Tag: wool
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sound and vision
My good friend Felicity Ford (aka Felix) is as enthusiastic as I am about Shetland and its wool industry. In 2013 (when she was patron of Shetland Wool Week) Felix worked on a number of field recordings for her important project, Listening to Shetland Wool. From the baas of lambs caught on the breeze, to…
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GlobalYell / Shetland Tweed Company
Shetland abounds with wonderful creative spaces, but surely one of the most inspiring has to be the charity that Andy Ross has established, nurtured, and developed in Yell. From its beginnings as an organisation focused on music and music teaching, GlobalYell expanded its focus a decade ago to textiles, and to weaving in particular. Over…
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Uradale
One of the really fascinating aspects about our Shetland Oo project has been finding out more about what motivates Shetlanders who work with wool, and what really makes them tick, both personally and politically (because yes, in so many ways wool is political). Ronnie Eunson and Sue White of Uradale farm, near Scalloway, are particularly…
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Shetland Tannery
As part of our work researching and documenting Shetland Oo, this past August, Tom and I met Natalie Cairns-Ratter of the Shetland Tannery. I’d acquired several of Natalie’s beautiful sheepskins on earlier Shetland visits, and was intrigued to learn more about the tanning process, and how her company came about. Small-scale tanning was previously a…
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sprint finish
It has been something of a hectic week here. Tom and I have had our heads down completing our new book, which, all being well, will go to the printers next week. The title we’ve settled on is Shetland Oo: Wool, Textiles Work, and those of you who were keen on the idea of a…
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Lives in oo
So this is the new project we are working on which has (until today) been very much under wraps! It has been on our minds for some time now for Tom to pursue a project exploring the documentary photography he particularly enjoys. . . and what better subject than a place we dearly love, and…
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The Buachaille song by Felicity Ford
At the end of last September, I travelled to Shetland for Wool Week. I’d spent several previous months exploring a new-to-me world of yarn development, and the result – Buachaille – was about to be launched with the Seven Skeins Club. At home, so many boxes of yarn had arrived that the bathroom floor had…
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a first look
Here’s a first look at the new shades of Buachaille. Furze: a rich, deep, saturated yellow. furze is an old name for the fragrant, prickly gorse bushes that turn Scotland’s hills to gold in Spring. Hedder: mid-pink with purple undertones. Hedder is a Scots name for heather (calluna). For me, this shade of purple-y pink…
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new shades of Buachaille coming soon!
yes, that just about captures it. Can you guess what they are?
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2015: in review
It has been a pretty big year for us all here at KDD. Here’s a selection of the new designs I published in 2015. Fantoosh Owligan Wowligan Jazz hands Wee Bluebells Murmuration Kokkeluri mittens The Goats of Inversnaid Much of my creative energy over the year was focused on the development and launch of my…
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goats & yarn
As promised, here are Mel’s goats. She selected Buachaille shades Squall, Islay and Haar for her set, and the effect is quite different to the colours I chose for mine. Here’s a good shot of the top of her heid, where you can see the amorous goats, and the hearts at the centre of the…
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all go
Well – we shipped all the Seven Skeins Club packages, and they are now starting to arrive all over the world. Parcels of yarn were landing in Denmark and Germany by the middle of last week, and there were sightings yesterday in Illinois and Texas. If you are waiting for a package yours should not…
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Shetland days
It is Wool Week in Shetland, and I began it in this cottage out at Vementry. What a spot! It was lovely to take some time out to visit my friend Hazel Tindall. I just love the part of Shetland where Hazel lives, and it was a real privilege to potter about her garden, and…