Knit Now - UK (2020-03)

This month we chat to Julie

Harris, the dyer behind this

popular hand-dyed yarn to fi nd

out what goes in to producing

a really special yarn

How did Watercolours

& Lace begin?

I found some hand-dyed yarn at

a show and fell in love with some

lace shawl patterns on Ravelry, so I

knitted a couple of the designs. I was

disappointed to  nd the colours pooled

or gave obvious stripes, which I felt

didn’t look right for lace. So, in 2011

I bought a book and some undyed

laceweight yarn and had a go myself,

with the aim of producing something

with short and irregular colour

changes. My  rst skeins were quite

successful – I’d soon amassed a nice

stash of colourways and was happily

adding shawls to my wardrobe.

Watercolours & Lace became a

business in 2012. I’d suffered a

neck injury in late 2011 that required

surgery, and my father was terminally

ill at the time. I was really stressed

and decided to give up my day job,

which meant I was able to spend more

time with my dad in his last few weeks.

After his death I needed something to

occupy my time and decided to see if

I could turn yarn dyeing into a job. My

wonderful husband Alan retired from

his own job a year later and became

my Admin Manager, computer expert

and general factotum/heavy lifter.

What inspires your dyeing?

My technique owes much to my

watercolour-painting background. In

the same way an artist mixes colours

on a palette, then allows other colours

to merge wet-into-wet on the paper, I

hand-paint yarn. I sometimes dye with

a particular colour in mind, inspired

by a landscape or  ower, and at other

times I just play with the dye colours

and see what happens.

What does a typical day look

like at Watercolours & Lace?

The  rst thing I do is check the website

for online orders and get those ready

for the next post run. We try to post

at least every other day although,

living in a tiny village in a rural part of

Norfolk, the round trip to the nearest

post of ce is 10 miles. We try to be

environmentally responsible and not

take the van out every day. As well as

WATERCOLOURS

& LACE

Inside the studio with