Monthly Archives: October 2017

A Weekend of Dyeing and Weaving with Aviva Leigh

natural dyesLast weekend I went off to reboot my creative vibe, which has been languishing under a layer of brick dust for far too long!  I trotted along to the Norwich studio of Aviva Leigh to spend an inspirational day dyeing with natural dyes to transform a variety of yarns,  followed by a day of mastering a knitter’s loom to create a piece of woven cloth.

We were fortunate that it was a small group, just the three of us in our rubber gloves and pinnies, oohing and aahing as Aviva introduced us to the magic of dyeing with plant leaves, woodchips, pomegranate skins and even crushed beetles! yarn for dyeing - Aviva Leighdye baths - Aviva LeighAviva Leighcrushed beetles - natural dye - cochinealIn my mind natural dyes were soft and subtle, but it’s astonishing how vibrant some of the colours are.dyed wool - Aviva Leigh workshopIt’s also interesting to realise that the building in which  Aviva has her studio is in the heart of the historic textile area of Norwich where the river used to run red with the waste from the dyeing factories.

By the end of the first day our heads were spinning with information!  So much to take in about the history, the geography and chemistry of natural dyes.  Aviva assured us that the following day would be relaxing and mindful, leaving the steamy atmosphere of the dyeing studio to weave our wool samples into cloth.indigo and pomegranate - natural dyesThere were just two of us the next day and it’s a very small world because we discovered that my fellow student follows Planet Penny – so, Hello Tracy!! We had a wonderful day experimenting with colours and textures and different effects.weaving workshop with Aviva Leigh  So much so that we both headed home having bought our looms, despite both of us saying the last thing we need is yet another craft.  It’s just so addictive.weaving workshop with Aviva LeighAutumn weavingI’m itching to get my loom ready for some more experiments but I will have to wait until I have fewer builders in the house.  Today there are four, it feels a bit like DIY SOS! But we really are on the home straight now, despite the fact that we’ve just discovered the new back door fits the aperture, but won’t actually open…ho hum…

I’ll be back soon…x

 

All Change at Planet Penny

Hello again… I know, another long pause, but I do have an excuse. We’ve been doing a Grand Design. Well, it wasn’t meant to be, we started out deciding we needed an extension and somehow it grew. It’s been going on since the middle of June and now we are actually in the last stages I feel I have enough space in my head to tackle a blog post and catch up with you all.

Creativity has been non existent, I’m longing to get it back. Every room in the house (and my studio) has been affected, and the contents of the ground floor is in a container on the drive. But today, after being without a kitchen for six weeks, the worktop has been fitted, and it’s so beautiful. It was the one big extravagance, black quartz with tiny shards of reflective crystals which glitter when you move. I feel like the room has been sprinkled with stardust (sorry, just a teensy bit carried away there but if anything needs stardust it’s a planet!)

So today, for the first time for ages, I feel like I can start heading back to normality. Part of that is giving the PP website a bit of a makeover to match what has been happening at home. There is still some pretty yarn left in the Etsy shop and all the patterns but I need to decide on a new direction and I hope you will come with me.

There will definitely be knitting and crochet, some sewing and stitching, I can’t wait to get in the sparkly kitchen and share some recipes, I’m rather into interiors at the moment as you can imagine, and there is still Higgins of course!

And, if you can bear me to mention the ‘C’ word just now, there are preparations to make. The reason we decided to enlarge our house rather than downsize is to be able to have all our offspring plus their families to visit at the same time without bursting at the seams, and this Christmas will be it. I’m very excited!

If you are curious about what has been going on, here’s a little video which will give you some idea. I can’t wait to be able to give you an update…


See you soon…x

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