Yarn Classes

On Saturday during the natural dye class while the dye pots were simmering, we had a little side class as we learnt to spin on drop spindles and we even learnt worsted spinning too!

We spun raw fleece with all that entails of dripping lanolin along with “whatever you’re having yerself” found in unwashed fleece. I made the smallest little skein of yarn which I will wash and dry over the weekend while I practise some more spinning. During the week, the lovely Hannah kindly lent me her spindle and tomorrow I am picking up a piece of fleece for a little bit of woollen magic to spin another yarn! I almost can’t wait!

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Saturday was such an inspiring day at The Yarn Room. Terry The Weaver sent us through the motions step by step and shared so very generously his knowledge. We ended up with four mordants; Copper, Alum, Tin and Iron which gave us a heap of different colour shades even-though we only used four different dyes.
Here is a picture cavalcade of the day:

Natural Dye Workshop @ The Yarn Room.
All photos by Irene Lundgaard

We managed to gain all these colour from using four different mordants and four different dyes. We used Weld, Logwood, Willow Bark and Cochineal beetles and in true Yarn Room fashion a young man walked in on us who had just come home from South America where he had seen the beetles in the wild as silver covering on large cacti, and had watched how they were being harvested and used.

It was a magical day and I am eyeing up the pots in my kitchen for future adventures.

Soon I will be able to show my very first hank of drop spindle hand spun from raw fleece too! What a day!

A while ago, (a year to be exact, I have just been reliably told, cough-cough! How time flies!) I was given a gorgeous and very inspiring gift. I was given a piece of crochet music. Donal wrote a pretty little tune for me all inspired by the rhythm of my crochet hook.

Honestly, it doesn’t get any bigger than that as gifts go in my world!

Not only did Donal write the music, he also made me a video with an animated crochet hook interspersed with pictures of some of my crochet.

Donal called the tune “Get Hooked” and that is exactly what he has done. I’m hooked on it and I think Donal has completely captured the rhythm of a crochet hook in the tune and let’s face it, he does hear a lot of it! Words like “obsessive compulsive” does regularly make their way across the room to me for some reason…

I love that little humpty-dumpty rhythm he has captured, it is so melodic and great crochet music to my ears. I adore this little video, I adore the tune and truth be told, I adore Donal, but that’s my own little private secret…

Enjoy the music!

I think it’s safe to say that my “thing” is colour. For a long time I tried to fool myself into thinking it was texture but truth be told, my first love is colour! Full stop! Colours speak to me, they appeal to me, they inspire me.

In my mid-teens I took this to the Nth degree and did a lot of batik colouring. Among other things, I dyed a wonderful 3 meter long table cloth for my mother. It was my pride and joy for years to sit at her table with the “good China” placed on “my” table cloth. It was only used for special occasions. It lasted for years and years and I think she may even still have it at the bottom of a drawer…

Natural Colour © Irene Lundgaard 2012

In my early twenties I worked in an after school care facility and did some natural dying with a bunch of kids. We went on field trips to collect nettles and whatever else took our fancy. I prepared yarn so the children would not be exposed to the chemicals and then we went down to the bottom of the playground with a pot of water, the yarn and the nettles and made a bonfire. Yarn dyeing Viking style-ish (without the urine)! It was fascinating and the kids thought it was fun and said the yarn looked like spaghetti in the pot.

And then life moved on and I put all this knowledge to one side; that is until last autumn when The Yarn Room offered up a natural dye workshop with Terry The Weaver from Wexford. I adore his work and jumped at the workshop as my inner dyer was re-awakened only to find that it clashed with a workshop I was giving myself. Big disappointment! But not for much longer. On Saturday I am joining Terry at The Yarn Room for a another natural dye workshop and I simply can’t wait! I have seen the result of what the participants in the first workshop did and they were so inspiring!

This time it’s my turn! Hedgerows beware!

