I've now had nearly a full month of using the new studio, and the old caravan feels like a distant memory. It's so much better for stock storage and organisation, and dyeing has been an absolute dream. As I now have an internet connection over there I've started to experiment with doing some dyeing live-streaming, with a view to test out the different platforms, work out camera angles, and hopefully start doing some online dyeing workshops or set up a self-paced course on fibre dyeing. We'll see... for now I am busy enjoying summer and my hopefully my first solo holiday since 2019.

This was a livestream of the June Seasonal Changes pack, I originally streamed this via the Fellowship of Yarn, and then had to to upload it to You Tube to fix the fact that everything was sideways...

This was the July colour choices, which didn't have the best of straits, when the video I scheduled wouldn't start and I had to set up another one quickly.... skip the first 5 minutes unless you enjoy watching me look increasingly puzzled and then have moments of dawning realisation. 

For the July colours, they're still not right, so I will be re-dyeing a couple of them before the end of the week... if I feel brave I might set up another livestream and see if I can be slightly more technologically competent. 
Anyway, the reason for doing all this messing around is so I can get all the teething problems out of the way before anyone is paying anything for any content, once I'm happy with everything there will be studio related teaching stuff happening...

The Tour de Fleece starts on Friday, and I have got all the daily posts ready and waiting. These give you a bit of flavour of the areas the race is in each day, bits of culture, architecture, and food. This year there is a recipe for every single day!
You are of course very welcome to come and join us, no matter how much you're able to spin, or what you are spinning.

Earlier in the month I took Nellie to try out Agility, which she loved, though did get a little too excited at one point and we had to go to the naughty corner to calm down... we go back tonight for an 8 week block of classes, which hopefully will go better than the trick classes I tried to do with her over the winter, which mostly consisted of me sitting on the floor and a stubborn collie dog determinedly sitting with her back to me!

I also caved and decided to hatch some eggs again this year. Juniper has been laying clutches all over the garden, which I have been discovering as soon as she went broody, and in the end I felt so sorry for her that I thought I'd let her hatch them out. Except the eggs needed moving to a safe spot, in to a house that could be locked at night... at which point Juniper decided she no longer wanted to be a parent. Mummy Indigo to the rescue, and she now has 6 chicks, who are no longer as fluffy looking as this, but are busy rampaging through the garden. I will be in need of name inspirations for these, at least 2 are almost certainly boys, and I have a horrible feeling I am going to end up with several very black feathered chickens that are hard to tell apart at a glance... which is how I ended up with 2 cockerels with called Monty Don. 

Mum and I also went to Claire Austin Hardy Plants Open Garden via the National Gardens Scheme, in particular to enjoy the national collection of Bearded Irises and Hybrid Peonies. These had just been moved to a new spot so weren't quite as stunning as last year, but we still came away with a wish list as long as our arms and a desire to win the lottery...

I've also been sewing things... a wool pinafore dress, in a move that was designed to make sure we had a beautifully long hot summer! And these pair of trousers. The pattern popped up on my Instagram feed and I thought they looked interesting, and then when I read further I saw that they were a zero waste pattern. Every single pattern piece is designed to fit together to result in no wasted odd shaped pieces. This size (F with increases in the front and back darts, and at the side seams to reduce the waist measurement) took just 2m of 112cm wide fabric! 
It was my first proper zipped fly, and the pattern made the process so painless that at the end of it I literally went "oh, is that all there is to it!"
The pattern is Jones Trousers, next up, a pair in fabric I actually like... I have no idea why I have pink denim in my stash, but it will do for work trousers! 

