Highland Magic Fibre Arts

Highland Magic Fibre Arts Fibre artist | Scottish Highlands wool | yarn, textiles & stories

Women and fibre have been tangled together for centuries.Not just as a craft, but as work, courtship, community, reputat...
04/06/2026

Women and fibre have been tangled together for centuries.

Not just as a craft, but as work, courtship, community, reputation, inheritance, and survival.

While researching textile history, I stumbled across some wonderfully strange facts, including the claim that “only wh**es spin barefoot.” As a spinner who is frequently barefoot at the wheel, I felt obliged to investigate. 😆

Swipe through for a few surprising stories from the history of wool and the (mostly) women who worked with it.

Which fact surprised you most?

fibrearts textilearts highlandmagicfibrearts wool weaving knitting heritagecraft

Women and wool have been tangled together for centuries.Not just as a craft, but as work, courtship, community, reputati...
04/06/2026

Women and wool have been tangled together for centuries.

Not just as a craft, but as work, courtship, community, reputation, inheritance, and survival.

While researching textile history, I stumbled across some wonderfully strange facts, including the claim that “only wh**es spin barefoot.” As a spinner who is frequently barefoot at the wheel, I felt obliged to investigate. 😆

Swipe through for a few surprising stories from the history of wool and the (mostly) women who worked with it.

Which fact surprised you most?

fibrearts textilearts highlandmagicfibrearts wool weaving knitting heritagecraft

Tomorrow starts this year’s 100 Days Project Scotland!Last year I spent my 100 days working on one big piece, developing...
31/05/2026

Tomorrow starts this year’s 100 Days Project Scotland!

Last year I spent my 100 days working on one big piece, developing a technique- my Traquair-inspired woven panel. This year I’m taking a slightly different approach.

🧵

I’ll be spending the next 100 days exploring my woven artwork in all its forms: big loom pieces, tiny experiments, handspun yarn, natural dyes, embroidery, texture, and probably a lot of “what happens if I try this?” moments.

After a year full of wool, spinning, dyeing, and designing, I’m excited to get back to following all these threads even more religiously than usual 😆 I’ll be making a weekly roundup post and keeping progress in my stories. Drop your hashtag in the comments if you’re joining in this year!

One of the biggest surprises in natural dyeing is that colour doesn’t come from where you expect.The bright pink flowers...
29/05/2026

One of the biggest surprises in natural dyeing is that colour doesn’t come from where you expect.

The bright pink flowers of Himalayan balsam don’t make pink dye, but the leaves give a beautiful gold. Alder cones create rich browns. Dock seed heads give warm earthy shades, and their leaves a vivid spring green. And some of the most famous purple dyes in history came from lichens and snails, not flowers.

A note on lichen: please only collect windblown or already detached material. Many lichens grow extraordinarily slowly, and some populations may take decades to recover from harvesting.

The landscape around us is full of colour, but good foraging starts with stewardship.

Which of these have you tried?

HighlandMagicFibreArts ScottishTextiles WoolDyeing BotanicalColour ForagedColour

29/05/2026

One of the most common questions I hear is whether a blue flower makes blue dye.

Usually, the answer is no.

Natural dyes have a habit of defying expectations. Green leaves can become blue, roots can yield reds, and brightly coloured flowers often produce little colour at all. I’ve been reflecting on the surprises hidden in natural dyeing and how it changes the way I look at the landscape around me. 🌿🧪

Drilling holes into woven panels seemed unreasonable… until it didn’t 😄
28/05/2026

Drilling holes into woven panels seemed unreasonable… until it didn’t 😄

Hey! I need your suggestions for the GOAT of niddy noddies. I supposed I’d consider myself a niddy noddy power user, and...
27/05/2026

Hey! I need your suggestions for the GOAT of niddy noddies. I supposed I’d consider myself a niddy noddy power user, and have yet to find one that I don’t BREAK. Must haves: non-removable arms (I don’t need anything that comes apart for “convenience” or storage: there is no storing the niddy noddy when it is used almost daily 😂). 1.5-2m skein length. Either a pop-off stopper on one arm or an open arm for yarn removal. Let me know your faves in the comments!

A bridal shawl, ready for a Highland wedding this summer. Handwoven from raw silk, eri silk, my own Caledonia Aran, and ...
24/05/2026

A bridal shawl, ready for a Highland wedding this summer.

Handwoven from raw silk, eri silk, my own Caledonia Aran, and British wool bouclé. The embroidery is whitework in the Ayrshire tradition- a style that developed in Scotland in the early 1800s, originally worked in fine cotton for christening gowns and bridal veils. I’ve translated it into single-flock Heatherlea Black Cheviot laceweight, which gives the florals a softer quality than the historical cotton work.

One of a kind, available now on the website.

Address

Southview A, Pittenzie Street
Crieff
PH73JJ

Website

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/vn97BJjl?utm_campaign=sharemodal&utm_medium=r

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