FEBRUAY'S SALE

I know we are being ahead of ourselves, but we have already put february's sale on-line.

This month it is SAGA our lovely BFL/Merino aran.

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/hand-dyed-yarn-sale-128-c.asp

Daisy's Blog

For those who know her.......................
And maybe some who don't and she says she's coming to the Woolfest again this year with her lover (not sure if he's been told yet) and Gert

http://theorderofpies.blogspot.com/2008/01/beginning.html

Venus

The venus is nearly all dyed and in the shop, a lovely soft set of colours.

http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/venus---alpaca-lace-weight-134-c.asp

30/1/08 - Primary School

Yesterday's photo isn't a photo at all, but a scan of a couple of the thank you letter we recieved.
I spent the morning with the local primary school kids, they had been brought to the farm on a school trip to see the dyeing.
They are studying the Saxons and have already been to Sutton Hoo, so I managed to tell them stuff about some things they already knew.
I demonstrated indigo for them, its always a real buzz watching peoples faces as the wool turns from green to blue and especially good when your audience is 20 six to eight year olds.
Its nice to be able to put something back into the community - :-)

29/1/08 - Pigeon

This is the view from the office door at the farm.
The pigeon died sometime last august and as you can see is still there, I am sure it doesn't resemble a pigeon anymore.
I think maybe we need to celebrate the pigeon's life and demise in august, maybe we will have a pigeon party..........

28/1/08 - Finished Tits - :-)

Finished and as you can see too short, next pair will be the right size (possibly), as for the tits they need a bit more developing.....

27/1/08 - On the way home.

Just to prove we made it to Oxford and back.
I have decided rather than go lots of places and never take photos I (or Homer depends on who is driving) will take photos while we are sitting at traffic lights.

I had a fantastic shot of the zoom in a cinema door, but stupid bloody camera is playing up, think its a business essential so will try and persuade Homer I need a new one

26/1/08 - Better late than never...

Went to Oxford to meet our woolly friends for a posh meal and heavy breakfast, its lovely to see them as we normally only meet up at shows. Not surrounded by wool for a change what was the main topic of conversation??
You've guessed it wool!
Drove all the way to Oxford in the zoom with the roof down, you couldn't miss us I was the big green yeti in the passenger seat trying to knit socks.

Total lack of photo opportunities when you are struggling to keep warm and stop the wool from blowing away. Still I managed these 2 stunners in the hotel before we went out to get very fat.

Being a girl I have a mirror problem, some are good and some make me look like my mother, as you can "see" from the 2 photos below - :-) (I would apologise for the photos, but amoungst other things I studied photography at art college 200 years ago - enough said I think!)

Nasty bedroom mirror

Nice bathroom mirror

25/1/08 - Tits part 2

Tomorrow off to meet up with woolly friends, so you never know I might manage to take more exciting photos over the weekend.

24/1/08 - My wellies

I proudly tell everyone about my Crocs wellies, originally they were bright pink, but as you can see they are now working wellies.

VENUS

Introducing VENUS our gorgeous new 100% Alpaca lace weight yarn.

Cloud

Aqua

Scarlet Berries & Peach Glow

Yesterday's dye was lovely warm earthy madder, as I have said before many times - my Favorite

Scarlet Berries Nino Sock

Peach Glow Nino Sock

Peach Glow Alpaca/Silk Sock

23/1/08 - Door vandal

We need a new office door at the farm, its rotten and when it really rains hard we get a puddle on the office floor.
However as you can see we also have a giant furry mouse problem, the mouse eats the door and then proudly sits to have his photo taken with the evidence!

22/1/08 - Moors Farm

Just to prove Moors Farm really is a farm, with a cameo apperance by Gert in a patch of stinging nettles.

21/1/08 - Val tying.

This photo should have been taken last week before the mordanting stage, its Val tying the small 100 gm skeins into one big 500 gm skein ready for dyeing.

20/1/08 - Daisy's beloved Gert

Gert - Daisy's beloved car, she is a white golf, my mother bought her new 17 years ago. Gert then got passed onto my aunt who in turn gave her to me 2 years ago for Daisy to drive.