I have just updated the Winter/Spring schedule for my classes. First class up is in Market Square, Tinahely and it’s commencing Tuesday January 17th. Morning classes are from 10.30 to 12.30, evening classes from 8.00 to 10.00 pm. Beginners will learn to crochet and Continuers will either learn Tunisian Crochet or get help to design their own poncho. There will be both a morning and an evening class. You can find more detail here. Advance booking is essential. Mail me: Irene@yarnclasses.com or ring/text me on 085 769 1854

On Friday night I started working on a crochet poncho, I had this idea that a new poncho would suit my wardrobe just right and at the same time the end product could be used in my upcoming workshop and crochet class where participants can design their own poncho. It’s a fun class and I had the best time picking colours for the project! I landed on main colours in Cushendale DK and some Noro Silk Garden Lite for a bit of discreet colour effect.

However, once I started crocheting the poncho morphed itself into a sweater, which meant there was quite a bit of ripping and perhaps just the tiniest bit of cursing involved. Just a bit, naturally! However, when the sweater was well under way the poncho yet again took on a life of it’s own and morphed further by turning itself into a tunic. Or rather, it turned itself into wanting to become a tunic and there was the corresponding amount of ripping and just the tiniest bit of cursing involved too. And right now, I think I’m on the home stretch, but only time will tell. Sleeves are yet to be made as is most of the main body and God only knows what that will morph into, but one thing is for sure, I’m fairly well rehearsed in the cursing department, whatever happens! Wish me luck!

PS. I made a typo in the word ‘crochet’ when I was writing this and the spell checker suggested ‘ricochet’ as the correct spelling… Now, there’s a thought!

I started wearing my Watermelon Top in early January 2010. I love it, but I haven’t been wearing it all that much… You see, the car door “jumped at it” and tore two of the flowers loose and I never really got around to mending it. I knew I had a whole ball of the Poinsetta coloured Artesano Aran 4ply yarn somewhere but it did not exactly jump out of the stash when I went diving for it and instead of diving deeper I just left the pretty sweater to one side and fondled it a bit every time I came across it.

Today I am determined to make amends as I finally found the spare ball of yarn when I was stash diving a bit earlier. I have creepy-crawlies in my belly with the excitement, it’ll be almost as good as finishing a brand spanking new project. YAY!

I finally have all the presents done and nearly good to go to Denmark on Wednesday.  I just need to sew on pom-poms and weave in ends.

His & Her Hats worked in Alpaca © Irene Lundgaard 2011

I made a His & Her Hat set out of two balls of Alpaca reversing the colours and making the His hat  manly by crocheting two sections of stripes. They are so snug and just yum!

Their Lot Hats © Irene Lundgaard 2011

All the kiddos hats are a bit of fun cheer! They are worked in Studio Donegal from Ireland, Tekapo by Ashford in New Zealand and Lett Lopi from Iceland. The blue and green one is a real boys hat, I think.

And I think there will not be any more hats for a while here. I feel rather “hatted out”…

Peace reigns in the sofa and piles of presents are rolling off the hook…

Nisse, Pixie and Elf Hats © Irene Lundgaard 2011

I’m nearly there! Hope you are too!

The Innocent Big Knit was on earlier in the year and what a great cause they raise money for. Age Action Ireland benefit every year from the hard work of very many knitters and crocheters around Ireland.

I was one of the contributors again this year and one of my little hats even made it to the back of The Irish Times. It doesn’t get any bigger than that!…

At the moment very many people in this country do not have much money to give to charity, but many are rich in time and perhaps this Christmas is the time to take some real Age Action and go and visit all our ageing neighbours and check that they are warm and snug.

And never mind that they got most of the facts wrong about my contribution in the ad. My hat was crochet not knit and my surname was mangled, but the hat is mine and it raised 25 cent for Age Action Ireland and hopefully some awareness too.

If Innocent Smoothies realized the work that goes into making these hats they might just raise the bar fiscally next year, but perhaps that wish is just a bit too innocent on my part…

Note: Picture borrowed from The Irish Times November 14th, 2011.