yarn from the meadow - august
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* Spare skeins from dyed-to-order batches have been added to the shop and are now ready to ship! *
#YarnFromTheMeadow takes inspiration from the small hay meadow that we live next to. A few acres of tussocky grass, grown to be cut for hay or silage, depending on the weather, and occasionally used as grazing for the cattle that are raised on the fields all around us. Bounded by an avenue of sweet chestnuts on one side, ancient oaks on the other and with a scruffy hedgerow bordering the lane, it's home to rabbits, mice, shrews, and voles; a hunting ground for a beautiful barn owl and untold kestrels and buzzards. Adjacent to fox earths, and badger setts, and criss-crossed with the well-worn tracks of the muntjac, fallow, and roe deer that pass through, I walk it with the dog, with Chris, and sometimes just to breath in the air and turn my face to the sun. And I take photos, endlessly. Of the views, the sky, the weather, the flora and fauna, the changing of the seasons.
I'll be using all of the above as inspiration for this year's limited-run series. Two shades each month throughout 2024, dyed on a variety of fingering weight yarn bases, using the dye technique that creates our gorgeous ~flash~ shades.
August – and there's no denying that the season is on the cusp. The swifts have already set off on their immense journey back to their warm winter homes but the swallows are busy fledging another brood and there are still fields golden with yet-to-be-harvested wheat and barley dotted around. We are already noticing the sunset getting earlier week by week and after a recent wander around the meadow on at the end of another hot, humid day we were treated to a stunning sky as the sun dipped towards the horizon below a sky scudded with purplish clouds. We dyed a combination of soft peach, warm mellow golden yellow and soft periwinkle dyed on holt | singles and called it still evening light.
The second shade is called berry-kissed promises and is inspired by the abundance of blackberries that are rapidly ripening all along the hedgerows. I think it's going to be a bumper year and I'll be popping an old ice cream tub (my foraging tool of choice!) into the car to enable impromptu foraging sessions in the next few days I think!
Both shades are dyed on holt | singles, our single-ply superwash merino base that has the characteristic sheen and slight crinkle that shows of the way the tones blend together perfectly. We love this base for simple single-skein shawls...
We use professional acid dyes with good light and wash fastness and do our best to exhaust every dye bath and reuse water wherever possible to reduce any further environmental impact. Occasionally a small amount of 'loose' dye may remain in the yarn after rinsing (most likely with deeply saturated shades) and we always recommend hand washing in very cool water and pre-washing your yarn separately if you are intending to mix light and dark shades in a single garment/project.
We recommend hand washing your finished projects in cool water to preserve the vibrancy of the dye and, as with all small-batch, hand-dyed yarn that doesn't have dye lots, we also recommend knitting alternate rows from two skeins when working on larger projects to avoid noticeable changes between skeins.