Gert has had a hard life, runs on thin air rather than petrol, has just had a new clutch as hers broke a few weeks ago, leaving poor Homer stranded 6 miles from home with 2 wet muddy dogs - he was a happy bunny that day - :-)

Anyway Gert had the interior designers in while Daisy was at a drunken college party, I won't show you a close up as most of it is offensive to those of us of an elder disposition.
Needless to say somewhere there is a note saying "Dear Mr MOT Man, Please do not read this car!".

19/1/08 - Tit Socks

Think the name is wrong, but what to call them?
Do I carry on the "tits" down to the toes or stop at the ankle?
Will these ones fit?
Did about 2 inches in the last 12 hours, maybe addiction could be comeing on........

18/1/08 - Finished

All finished - :-)
Four different types of sock yarn and as you can see even though they were all dyed in the same dye bath totally different.

And now in our website shop.
http://www.dyestudiowoolshop.co.uk/4-plysock-fingering-79-c.asp
They are all "Lemon Curd"



Alpaca/Silk

Dazzle - Blue Faced Leicester

Mirage - Merino/Tencel

Nino - Merino

MY SOCKS!!!

To Gina - in case you are reading, here they are!

My first pair, (exluding all the idiot socks I made over christmas).

I didn't get them right, they are far too wide even for my fat duck feet and I started the toe far to late, so there is not enough shaping, more like a wedge than a delicate curvy toe.

But all being said and done I am proud

And just in case you were wondering.....

What happens to the Annatto when all the colour has gone?

Here is the very lovely compost bin. The annatto is covered with other exhausted dyes, but you can see orangy patches. I would have taken a close up, but would you stick your head in a compost bin??

17/1/08 - Blowing in the wind

Or murk!

16/1/08 Washing

Annatto

It just struck me that I haven't told you what annatto is

Annatto is a waxy seed pod from a Caribbean shrub (I think its a shrub).
The yellow colour comes from the wax, you have seen the dyebath and dyeing, the washing is a problem as I/We have to wash all the wax out or you will get yellow hands.

If you do get yellow hands have no fear as Annatto is used by the food industry as a natural food colour for Red Leicester Cheese (you will never know how difficult it was to type red instead blue - ;-)) and Kippers. I have seen it on other food labels including squash.

I did read somewhere that it is used in Caribbean cookery and spent the whole of december trying to find a cook book with annatto in it for Homer for Christmas.
And then sorting through Mothers cook books I came upon one she bought while in Jamica or Barbados or somewhere else beautiful and sunny, so one day Homer may cook with my dyes.

15/1/08 - Annatto dyeing

14/1/08 - Boiling

Annatto boiling, it was liquidised this morning, has been simmering all day, one last boil and I will turn it off.
It will be annatto day tomorrow.

The white bits on the floor behind the vat are from the dyeroom ceiling, the steam and damp gets under the paint, every so often I "sweep" it, trouble is the room is so damp the paint flakes get stuck to the floor and are difficult to sweep up.
The story of my life - unsweepable - :-)

13/1/08 - Madder

Pure Iranian stone ground madder fermenting in its dye bath will be ready to dye with in a couple of days.

Its such a shame that none of you like orange - :-(

12/1/08 - Annatto

Annatto soaking.
It will soak overnight and be liquidised before going into the dye vat tomorrow or monday.
It all depends on how lazy I feel in the morning - after all it is sunday tomorrow.

Dear world

Heidi has just asked me to be her bridesmaid (or rather matron of honour).
I have never been a bridesmaid or an honourable matron so am very excited and touched.
Here's to many wedding dress searches in our lunch hour (20 mins) - :-)

11/1/08 - Mordanting

10/1/08 - Wool

Have decided the next few days photo's will be of the dyeing process

So todays is wool that Val has tied ready to be mordanted - exciting isn't it - :-)

Dismal

Post christmas, early january sludge days.

One baby (& Jam) gone, one Craig gone and number 2 baby to go on saturday, will be then back to Homer, Fred and fluffy animals.
The house will be quiet, tidy and lonely.

But at least I get to get back to playing Final fantasy 10, even though Homer got a new game for his birthday (which I bought and can't remember the name) and I will have to fight him for playstation time.
The first night he played we sat up to 1.30, he killing, me knitting - happy married life!