Writing this post has been on my to-do list for most of this month... but there has been rather a lot going on. 
I arrived back from Wonderwool and was straight in to painting and plumbing, most of which was done in the evenings after work so I wasn't in the way of the people who I was actually paying to do a job!
However, I am now tentatively saying that everything is finished. The electrician does need to pop back and extend a light cable, but aside from that it's a fully functioning studio. It's just over a year since I made the decision that I had reached end of life with my converted caravan. It had been patched up for years, with more repairs to the roof to try and stop it leaking than I care to think about. Most of the floor had been replaced due to it being rotten, and it was freezing cold in winter and boiling hot in summer. The business finally felt like it was in a position to pay for something which felt like an extravagance...
I explored lots of options, most were too expensive, or the wrong size and shape, at one point there was even a consideration of buying another second hand caravan and stripping it out as I had done the last one. But fortunately there was a local option that is actually perfect. Will from Woodlanders is about 20 minutes drive away from here, and he builds wooden cabins from scratch using as many locally sourced materials as possible. So I could have a space that was fully insulated, with windows and doors where I needed, to the dimensions I needed, and I could afford it! 

As we're in the Snowdonia National Park I had to jump through quite a few hoops to get planning permission, even though we were only replacing one temporary structure with another. That took up most of last year, and at one point it was touch and go if everything would be in place for the planned start date. 
Whilst most of the outside was new, inside is a lot of reused things form the old studio. It would have been lovely to buy things so they were all pretty and matching, that's just not how I like to do things. If something was still functional and working it was kept, so inside is not a pretty studio for Instagrammable shots. It's my work space, and that means efficiency and cost effectiveness over prettiness. Where possible everything from the old studio has been reused or sent for recycling. The aluminium outer and steel frame were picked up by a scrap metal merchant. The plywood and chipboard was take to the local council recycling centre, and the wooden frame has been cut up and will be our kindling wood for the next decade!

What there is now space for, is all the stock to be in one place... previously it had to be split between 2 different areas, and there's space to actually move around as you pick items. 

A giant work table gives me space to put things that are works in progress. It's nothing fancy, just a piece of plywood on top of drawer units from Ikea (purchased years ago and now discontinued). Covering that are some giant vinyl banners I had made for the stand when we were still going to shows like Woolfest and occasionally needed something sturdy and colourful to disguise an ugly piece of cattle market! 
The floor is lino about which I am not precious... it already has a few marks from moving around furniture. It is so nice to be able to quickly hoover over it and gather up the fibre tumbleweeds!
The shelving is nearly all made from offcuts, often from the original caravan. Some of it is a section of the plywood originally used for a replacement floor, and others from the panels on the walls. I have a lot of things that I use when I go out to teach, or that I only use once in a blue moon, and they're perfect for shoving up and out of the way on shelves like this. The walls are painted OSB wood, so the shelves are easy to move in the future, just undo a couple of screws, fill the holes, and reattach where I need them.

In the other half of the cabin is the new workspace, where at last I have a "golden triangle" of work table, sink and oven. I also now have a window to look out of as I work. The shed I previously used for drying everything is no longer needed as I've now got a giant ceiling airer where I can hang up damp fibre and pull it up out of the way. That's now going to be moved, and will be the storage for our winter firewood and the spare grid walls and tables I use at shows. That means the view from the house is much nicer (at a lovely wooden building), and the view from the studio will also be more pleasant.

The old gas oven has been replaced with a new electric oven... which has many features, of which I shall only ever use one setting and one temperature. I am very tempted to try the rotisserie function to cook a Sunday roast one day though! The bucket I use for the citric acid solution is another example of function over form... it's a brewing bucket with tap, and needed to be raided up so sits perfectly on an empty salt lick bucket. These are everywhere in this part of Wales, we often end up picking them up out of hedges where they've blown when empty, and are universal solution to just about anything that needs a plastic container! 

This corner is one of my proudest moments of revelation in the planning process... Previously anything wet and drippy had to go outside, which often meant that I got rather wet and drippy in the Welsh weather. Installing this giant shower tray was a bit of a nightmare given it was me, my 65 year old Mum, and 66 year old Dad doing the heavy lifting, but it so amazing to be able to do wet, splashy stuff and not have to constantly wipe up. The spin dryer can also sit on it, and drain directly on to the tray, freeing up space on the draining board of the sink. 

