I started spinning when my 3 children were very young.  My husband Julian is an artist, but at that stage we had a smallholding in Norfolk with pigs, a pony and cart, orphan lambs, poultry, and a house cow and goats for milk.  We also grew all our vegetables and a lot of fruit – not many flowers at that stage.  You can’t eat flowers!

          A friend and I got hold of a little book about plant dyeing and started experimenting with our handspun wool over a bonfire in the garden.  The colours from the leaves, flowers and roots were just amazing!  Who would have believed that such strong, beautiful colours could come from onion skins, chamomile, broom and walnut leaves? 

          I had made some ointments and home remedies already and often wonder if plant dyes evolved from the use of medicinal herbs in days of old when women had the time and the necessity to observe and be part of the natural world.  Chamomile tea might be soothing for an upset stomach, but what about the wonderful yellow colouring in the solution?? Somebody probably experimented with using it as a dye.

 

          Anyway, I was hooked, had loads of beautiful handspun plant dyed yarn, so had to learn to knit.  Knitting became a passion and a real respite from all the hard work with the animals and garden.  The children were clothed completely in woolly jumpers, hats, trousers, jackets….. at least until they got to an age when their idea of what looked good started differing from mine!   

          At this stage they were home schooled, so much of their education revolved around animals, the garden, and wool.  After a while we moved to North Yorkshire  to a Rudolf Steiner School at Botton Village – a Camphill Village for adults with learning disabilities.  Steiner education is child centred, practical and artistic, with an underlying spirituality and beauty that neither of us had received from our own schooling, and that we felt met their needs far better than continuing with home schooling could have done.   Anyway, it was nice to have some space for myself!  Each child is encouraged and guided through this very artistic way of learning towards their own place of freedom. 

          I taught handwork in the school and felt very at home with the natural materials everywhere, and also the profound sense of responsibility for the children that came from the teachers and the colourful, lovely work that came from the children.

 

          We moved, sadly, after seven years to Herefordshire so that the children could join the upper school at the Hereford Waldorf School .  Someone asked me to donate a plant dyeing workshop to a school fundraising promise auction, so I took a deep breath, and started teaching the skills that I had honed over the years. 

By now I was weaving on peg looms, tapestry looms and a Brinkley loom – and also playing around with feltmaking.  My other great passion is gardening, and I now grow most of the plants that I use for dyeing in my garden, from where workshop students pick the flowers, leaves etc. and boil them up with the fleece.  We often look like a coven of witches. 

      I have really enjoyed running the workshops, which have now grown from 1 day plant dyeing to sometimes 4 or 5 days doing anything and everything woolly.   And each year they seem to get fuller.  It is so heartwarming to meet all these people who are longing to learn these traditional crafts, and to see the move towards working with natural and organic materials in contemporary ways.

 

      Our eldest daughter Skye has trained as a Steiner teacher herself and worked  with people with mental health problems, using wool as a way of expression.  She also works with children with learning disabilities and has found some wonderful ways of helping even children with very profound disabilities to be part of the process - so giving them a strong sense of satisfaction.   

          She is also a storyteller, and sometimes works with felt during the storytelling.  She is particularly popular for children’s parties!  She helps me on the workshops, cooking all the lovely food, and also teaching needle felting, which is her speciality.  She makes fairy tale figures, and nativity scenes as well as different animals.  She and one of her sisters are starting to make a Noah’s Ark

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To participate in dyeing, felting and related activities see Link to Courses

 Jane, Skye and her younger sister were at Wonderwool Wales. We managed to stop them for a moment while they were taking down the stand. One of their big rugs was carried away in triumph by the celebrity chef at the event.