Blogs, Photos and links

Doing some serious site promotion and am working on the website shop.
I know how nosy I am and try to limit my Ravelry/blog reading time everyday - its hard, but if I don't start looking until 6pm I normally am able to leave work at 7pm.
I am compiling a “your photo’s” page for the website shop.
Which in turn led me to think you might like to add your blogs or website links (as long as they mention the Dye studio somewhere).
Let me know if you have anything you want to show to the world and I will add you - :-)
Because afterall I am not the only one who wants to look.

The Gherkins

Due to my mother I never did get around to showing off the Gherkins, here they are in their full glory, soon to appear at a show near you - :-)

(Well only if you live near the places we are doing shows at this year)

9/1/08 - Spot the cat

8/1/08 - The funeral

Being tactlesss I did consider taking photos at the funeral, even though my Dad has obviously know me all my life and is used to me I thought it might just be too much.
It went as well as a funeral can go and struck me as an inverted wedding.
We were centre stage, all the relations and friends wanted to talk to us, but obviously all the celebration is missing, shame mum wasn't there as she always loved to entertain and be centre stage.


I did pop into work first thing as waiting for the day to start was awful, Heidi did her best to persuade me I wasn't needed and could go home to get on with the day.
So I am afraid you only get a photo of one of the dye studio shelves.......
A lovely big cone of BFL loop which will eventually become a sheep for the the woolfest and the wool marketing board's carrier bag where Heidi keeps all our wool labels.

7/1/08 - Flame

Dazzle DK - Dyed and dried over the weekend.
Wound by Val yesterday, to be listedby Heidi in the website shop today.

And here it is ..... Ruby Fire Dazzle DK

6/1/08 - Rainbow Fred

As yesterday was Fred's sheep, here is Fred with his dressing gown and no shoes..

And for once in my life I managed to dye a reasonably sucessfully rainbow, accidently of course!

You can see them wound in the shop, not 100% sure the Dazzle is a sucessful rainbow, but the alpaca/merino is.

Dazzle DK

Alpaca/Merino DK

5/1/08 - Fred's sheep

As yesterday was Feppys sheep I thought I would share Freds.
This is what my little boy bought me for christmas, as you can see they like hobnobs and the daddy sheep is fully formed - ;-)

Yesterday

I do have yesterdays photo, but stupid desk top seems to have died.
Although I can connect to the net from the laptop it doesn't seem to be talking to adobe and won't let me load photos.
Am waiting for cyber son to wake up and come and do mouth to mouth.

4/01/08 - Feppys Sheep

Feppy is in her final year of her fine art degree and these my little pony sheep were my last years christmas present.
I proudly show everyone who is interested and most people get that glazed look when I tell them my little girl made them for me last year and she is now 21!

3/01/08 - Bad Puppy

Being a typical German Shepard is a one person dog, I am his person and if I leave him at home with the babies he will find a way to escape and come and find me.

He doesn't do it everyday as we remember to keep the doors locked when he is left at home.

But today guess Fred forgot to lock the french doors and here is tiny puppy after a bit of an adventure.

I am guessing he was chasing rabbits across the fields as the mud is the wrong colour to be river or marsh mud and doesn't smell as badly.

Luckily he was so exhuasted he didn't try to lick my face and is now laying by the heater trying to dry out.

2/01/08 - Homers Birthday

Homer and Babies, the big one is missing as she had to go back to London to move in with her boyfriend and be a grown up.
Outside Cineworld in Ipswich, went to see "St Trinians", ate kebab (yuk) and then went home to watch "Last King of Scotland", again yuk, but without doubt a good film and particularly appropriate as Homer was born in Uganda at the hospital in the film.

1/01/08 - Jammy Owl

A jammy owl, Daisy's christmas present and long running joke between Dais and I, notice the owls wonky eyes, caused much amusement.

2008 New years resolution

I used to take millions of photos when my babies were little.
By the time they had reached mid teenage the photos had almost ceased to be taken.
This year my resolution is to take a photo a day, these photos will be of anything, not always people or dye studio based, but whereever my mind is wandering at that moment.
I am partly taking them as a way for my girlies to keep in touch with day to day dye studio (and home) life, it will make them both read the blog.
And partly because I like taking photos and don't take enough.
Some days I will not be able to update the blog as we will be away at shows, but will still take the photos.
And at the end of the year be left with a bizarre collection of images.

Thank you

A big thank you to all of you who have sent me messages,
its lovely to know there are so many caring people out there in cyberspace.