I also indulged in a new double sink, which means I can have one space devoted to hot water and rinsing fibre, and one where I can empty cold and dirty things. The old gas boiler has also gone (sold via Facebook to someone who will use it for spare parts, the old sink also went to a new home to carry on being used) instead there's a small electric water heater, which does the job very well. I did the plumbing, and getting this installed with the appropriate safety features and not getting any leaks was an absolute nightmare. I have spent hours sat under this sink with a pair of spanners!

I've also got a new storage system for dye stock solutions. Previously I used 1 litre plastic tubs and measured using a syringe, which was a real pain for larger quantities, with repeated use of the syringes often leaving me with sore hands. The final system isn't quite set up as we still need to drink more fizzy pop, but swapping to these bar optics has been great. I can still measure out quantities, but can also use them to add splashes of colours to create a palette of shades. It also frees up table space so I'm going to be able to dye in larger dyelots, which will make those of you who want bigger quantities happy!

The existing decking has also had a tidy up, with some planters made from offcuts of the larch cladding, and the wood used for the internal framing. The guttering runs in to a  giant water storage tank hidden around the corner giving us increased capacity for water to use on the garden during any dry spells. The larch cladding will slowly fade to a lovely silver colour. 
Someone commented to a friend of mine that I was very lucky to have such a nice space, and whilst that's true, I am lucky to live in a home with enough space for me to build something of this size, I have also worked hard for ten years to be able to afford to build this. For years I haven't taken every penny of profit the business made, leaving myself a cushion to be able to afford to do a grand project like this. This building represents ten years of hard work, and it will allow me to work for the next ten years in conditions where I can be more efficient, and enjoy working even when it's hot, cold or rainy!
The only ones who seem to miss the old caravan are the chickens. They used the underneath as a dry space to hang out during the day, and this new cabin sits flush on the old concrete slab... so no chicken hang out! 

I suspect some of you are reading this and thinking you'd love to visit, which alas isn't possible. One of the conditions of the planning permission is that it's not a space used by members of the general public, and our property insurance also doesn't allow it. What I do now have is internet in the studio, so as the summer goes on there's the possibility of some live dyeing sessions, or online workshops. 

PS. The fibre on the table is this years Tour de Fleece fibre, which I have been waiting to arrive for weeks! As a result I've not announced it with as much of a fanfare as I might normally, because I wanted to get it listed online and posted out to people as soon as possible to make sure it arrives internationally in time. Thursday is a public holiday, so the next postage day is Monday 5th June, and if you would like to join in, you can find the full selection here. 

It took us a week to get the old caravan dismantled, though I had already done some bits and pieces over the past month, and have also been ruthless about getting rid of the things I'd been holding on to "just in case". The main structure of the new studio is now in place, and I'm starting to make plans for plumbing and electrics. Fingers crossed the bulk of the work will be done by the end of the month, and when we come back from Wonderwool we'll be able to move everything in again, and I should be mostly back in full flight by May.

The weather in March has been glorious, dry, warm with lots of sunshine. We had a beautiful walk down the Dysinni estuary, with stunning views back up the river towards the mountains. 

My preparations for Wonderwool are nearly complete, as Covid regulations have relaxed they announced that there will now be a limited number of on-the-day tickets available, though only until the venue capacity has been reached. You can buy online tickets right up until the event, and the ticket booth on the gate will be cash only. If you're not sure about attending I recommend coming along on Sunday, the second day of a show is always much quieter, and most stands will still have a huge amount of stock for you to choose from. 

Before Wonderwool I'm also running another live online workshop this time focusing on Non-Wool fibres. Like the last one this will run on 2 evenings, again with the option to do either session or both. Monday 11th April will focus on Animal Fibres, namely Kid Mohair, Cashmere and Baby Alpaca. Learn how to create soft fluffy yarns, from these fibres. 
Wednesday 13th April will focus on Plant Fibres, looking at natural and synthetic plant fibres. Discover the joys of Ramie, learn how to put enough twist in to cotton, and learn how bamboo viscose is made and what sort of yarn it produces. 

