Shrewsbury Guild of Spinners, Weavers & Dyers

We are sometimes offered gifts of fleeces from people’s special or pet sheep and it is difficult to refuse such offers (when we need to) and to explain how long it takes to spin fleece and the differences in quality that the different breeds produce. Therefore the yarn we spin is from different breeds for different articles, i.e shawls, baby knitting, socks, outdoor garments, rugs and carpets.

As a general rule when we have a bag of fleece straight from the sheeps back to produce a yarn we need to sort it, wash it, dry it, spin it, ply it and wash it again and this process can take up to two and a half hours for a fine yarn and obviously less for a thicker yarn. Then comes the dyeing, knitting or weaving. Our ideal craft, wonderful though it is, is very time consuming.

When it comes to the quality of the fleece we generally look at it and feel it and get a rough idea of how it can be spun and used. However, the experts use a more scientific method, in New Zealand and Australia it is the micron count (I won’t describe it) but here and in America the Bradford Count is used. I quote from the book ‘In Sheep’s Clothing’ it is based on the maximun number of skeins, each 560 yards long, that can be spun from one pound of combed tops. The higher the quality number the finer the fleece - a 36’s fleece is quite course and an 80’s is very fine.

A few examples, Herdwick 36’s, a top grade Marino 80’s, Shropshire 54’s - 56’s, Clun Forest 56’s - 58’s Jacob 48’s - 56’s, Welsh Mountain 36’s - 48 ’s, Hebridean 44’s - 50’s, Shetland 50’s - 60’s Wensleydale Longwool 44’s - 50’s Llanwenog 50’s - 56’s, British Vendeen 50’s - 60’s, Soay 44’s - 50’s.

Terry

Our meeting on Thursday, 4th of October, was an absolute revelation. I haven’t laughed so much for ages at the amusing stories that were told, and I thought I ought to make a record of the evening. Those members who were unable to come really missed a treat.

We started out with Terry who has been tatting for a very long time. She showed us all how to do this intricate craft and we saw examples of her work. It is a bit like macramé on a more delicate scale and was fascinating to see.

Next was Maralyn who, when she had donned her tassels – showed us how to belly dance – yes really! She is very good at it too. We were all really impressed and it has obviously been good for her health as she looks blooming.

Then we had Fiona who first of all showed us a model of a tandem bicycle. We didn’t know that she rode a tandem, although we have all known Fiona forever. We heard how she and Lawrence had the tandem specially made for them about 20 years ago, and heard of various escapades they had had in the past. They seem to travel vast distances on their Eco-friendly transport.

Next was Diane Dyke who is also an artist, specialising mainly in pastels, who had brought examples of her work. We were very impressed by her having taken an A-level in art, because of her interest, and thought the results very professional.

Gwyneth was next ‘on the stand’, and we discovered her great interest in Chinese embroidery. She has made lots of visits to China and the Far East and had some beautiful items to show us, which she has collected over the years, and which she explained to us.

Next was Alec who makes leather shoes and sandals, from kits, and he explained how he goes about it. Luckily I had on a pair he had made earlier; and he was also wearing a pair of his own. He finds it a very relaxing hobby, and the shoes are certainly very comfortable and long-lasting. If the soles wear out we just send for replacements and he stitches them on.

The next ‘contestant’ was a lady who spends a lot of her time working for the Post Office – namely Ann. Despite the fact that we are in the middle of a postal strike, she gave us a good explanation of what her job entails, including the new sizes of letters (she brought the slots they use, with her). Then we were very surprised to learn that we can have special personal stamps printed, which are legal to use – I must make further enquiries about these – and the fact that the Post Office have gift vouchers now. We also received a leaflet with the posting days for Christmas – should there be no strikes of course!!

Last was Jan who has been using wool and cotton to make an embroidered panel, which has not yet told her what it wants to be made into. The stitches were mainly chain stitch and the result was very professional.

It was such a good evening that we were all there long after we normally leave, and a good time was had by all.

Joan Bellamy

For many years now I have been interested in natural dyes. I spent years experimenting with anything I could think of that might hold colour or anything I could find enough of to bung into a pan. Now, as I tend to work with fairly strong colours, I often stick to the commercially available dyes– when time is short and I have a project on the go it tends to be the quickest way to get there– easy enough to buy the material without having to wait for it to grow!

I also really only knit now if I can follow the whole process from fleece to garment, but invariably, although I like most colours, whenever I come to design an article, it always involves green. As I find green the most difficult colour to achieve with natural dyes, I am having to start experimenting again as well as looking through my old recipes. I know indigo is the most obvious way- and I’ve used it, but it is so messy and with two tabby / black and white cats who like to “help”– I prefer not to have blue cats! I know too that woad can give blues to overdye on yellows, but I have no wish to keep stale male urine in our shed for three weeks. Anyway it is already full enough of paints, gardening tools and bicycles!

So I am back to the unusual and obscure. Most of the reference books offer suggestions, but few prove very successful. I use all the standard mordants, but usually achieve nothing more than a muddy olive or a washed out yellow-green. Very little appears to achieve, the clear, strong colour I am looking for. But natural dyeing is an imprecise science so I keep on trying. Having watched James May on his jaunt around France on TV, learning about wine and the concept of “terroir” I know that works equally well with dyes, so what worked last time may not work the next.

Over the years I have achieved greens with these materials:

• Forsythia leaves (alum) early on in the year, grown in a dry area on limestone: a strong clear olive.
• Apple leaves, (alum), early in the year again, same conditions: pale but pretty yellow-green.
• Nettle leaves in summer, (alum) grown in a very wet limestone area in a very sunny year: strong almost fluorescent lime green– but not achieved when I took part of the same batch home to try again, nor in subsequent years from the same source at the same time of year!
• Dark purple lilac flowers, (alum) dry limestone, strong sun: turquoise! And never achieved again!

However, my best results have been achieved with alum/copper and cream of tartar. With many yellow dyes this mordant will give an olive yellow, but when a small amount of logwood chips are added, and the dyebath turned alkaline by the addition of ammonia, or washing soda, the results can be surprising.

Turmeric and marigold flowers have both been relatively successful at giving strong golden-olives, but by far the most successful and repeatable has been weld.

This year I found however, that it is very difficult to get hold of household ammonia now, so looking around for another easily obtainable source of alkali- and remembering the dramatic reaction I got when adding baking soda to a ginger cake recipe- I added about a half a teaspoon to a large dyebath with just weld. The result was equally dramatic! Very fizzy- and the dyebath immediately turned very green! That alone gave me a very strong limey-yellow. By then adding various amounts of logwood chips I achieved some very interesting and useful dark greens-just what I was after. Most are slightly dull, foliage-type greens, but some, later on as the dyebath exhausted, became a dark smoky, sea-blue-green. (Isn’t it difficult to explain colours in words?). I have to admit that a lot of dyestuff was used, but I was very pleased with the results. My only worry was that some of the wool seemed a bit harsher after I had added the bicarbonate of soda. After a year or so, I am also fairly sure that the colour has been light-fast because it still matches the trousers it was designed to go with.

I would be really interested to know whether anyone else has had any successful results with greens- because I am now quite sure there must be some more out there. I suspect I may need an in depth knowledge of the chemical make up of plants, or an enormous botanical-type garden, neither of which I have!

All suggestions gratefully received!
Sue Malcock