Rolags / Punis

Recently I managed to get hold of a small amount of 15.5 micron merino. I was stunned when I put my hand in the bag! It felt so soft, easily as soft as the cashmere that I have in stock. So, I excitedly took a small amount to spin up. Well, it was a joy to spin! Not only is it beautifully soft, but it has a longer staple length than I am used to in fine merino, and this made it so much easier to spin. The final photograph shows my test skein, before its bath. I got 172m from 22g, and it still feels amazingly soft.

A friend asked me to make a colourway based on the inspiration photograph of the Fairy. Sadly, it took me much longer than expected, but here it is.

I found these rolags very difficult to get an accurate colour representation. I have done my best, and I have only posted photographs which most accurately show the colours on my monitor (remember colours may look different on your monitor). To help I have listed the colours contained in this blend:

Merino in shades of : deep jade, jade, bottle green, teal, deep duck egg blue and emerald

Sometimes an image just completely grabs my attention and I just have to make it up into a new colourway. This is one such image. From a first glance I just loved the swirling colours. Then I noticed the outlines of the tree like shapes when I looked closer. Hence the name 'Dendrites'. Dendrite meaning a branching tree like structure - used in biology to name the branched sections of a nerve cell that lead to synapses.

This colourway is made up of both 21 micron merino and superfine 18.5 micron merino with the addition of some beautiful violet tussah silk.

Crossbills are the most odd looking birds when you look at them close up. As their name suggests, they have a bill that completely crosses over. This strange shape is to help them prise open pine cones and extract the seeds. These birds are protected in the UK, and are not often seen - I would love to spot one, but so far have not. This is because they spend most of their time at the top of conifer trees feeding.

It has been a lovely autumn so far this year. I have really enjoyed walking around in the woodland spotting fungi amd wondering at the amazing colours of the leave. So, when I was asked to put together a colourway of the woodland floor, I jumped at the chance. The colourway 'Fallen' is the result.

This colourway is another designed for the 'Mother of Dragons' mini box. The colours in this AI image reminded me of the colours that may be present for a Sea Dragon, therefore I put together the specis name of Draco  (from the Greek name "drakon" meaning dragon) and Beryllus - Beryllus being Latin for precious stone of sea green colour. Which I felt was extremely apt.

This colourway is made from 21 micron merino in shades of intense blues, jades and greens blended with red eri silk, yellow eri silk and a sprinkling of Angelina.

These rolags were designed for the 'Beauty of the Beastly' themed box. The colourways was inspired by the Mossy Frog.

Mossy Frogs are found in Vietnam. They are a species that lives in caves and have developed a great camouflage to blend in with the mosses. What I loved about the colouration of this frog was the combination of the shades of deep red and green.

These rolags are made from lovely soft merino, some shades are 21 micron, others are 18.5 micron, with the addition of a deep ruby tussah silk and a little recycled sari silk to give a little texture.

These rolags were designed for the Halloween Box for 2024, entitled 'Monsters and Magic. I wanted a colourway that would produce a really elegant looking yarn once spun. I took my inspiration from the image of an Elf in armour. I loved the almost monochrome image, and set out to make something a little special in monochrome.

These rolags are made from superfine merino (18.5 micron) with highlights using a beautiful silver mulberry silk, with the addition of a tiny bit of Angelina.

The merino in this blend will felt. If you do not wish it to, hand wash in cool water.

These rolags were first designed for the Monsters and Magic Halloween Box. The Wyvern is a two legged, winged dragon that is common in European folklore. The Wyvern is also frequently used as a mascot for schools and in heraldry.

These rolags are made from 21 micron and 18.5 micron merino - so they feel really soft. With the addition of golden tussah silk and black bamboo, with a sprinkling of Angelina for sparkle.

The merino in this blend will felt. If you prefer the fibres not to felt, hand wash in cool water.

These rolags were first designed for the @Beauty of the Beastly' Box. The colours are taken from the colouration for a Timber Rattlesnake. I loved the muted shades, with the addition of a beautiful golden tan shade.

These rolags are made from 21 micron merino, Black Welsh and Manx Loughtan fibres.

The final photograph shows some Rattler fibre spun up on my Turkish spindle. I really enjoyed spinning this blend, the addition of the Black Welsh and Manx Loughtan made the rolags open and easy to spin. You will receive 100g of rolags, not the spindle or yarn.

This extra large gradient was first made for the 'Beauty of the Beastly' themed box. The colourway is based on the colours found in the tentacles of a Portugese Man 'O War. The gradient is made of 18 different shades blended using soft, 21 micron merino.

The merino will felt, so handwash in cool water if you do not wish it to felt.

I was scrolling through my facebook feed a few weeks ago, and a beautiful photograph came up, purporting to be the Butterfly Nebula. I am grateful to the the person who, in the comments pointed out that this was an AI generated image. This meant that I then went down a very happy rabbithole to find out what the real images of the Butterfly Nebula were like.