Just like before the Zoom call will use live auto-generated closed captions, and the session will recorded and uploaded online for you to watch back again for 2 months. If you can't make a session live you can just purchase a ticket and you will automatically be sent the link to the recording. 

And with that I am off to carry on looking at sinks and planning possible layouts, I now have so many lists that there is even a master list of lists!

For years this has been the base of all things Hilltop Cloud. It started out as over-flow sleeping accommodation for friends and family when they came to visit, but gradually became taken over with pretty much everything related to running a fibre business. 
I started out just using the kitchen space as an ideal area to dye that wasn't used for food preparation, and then gradually all the internal fixtures and fittings were taken out, until inside it wasn't much more than a shell

It wasn't new when it arrived here, replacing an even older static caravan, but over the past 5 years it's started to develop more and more leaks, that no amount of repairing ever seemed to stop in the wet Welsh winter. In the winter it's freezing cold because there's next to no insulation, in the summer it's boiling hot because the sun hits the metal roof and turns it in to an oven. 
So finally it's time for it to be replaced. It's taken 8 months of backwards and forwards to get planning permission, but at the end of March the old caravan will be no more (as much as possible will be re-used or recycled in someway), and I'll be getting a new wooden cabin. It's being built by a local firm (actually a local one-man business), using locally sourced materials as much as possible. It will be insulated, so I'll be able to work more efficiently, and I will be able to design how the space is arranged to exactly suit me. I'm really excited about it, and I also wanted to say thank you to all of you, because this is what buying small means. The profits from my business can in turn be spent supporting another local small business. 

Now this obviously means I am going to be without a dye studio for a while... if you take a look at the online shop you'll notice it's very full at the moment! I've been working towards the arrival of the planning permission and the starting of building work since January. There's lots of stock already listed, and lots that's sat waiting for photographs in the coming weeks. I will be setting up a temporary stock room, so orders will be posted exactly as normal. The Gradient Club is going to be dyed in advance for the next couple of months to make sure that goes out with no interruptions.  The new stock room is a bit smaller than the current space though, so to make some room I have shuffled some items in to the Sale section.

Spring seems to be arriving here, and as ever the Snowdrops are the first to really put on a display. This photo was taken up in the Dyfi forest, by a farm that has long since been stalled up by the conifer plantations. Someone must have planted snowdrops in the garden long ago, and they've now spread all around the ruined buildings. 

February has also bought much story weather, which has been dramatic, but thankfully not done any more damage than we often get during winter storms. Sadly the Eucalyptus and Cherry tree fell victim to Storm Franklin, but other than that everything is in one piece ( I half wondered if the week of storms at the end of the month would do the job of dismantling the caravan for me!). After the storms are over a trip to the coast to see the sea is always great fun. This was at Tywyn, and the strong winds and breaking waves produced mountains of foam that were great fun to play in. 

I've not got a great deal of crafting finished this month, though there is a quilt top awaiting it's backing and batting, but I have been enjoying making little things. I bought a copy of Yoko Saito's Handheld Patchwork Treasures (Blackwells link as they have UK stock, and pay their taxes, but oddly the site doesn't have a cover image, but do go and google as other sites will let you look inside to see the contents...) , and have been using up oddments to make some bags and pouches. These pieces were the offcuts from a quilted cushion cover, which in turn was made using the offcuts from a quilt. It's a little wonky, but very charming, and seems like it will be a very useful thing. 

One of the things I will be doing over the next couple of months is offering more online sessions, there will hopefully be another couple of live workshops, and some talks. The first of which will be on dyeing fibre using acid dyes. This will start at the very basics of creating stock solutions, but quickly move on to more technical aspects of how to put dye on to fibre and end up with a huge variety of results. It's in the form of a talk with slides and video clips, and there will be chance to ask questions at the end. I'm going to be running the talk twice (the same content on both evenings), on 14th March and 16th March, both at 7.30pm in the evening UK time. It's going to be roughly 90 minutes, and will use Zoom's automated captions. Both talks will also be recorded, and buying a ticket gets you access to that recording for 2 months.

