Spinning a yarn

By Lazykate

Dye Pot Dilemmas

Its February, which has never been a month to set the world on fire from a colour point of view. In Britain we have experienced one of the harshest winters for the last couple of decades and it has brought parts of the country to a complete standstill. London. Residents of Scotland who put on an extra jumper when the snow comes have pointed and laughed at the southern softies' attempts to function during the blizzards.

Although you knitters are beavering away by your roaring fires, up to your elbows in yarn, if we spinners and dyers run out of fibre, where can we get inspiration from to create beautiful yarns?

Lets face it, in the summer we are inundated with colour but at this time of the year it seems like there is a perpetual palette of grey. So I went on a fact finding mission with my trusty Nikon....

One of the strongest colours to find around at this time of year is the green of the ivy, the deep green of the leaves with a vein of almost pale lemon can give us a base of a dye pot. One of my most popular yarns is Eliza which is based on these colours. The berries can also provide an accent shade and by using a dark red will contrast with the green.

Even the sky with its watery blue hues can give us the beginning of an idea. Here the blue itself can give a base for inspiration, or add the green and hay tones to the dye pot for an experiment. Below is Topsy, a dye of delicate shades of blue.

While I was on my short journey (don't really like the cold) I found these magnigicent fungi. The colours here are wonderful and talk about inspirational! There are so many shades in there you would be spoilt for choice. Chocolate brown and cream are always a winner when it comes to winter knitting, but the brick reddy brown colours could add an extra element to your dye pot.

This yarn is Guinevere in fungi shades of brown and cream.

There are, even in the blandest of months, many ways to find inspiration, we maybe just have to look harder in February than in other months. Still, at the time of writing there is only one more day of February to go. Spring is on its way!

To read more about Lazykate's world of spinning visit her blog at www.lazypeasant.blogspot.com