. I'm learning all about dyeing and weaving and brushing up on the spinning skills I acquired as a kid. I have a wonderful teacher, Rosemary, who's accomplished and honest (she'll tell you that she doesn't know if she doesn't) and patient. Oh boy! How she's patient with me, asking question after question. I'm like the kid that sits in the back of the car constantly wanting to know "Why is blue?"

We had great fun dyeing up yarns with natural dyes. My favourite has to be the lichens. They self mordant, so there's no other nasty chemicals to add. Here I'm dyeing a hank of yarn with two different colours. I found that a short boil brought about a range of beautiful soft greens, whilst a longer time in the dye changed the yarn to a brown, which whilst pleasant, was not as nice. The resultant range of colours from all the dyes we used was extensive. And has lead me to look at the natural world with a sense of "I wonder if I could boil that up?" I only thank my lucky stars that it's the 21st Century. Only a few centuries ago, they'd have burned me at the stake!
We attached the dyed yarn to card, as a record.

Here are the lovely soft lichen colours.