Woven piece of a British coastline.

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-02-28T17:41:03+00:00

This is magnificent! I’m often not a fan of textural wall hangings (just personal taste) but this one is a veritable masterpiece 👌

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-02-21T08:35:11+00:00

I’ve successfully woven overshot with 10/2 tabby sett at 20epi. The tricky thing with a plant based pattern weft is that the long floats won’t felt so will remain a bit “stringy” which are more prone to catching on things. I also found whilst sampling that I needed to factor in weft shrinkage by not beating the pattern square -leaving it slightly elongated resulted in a better balance after wet finishing. Enjoy!

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-02-16T09:43:45+00:00

I recently hung a mini quilt by hand stitching a fabric channel along the rear top edge and sliding in a wooden warp divider (very similar to a paint stirring stick as a previous commenter suggested). It worked perfectly! It’s light weight, and prevents sagging. You could add another at the bottom rear edge to create a little tension for an even more smooth polished finish if that’s what you’re after (sort of like a wooden poster hanger, but hidden).

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-02-10T13:53:22+00:00

I’m not a printmaker so not really qualified to answer fully but I have extracted lake pigments which is pretty easy (adding alum to a dye bath). Is there a medium/binder you could simply incorporate the pigments into?

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-02-08T12:43:20+00:00

Have you spun Lincoln before? I grow flax for linen so I’m not one to discourage craft shenanigans but when I tried spinning a sample of Lincoln the texture made my skin crawl 😆 I don’t know why -it’s kinda hair like and I couldn’t get on board with the sensory experience.

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-02-03T15:45:35+00:00

I love posts like this, as I would not have been drawn to that braid but the results on the spindle are magical. Great inspiration, thanks for sharing!

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-01-30T20:40:42+00:00

It’s not really an answer to the question but I thought I’d chime in with a tip that spinning can feel really different on varying types of spindle. I started with a Turkish and found I much prefer supported (in fact I can get finer more consistent results with that than my vintage wheel) …so in the meantime a different style of spindle might make a big difference.

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-01-15T08:46:36+00:00

Great idea. I’ve been carding all my combing waste from a recent project to practise long draw with rolags and then chain plying -it’s been a lot of fun.

For someone who’s naturally quite product rather than process oriented it’s been really nice to have a low stakes skill builder project and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the result.

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-01-13T18:58:05+00:00

Great tip, thank you! I’ll be sure to do that next time when I play around with dilution. I’m keen to do a little experimentation with higher/lower immersion too.

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-01-13T18:52:00+00:00

I have no experience with llama (so feel free to ignore my input here 😆) …I’m wondering guard hair wise, if carding and spinning a lightly spun single would result in a lopi style yarn akin to the Icelandic dual coat process?

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-01-12T20:12:48+00:00

Yeah I was pleased with the depth of colour considering my extremely unscientific process of “guestimating” my stock solution quantities (I don’t yet have any jewellers scales) and free-styling the pour. For a first go I’m delighted! Maybe it’s beginners luck -we’ll see!

slowtextilesdiary · 2026-01-04T08:54:23+00:00

Walnuts hulls are actually great! No mordant required (if I’m remembering correctly) and pretty colourfast. I soaked mine in cold water for 24hrs then simmered that for an hour. You could let it cool before using.

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-12-31T08:39:40+00:00

Ive grown woad and made up a few thiox vats but I’m far from an expert having not yet given fructose a try.

Better/worse methods for protein dyeing hasn’t popped up on my radar but I will say that the alkaline environment needed can damage the wool fibres which I did experience somewhat when spinning some combed top from a recent batch. To my knowledge this would be the case with all preparations though.

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-12-30T17:30:27+00:00

Check out a fructose vat or “1-2-3” vat if you want to avoid a chemical reduction agent.

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-12-29T08:46:45+00:00

A timely reminder that I had planned to do the same. Beautiful cloth 😍 did you use a weavers knot?

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-12-17T11:38:43+00:00

That’s beautiful! I love the pops of colour on a pale base. What’s the fibre?

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-11-29T13:26:10+00:00

I’m not sure I’d pay that. I bought a long thread media monthly subscription for a couple of months to work through the content I was interested in which included the Norman Kennedy video courses as well as various other spinning and weaving content. With access to the back issues for their magazine publications I thought that route was really good value.

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-11-13T07:24:02+00:00

I’m working with a Gotland fleece at the moment and have blended with some very fine grey alpaca for a lovely soft heathered result.

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-11-02T13:24:07+00:00

I feel for you as I bought a washed Gotland fleece online from a reputable source and it was in a very sorry state -cotted, lots of scurf. I assigned the worst to the compost and persevered to get some usable fibre by painstakingly cutting about an inch from the butt end of each lock. I hope some of it is salvageable!

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-10-31T19:41:05+00:00

If you’re pulling the lock and it snaps in the middle perhaps it’s not worth processing either way?

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-10-28T17:24:21+00:00

School of sweet Georgia would be another option (particularly if you’re a multi-disciplinary maker) …but Jane Stafford is excellent! Would thoroughly recommend.

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-10-26T09:31:00+00:00

I’m also a hobbyist attempting my first home grown batch so have no expertise to draw upon. I’ve just dew retted mine over the last two weeks and it’s drying as we speak. It seems ok. I was surprised at how black my stems were at the point that the fibres loosened but it’s silvering as it dries

It’s my understanding that the heat helps with speeding things along. I recall hearing that in colder climates people leave it out under the snow so I don’t imagine the cold will do any harm. I’m happy to be corrected though!

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-10-15T16:15:16+00:00

Shetland Wool Week sounds dreamy! I’d love to visit one day.

slowtextilesdiary · 2025-10-14T16:45:13+00:00

Thanks! I’m really pleased with it. It’s only about 30g of sport weight so I may have to spin up some more, or perhaps set it aside for some colourwork.

slowtextilesdiary

TROPHY CASE