December and then January got very busy, going on holiday in November was lovely, but then left me with lots of catching up to do to get things organised before Christmas!

So far winter has felt decidedly un-wintery. It's been mild, though mercifully dry, with Wales only receiving 45% of it's average January rainfall. Given the leakiness of my dye studio roof I am not complaining too much about that, but it would be nice to get some snow!

Over Christmas I sewed together the quilt top that I was working on all last year as part of a Moda Quilt-Along. I had an epic size fail on this, in that it is huge. So huge that I will be waiting to create the top-batting-backing sandwich until I can get in to the village hall with my guild meeting, as there is no floor space here large enough. I'm not at all certain about how I'm going to quilt it either. I'm choosing to blame imperial measurements for this, as the size was given in inches, and whilst I can visual 4 inches, I can't visualise 99 inches and realise that this is actually a 2.5m x 2m quilt! 
For now it's in time out, and I shall tackle it when I have the backing and wadding sorted. I've moved on to the next project, and have decided that I fancy doing some small things this year, so I've bought a Yoko Saito book focusing around making small bags, pouches and containers. 

For the first time in ages I am settling down to do some fancy patterned socks. Socks were the thing I made most when I first learned to knit. The late 2000's seemed to be filled with designers who created fancy sock pattern after fancy sock pattern, and I made so many pairs with beautiful stitch patterns. As time went on though socks because my no-thinking knitting, and I've pretty much only made plain ones for the past few years. Bring somewhat out of the loop when it comes to sock patterns, I ended up heading to the archives on Knitty, and am busy turning this yarn (Wisteria in the Eco Sock blend) in to a pair of Eternal Spring socks. 
These will be on display on the stand at Wonderwool Wales this spring. I'm very pleased to be going back to my local show, there have been lots of new products launched since I last sold in-person. Tickets are only available in advance, and won't be for sale on the door. This will be my only in-person show in 2022, so cross your fingers that all goes well with the covid situation and do your bit by carrying on wearing your mask no matter what the idiotic English government might be making up as they go along. Wonderwool is thankfully based in Wales, so will be held in accordance with Welsh Covid rules which have always been aimed at trying to keep us all safe and well. 

Nellie celebrated her first birthday last week, and finally seems to be moving out of her troublesome teenage months, and is settling down in to being a really loving and affectionate energetic dog. We took her out Mantrailing  last weekend, which she thinks is great fun, and as we're moving in to spring she's booked on to more classes with our local dog school. She loves going to the training barn, and it gives us something to focus on to make sure she's as happy and well behaved as possible!
Speaking of learning, I'm offering my first open enrolment live online class at the end of this month. Focusing on silk spinning, it's aimed to get your happier at spinning silk yarns, and give you experience at using the different kinds of silk on offer. We'll also look at how silk is made, and what all the different sorts available actually are. It's being held on 2 evening sessions, on Monday 28th February and Tuesday 1st March. Each session covers something different, but you don't have to take part in both, and session 1 isn't required in order to do session 2. One of the many bright spots to come out of the past 2 years is the advancement in teaching spinning classes online, and whilst I might not be able to get hands-on to help, being able to set up a camera to really focus on my hands is a lot easier to see than being stood in a large group of people peering over each others shoulders. It also lets me teach internationally at a cost that's affordable to everyone. 

Perseus the Hero, saviour of Andomeda, is one of the most famous Greek Heroes. He was tasked to bring the head of Medusa the Gorgon as a wedding gift for King Polydectes, who was marrying Hippodameia. Secretly though the king lusted after Danaë, mother of Perseus, and this task was designed to lead to the death of Perseus, freeing Polydectes to marry Danaë.
Medusa had snakes for hair, and her gaze would turn humans to stone. Perseus was favoured b the gods, Athena gave him a bronze shield, Hephastus gave him a diamond sword, and Hades gave him a helmet of darkness that made him invisible. Aided by these Perseus was able to sneak up on Medusa whilst she slept and cut of her head, putting it in a bag to take back to Polydectes.
On his return home Perseus used the head as a weapon to aid him in his journey. He asked the hospitality of Atlas, who refused. Medusa's gaze turned him in to the mountains that now bare his name. He also used the head to allow him to marry Andromeda. She was already betrothed to Phineus, brother of Cepheus (Andromeda's Uncle). Phinneus challenged Perseus at the wedding feast, throwing a spear at Perseus. In response Perseus used the head to turn Phinneus to stone. He also used the head to transform the treacherous Polydectes.

