Heathery Hedges

An unexpected benefit that I have noticed about the creative processes I have been going through this year is that it has strengthened my connection to the natural world. I find myself driving or walking along and noticing colour in a much more immediate way. Much of the yarn I have been spinning recently has been inspired by what I see around me every day. I am blessed to live in a very beautiful, rural area where the immediacy of the elements heightens my perception of my environment. The air here is clear and clean and the quality of the light is excellent.



A few weeks ago I was driving up the lane to Misty Cottage when I noticed the evening sun shining on the heather.

It was an obvious starting point for a yarn colourway - well, two actually. One of the heathers is a vibrant colour and the other a pale lilac. I couldn't decide which to try so I had to do both. Luckily I have got a good stash of merino in various colours which, before I succumbed to the call of the wheel, were intended for needle felting projects.

I didn't want too much of a barber pole effect so I Navajo plied them, which basically is a way of plying the single to itself rather than spinning two bobbins and plying them together.

This method is based on loops and is very handy for the impatient spinner or for when you haven't got enough fibre to spin more than part of a bobbin. If you want to learn how to Navajo ply there are, of course, some excellent tutorials on You Tube. This one is my favourite and has been posted by those clever people at Interweave.