Offcuts

Winter 24/25

I’ve been quietly piecing things back together over the last few months following a break - time spent with my children during their youngest years.  I’ve begun a new body of work with some self-imposed constraints that come from a place of want and need.

There is a real need for me to use the stock of fabrics, yarns and resources I have around me – to clear space, both literally and mentally. There is also a real want to explore all of the ideas I’ve been thinking about, to explore how the last few years have altered me as a maker.

I’m already finding these constraints quite freeing as they are making me really focus on what I already have and on what I can do with it all - not just the textiles but the books, magazines and the thousands of photos collected and kept and never fully explored. I have some clear intentions for some fabrics, but others like the offcuts and yarns can be more challenging. 

This first collection of offcuts started from a place of play, emptying a bag of oddments from a previous textile commission into a big heap and playing with the pieces until I quickly found myself in a place of flow.

A new pattern I had already developed for another stack of Yorkshire textiles, fit most of the offcuts perfectly and I took that as a good sign to progress. I quickly found myself with a collection of 16 compositions of colour, shape and texture that felt overwhelmingly positive.

This has been a really enjoyable project to work on, the colours are both muted and bright tones that fit so well with the season and the optimism felt as we head into spring. The warmth and comfort from the brushed wools is much needed as even though the days can be bright, they and the nights are still very cold.

As well as having plenty of fabrics and offcuts to use up, I also have a lot of yarn. It's thick, woollen carpet yarn - yarns that we used to weave our Milnsbridge cloth with and bind our bag handles. We sourced these deadstock yarns from local mills and yarn merchants based in West Yorkshire, so quite a bit of time and effort went into getting them.

As with the bags of offcuts I'm using this as an opportunity to try out some new ideas and develop some which have been patiently waiting for a little more time and space. Using french knitting to turn this yarn into knitted cord has been a bit time consuming but very satisfying to do. 

In this collection I've used the woollen cord as an update to our yarn-bound bag handles to create a thicker, chunkier handle which is a nice contrast to the brushed woollen cloth and continues our use of a pop of colour on the handles as we've done with our Milnsbridge bags. 

This was the finishing detail on our new hot water bottle covers. From October to April (at the earliest) I am never more than 5ft away from a hot water bottle. I find they provide a great, immediate sense of warmth and comfort in the long dark winter and the first few weeks of spring –which can be wonderfully bright but still bitingly cold.

Our new design is one that hopes to offer a little more than your average hot water bottle cover. Ever since reading Atomic Habits by James Clear I’ve been interested in how very small changes in our surrounding environment can, cumulatively, make a noticeable change in your daily habits.

Often by the time I sit down at the end of the day I can forget that I meant to read a few more pages of that book or do a few more rows of that knitting project I started weeks ago – but I don’t forget my hot water bottle. So I’ve included a simple pocket on the front of the cover – perfect for what ever it is that you’d like to spend a little time on, whilst enjoying the comforting warmth from the hot water bottle.

The handle is quite intentional too, so it can be hung up and clearly on view during the day as a colourful, visual reminder - ready for when you have a moment to yourself.  The handle is bound using a knitted cord handmade from our stock of yarns, previously used to weave our Milnsbridge cloth with – it does make it easier to carry about the house too.

Its something quite simple, but that I find the daily ritual of emptying the bottle ready for its next use and also putting something in the pocket that I’d like to remember to do later, a small act of self-care.