Bruce and I have returned from my second trip to Scotland this year and we are both exhausted and exhilarated. It was an exploratory trip to see if another book along the lines of Knit (Spin) Sweden might be feasible for Scotland and/or the UK in general. With 72 breeds of sheep in the UK, the prospects are a little daunting, so I need to figure out where this is headed and how it might be broken down into smaller parts.
This trip was all about the Highlands. We used the town of Inverness as our “base of operations,” traveling out into the countryside along narrow roads (and driving on the left side of the road) to visit crofts, inde dyers, yarn producers, and designers. Spring was beginning to show itself, although it was still pretty cold and, of course, it rained every day. Fortunately, we weren’t caught in terrible down-pours, and in any case, we were ready to take it as it came.
Our first stop was at the studio of Dwynwen Hopcroft of Loch Ness Knitting. I’ve written about her before after discovering her line of natural-dyed yarns in one of the Shetland Wool Week’s Annuals.
Dwynwen is quite a special dyer. She has some dye-plants in her own garden, but also forages in the woodlands for her materials, and uses orange peels and other food “waste” from local cafés. She emphasizes the need for a sustainable operation; never harvesting more than is necessary and appropriate, and working in tandem with others in the area to keep a balance with nature. For example, she doesn’t harvest lichens, even though they are great dye materials, because they grow so very slowly and won’t be replaced easily. Further, her processes have zero waste. She gathers and stores rain water. Each dye bath is reused until the colorant is completely exhausted. At that point, the remaining water goes to her garden and any plant materials to compost.
Since materials for dyeing aren’t available year-round, the blackberry/elderberries that dyed the 3 skeins on the left were harvested last fall and frozen over the winter. The bright magenta was a first bath, and the lovely grey-green skein in the middle was the last bath before the dye was fully exhausted. The two on the right were dyed from the soak water for black beans. The pinkish beige was from an acid bath, and the pale green was an alkaline bath. These two were done in cold water, and usually Dwynwen would leave the skeins in several days to boost the color intensity. Since these were going home with me, they were left just as you see them and dried overnight in my hotel bathroom. You can see where I unfortunately let a few drips from the berries land on the beans, although it mostly adhered to the skein ties rather than the skein itself.
I’m thinking that this grouping might form the basis of a Fair Isle-type tam. I may need to add a yellow, as well as an undyed skein to draw the colors together.
There are many more things I could say about this very special lady, but one thing that really speaks to me is her particular ethic that causes her to provide accessibility to her products for those who might otherwise not be able to afford them. Her program is called Pay What You Can, and it allows subscribers to her site to use a range of discount codes to fit their individual circumstances.
She says about this, “Sustainability is behind everything I do at Loch Ness Knitting. Unfortunately sustainable business choices tend to lead to more expensive products and that price point becomes a sticking point for people who want to be sustainable but don’t feel able to do so. If sustainability is to become the leader and not the follower of our choices then it needs to be available to as many people as possible, which means making some bold decisions in the way I run my business.”
As fellow fiber enthusiasts, I hope you’ll support Dwynwen’s efforts. Hers is a business with important lessons for our future.
And that was just the morning!
Dwynwen can be found in the village of Drumnadrochit along Loch Ness, where the Post Office and the local Tea Shop occupy the same space and serve excellent soups and sandwiches along with exquisite sweeties.
Sadly, we didn’t have room for dessert, so I’m hoping there is another trip in the offing so I can try again.
Meanwhile….
I’ll have to organize my notes for the afternoon visit. My head is still spinning from the wonderful discussions we had with Allison and Fergus of Bunloit Woolery. But that will have to wait for another post……