About me

Natur- ‘Ally’

is  me, Alison.  I produce a small, but unique collection of mostly British yarns, dyed naturally in rural Lincolnshire.

I predominately use home grown woad, indigo, weld, coreopsis, dyer’s chamomile, dyer’s greenweed, golden rod, madder and cosmos. I also dye with other responsibly sourced and locally gathered dye-stuffs such as alder cones, nettles and mugwort.  As blue has always been my favourite colour I am particularly fond of woad, which was once grown and farmed all over Lincolnshire and I would love to find somewhere to upscale growing woad as space is limited in my back garden.

I use these dyes to create my range of colours and have recently launched a small range of accessories, kits and garments in these yarns. 

My Background

I have always been passionate about knitting & crochet, & learnt at an early age! In my twenties I taught myself to use a knitting machine before taking a BTEC Diploma in Fashion Design, concentrating on knitwear and producing a small knitted collection.  While my girls were young, I made many children's jumpers & sold them to other mums at Mums and Toddler groups. 

After moving to North Lincolnshire with my family, all my machines were packed away for about 3 years when we rented a tiny house, then lived in a caravan for  18 months while our house was built.  It was a happy day when they came out of storage and I could use them again!

Finally I had the opportunity to study Fashion Knitwear and Knitted Textiles at Nottingham Trent University from 2007 - 2011.  As part of the course I spent an exciting 8 months on work placement with Di Gilpin, a hand-knit designer in Fife.  In my final year I started experimenting with natural dyes for a short project before working on my final collection which was inspired by fishermen’s gansey jumpers. 

 

Over the years I have produced both hand and machine designs, pattern-writing & sampling, & have worked with many other knitwear designers. I also  worked  for a few years in the Textile Department at Hull School of Art and Design, teaching hand and machine knitting and yarn dyeing.  I have also run various workshops locally, teaching knitting, crochet, yarn and natural dyeing.