The wild windswept dunes of the Solway Coast are a great place for wildlife and for walking. I love walking my dogs there - they can run around sniffing the sniffs and I can watch the wildlife seasons. Geese, curlews, oystercatchers and shellducks out towards the sea. Stonechats, blackcaps on the dunes - along with a vast variety of plantlife.

I was asked to make these rolags as apparently, out in the visible universe, not only are there exoplanets to study, but some of those exoplanets have a surface, almost completely covered by lava.

These are the rolags that I came up with. The rolags are made from superfine (18.5 micon) merino in shades of black and dark grey. Added to this are streaks of orange and deep red tussah silk and a tiny amount of bright yellow recycled sari silk. To complete the rolags black Angelina has been added to give the sparkle that you can get from the crystals found in basalt.

These rolags were made for the Halloween Box in 2022. 

The rolags are made from merino, superfine merino - in shades of deep blue,and black, and red mulberry silk.

Black Shuck is one of the many black dog legends in the UK. This version belongs to East Anglia and Suffolk. Black Shuck is said to be a supernatural dog that can range in size from a large dog to the size of a horse, with flaming red eyes. Sometimes he is thought to be an omen of death, at others he just terrifies people and is a bad omen.

This is another colourway put together for the themed box on Ancient Manuscripts. This colour is inspired by the Book of Kells. The Folio,is the ‘Argumentium to John’, which after a little internet digging, seems to be a synopsis of the Gospel written before the full Gospel. As these pages were at the beginning of the Gospel, they tended to have numerous illuminations.

This colourway is made from merino, yellow eri silk and tussah silk.

The merino fibres in this blend will felt.

I loved the soft, gentle colours of the Chi-Rho letters – with a pop of light jade - in the inspiration illuminated page of the Lindisfarne Gospels.

The inspiration picture is from the Gospel of Matthew. This was produced in the 7^th Century by a scribe (who then went on to become a Bishop) called Eadfrith. The X and P that you can see on the page are the Greek letter Chi-Rho, which was a common monogram used for Christ.

I used 21 micron merino, with pops of light jade tussah silk as the highlight.

The merino in this blend will felt

I have been thinking about this abstract image ever since I made up Royal Malachite. So, after a frustrating day of cleaning and fixing drum carders, I decided to give myself the evening to play with colours. I am really pleased with the result.

I used 7 shades of violet, lilac and purple merino (21 micron), and added lashings of gold tussah silk. When these were not sparkly enough for me, I added gold Angelina into the mix in the second batch.

You will receive 100g of Abstract Amethyst rolags (normally 7-8 rolags)

These rolags were the final instalment for the Biodiversity rolag club in 2022. I wanted to choose a normally overlooked species for this colourway. I began to look at insects for colour inspirations, and found this moth, Polytela gloriosae - otherwise known as the Indian Lily Moth. A beautiful moth.... but still a moth - hence the name Glorious Nemesis - Nemesis due to the fact that I seem to spend my life with lavendar and cedar oil, defending my wool against a rather different species of moth.

I made these rolags for the 2022 Biodiversity rolag club. I loved the colours in the Turkey Tails bracket fungi. shown in this inspiration image. Turkey tail bracket fungi are found commonly in woodlands, usually on dead wood (normally of deciduous trees). They grow and slowly digest the lignin in the wood, so recycling the valuable nutrients within the normally indigestable cell walls. This is a great example of how interlinked species are - and how nature rarely wastes anything.

I was looking for some soft colours that represented cold weather. I could not believe my luck when I found this wonderful image of frost on magenta coloured berries.

These rolags are made from a mixture of soft 21 micron merino and superfine 18.5 micron merino in shades of soft browns, magenta and soft pinks, with lashings of white baby llama - to give added warm and a beautiful halo once spun.

All of the fibres in this blend will felt.

I loved this inspiration photograph of the Northern Lights. To me the mint and violet strands look almost angelic shaped in the deep blue sky.

These rolags are made with soft, 21 micron merino in shades of dusky blue, mint, and mauve with eri silk and Angelina.

The merino in this blend will felt. If you do not wish the fibres to felt, hand wash in cool water.

I love walking through the woods in early summer as the foxgloves ar starting to come into full bloom. These tall, bright, cheery flowers have a huge number of different folk names around the country, these include Ladies Fingers, Lion's Mouth, Fairies Caps, Foxes Bells and Goblins Gloves. All of the names show the link between this flower and the 'fairy folk'. I remember putting these flowers over the end of my fingers, like little thimbles as a child - until I chose one with a bee inside!

I was looking at photographs of malachite, and saw a number of these abstract art pieces that have the colours of the malachite ore, but with added metallic gold. The addition of the gold just grabbed my attention, and lifted the spectacular green and jade shades in the 'malachite'