Draco, the dragon, features in many Greek myths in various forms. In his guise as the serpent Ladon, the serpent is tasked with looking after the Golden Apples that give immortality, growing in the garden of the Hesperides. The trees were a wedding gift to Hera, wife of Zeus, but she became angry when she discovered that the Hespirdes, daughters of Atlas, were picking and eating the apples. Knowing that Ladon prized anything gold she tasked him to guard the trees. 
Hera later tasked Heracles to retrieve some of the golden apples from the garden, hoping that Ladon would kill hi. Heracles however used a poisoned arrow to put Ladon to sleep, allowing Heracles to step over him, pick the apples, and escape unhurt. When Ladon awoke Hera placed him amongst the stars under the celestial apple tree of the Little Dipper, and it's golden apples,  the stars Polaris and Kochab. 

If I have worked my magic on the website then the spare Merino & Silk fibre from each 12 Days of Christmas parcel will be going in the online shop each day. This is the same base as all the other Superfine Merino & Silk fibre that's available, so you can mix and match with any other colour that's in stock, and also benefit from the same offer of "Buy any 2 and get the 3rd half price".
The whole range of fibre is available here.

The fibre this year has a theme of the Stars. In the northern hemisphere, at this darkest time of the year starlight can feel magical. Humanity has always looked to the heavens, and created stories around the patterns that they can see from these glowing balls of gas so far away from our own little planet.

If you fancy trying to find the stars linked to the fibre then there are some great apps that use the camera in your phone, assisted reality, and the internal compass to help you identify where to look.

Cassiopeia is the seated queen. It was her prideful boast about her beauty that so angered Poseidon and led to him creating Cetus to terrorise the oceans. On her death Zeus placed her in the heavens, maybe as a cautionary warning...
The Babylonians also identified the stars that we now call Cassiopeia, to them she was also a representation of a female form, representing Euphratean and Phoenician divinities. Back in 3,500 BCE Sumero-Akkadian cultures used this constellation to represent the Sun Goddess Kassêba.

Aquila the Eagle is the bird of Zeus, carrying his thunderbolts which the god hurled at his enemies. However it's not just thunderbolts that the Eagle carried. Legend has it that Aquila snatched up Ganymede, the son of the King of Troy, Tros. The boy was beautiful, and are to serve as cup-bearer to the gods of Olympus. 

If I have worked my magic on the website then the spare Merino & Silk fibre from each 12 Days of Christmas parcel will be going in the online shop each day. This is the same base as all the other Superfine Merino & Silk fibre that's available, so you can mix and match with any other colour that's in stock, and also benefit from the same offer of "Buy any 2 and get the 3rd half price".
The whole range of fibre is available here.

The fibre this year has a theme of the Stars. In the northern hemisphere, at this darkest time of the year starlight can feel magical. Humanity has always looked to the heavens, and created stories around the patterns that they can see from these glowing balls of gas so far away from our own little planet.

If you fancy trying to find the stars linked to the fibre then there are some great apps that use the camera in your phone, assisted reality, and the internal compass to help you identify where to look.

By now we're pretty familiar with Cepheus and his role in the myth of Cetus, Andromeda and Perseus. "The King" constellation is one of the hardest to see as it doesn't contain any very bright stars. Before their redeignation as Cepheus this group  of stars was known as a Shepherd by early Akkadian star watchersBabylonians used part of this group to make a constellation in the shape of a Panther-griffon. This was a celestial manifestation of the Lord of the Underworld.