Roman de la Rose Socks

I had quite a lot of wool left over after I made the tam so naturally I made some matching socks. These will also be available as a kit from Renaissance Dyeing from July this year. They will be on display at Knit Nation 2010 if you happen to live in England. There are going to be several gorgeous designs on display at Renaissance Dyeing all using Andie's naturally dyed wools, some in lace weight, and mostly organically produced from a flock of Dorset sheep in France. The designers Andie has engaged come from all over the world and they have come up with some stunning work. Have a look at the website when you have a moment.

Roman de le Rose Tam

Here is the first design inspired by the beautiful naturally dyed wool from Renaissance Dyeing. As I said, the colours reminded me of medieval paintings and the story of the Romance of the Rose was what sprang to mind. I read the Chaucer translation at university and never forgot the image of the garden and its inhabitants. The tam is supposed to tell the story in wool, which is probably a bit ambitious but the colours certainly look right.

The kit for this design will be available from Renaissance Dyeing from July and the tam will be on display at Knit Nation 2010 in July along with some other marvellous creations using the Renaissance Dyeing wool from some very talented designers around the world.

Roman de la Rose

Andie from Renaissance Dyeing asked me if I could come up with a design using her beautiful naturally dyed and organic wool for KnitNation 2010 in July. she gave me a free hand to choose the colours and what I wanted to design. I chose a traditional group of colours dyed with woad, madder, indigo, weld and cutch. When I saw the colours she had produced with these dyes I was struck with their resemblance to the brilliant colours in medieval paintings. Hence the inspiration for my design.
Over the next few weeks more will be revealed.

Mermaids Tam

A few months ago I was writing to a Danish girl who was interested in designing a tam. Conventionally I thought of the little mermaid at Copenhagen and suggested a mermaid’s tail as a wheel motif. Then I thought what about the rest of the mermaid so I did a torso design. Afterwards I changed it to an almost complete mermaid - only the whole tail is not there.
We have a lighthouse nearby where the seals fish off the rocks. The mermaids probably live there and swim amongst the red parrot fish.
The dyes are red sandalwood, indigo, madder, poroporo, sticta coronata and safflower.

Pretty in Pink Tam

Another button, this time a pink pearl one with a petal pattern on it was the inspiration here. I’m not sure if I’ll attach it though. There are some pictures with and some without. What do you think? The pinks in the pearl shell don’t show up clearly unless the light is right.
The dyes were indigo, madder, red sandalwood and sticta coronata.