August 2025

And here we are again, another month down. Time, in thread on linen.

In the old Celtic calendar, the beginning of Autumn is Lammas on 1st August, signifying first harvest (grain). Second harvest (fruit) is around the autumn equinox in mid-September, and third harvest (nuts and seeds) is the end of October, at the start of winter. There is always much exasperated hilarity in our house when the Met Office refers to ‘false autumn’ on its weather reports as the leaves are starting to fall. That’s because it’s real autumn, we cry in unison. It may be still warm and sunny, but weather is not season. You only have to look at the changes in the light, in the air, in nature itself, to see and feel the signs of early autumn. This is my usual northern hemisphere bias, of course, because this is where I live. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, you’ll be enjoying the beginning of spring.

Probably enough meteorological ranting.

You can probably see the change in the colour palette. More muted golds/browns/reds/purples.

The light isn’t great this morning in my north-facing work room. The morning sun is no longer quite reaching me – another clear sign of the turning season.

I’m enjoying the occasional ovals and cross-quarters on this year’s template.

As always, it looks far more complex than it really is. It’s mostly variations on straight stitch and running stitch, with a bit of blanket stitch, chain stitch, fly stitch and herringbone stitch thrown in. The edges of each daily section are mostly couched, usually silk boucle yarn or other textured yarns. Nothing very difficult here at all.

So on we go into September. I’m currently working on a sample to road-test the new template for 2026 – so far so good, I think, and I’m already quite excited about stitching it for real next year. The template will be available (probably) from early November; more on that later. Stay tuned 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed your own August daily stitching, if this is your thing. Have a lovely Sunday.

Thread

A successful week’s dyeing: over 150 hanks of cotton and silk thread ready for winding into skeins.

But I’m not starting any of that until next week. I’ve discussed it with the boss (that’s me) and she’s reluctantly letting me have the bank holiday weekend off.

In the meantime as a special bank holiday treat, there’s about 20% off selected hand-dyed cotton thread in my shop this weekend only – offer ends around tea-time (UK time) on Monday. Pick yourself a bargain if you like hand-dyed DMC stranded floss, perle cotton (size 5 and 8) and finer cotton. I’ll aim to post weekend orders out on Tuesday next week. I’m so sorry but I can’t currently post items to Europe, Northern Ireland or USA.

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend!

A pot of tea

Tea-drinking is a national sport here in the UK, but I like it best for dyeing fabric scraps and trimmings.

I thought while I was about it, I might as well dye some thread for the shop as well. I’m often asked for tea-dyed thread, and my usual answer is ‘dip some white thread in a pot of tea’ – it (almost) is that simple. But if you want the convenience of having it done for you, I now have a few tea-dyed threads in the shop. The silk threads have come out particularly nicely, a lovely golden dark cream. The cottons are much paler – in fact that’s how I like them, very subtly coloured – but if you want them darker, just let them steep in some black tea for a while until you get the colour you want.

I have some lovely space-dyed DMC threads still available, in most of the specified colourways:

And still a fair bit of cotton perle 5 too:

Some of the other lines are becoming a little depleted, so I’m in the process of preparing more thread for another dye session, probably later this month. Good job I haven’t got time to sit on this chair, it’s piled high with thread.

Very sadly, shipping to the US is suspended for now – I hope temporarily, but we will have to wait and see what options become available. Royal Mail has issued some rules about collecting the necessary tariffs, but with no clear instructions on how to do that. They also make no mention of the $80 admin/customs/processing fee, which to me is much more of a worry than the 10% tariff. If you’re in the US (or anywhere else, for that matter) and you have friends or family here in the UK, there’s nothing stopping them ordering threads for you as a gift to be sent initially to their UK address. Something to bear in mind for birthdays and Christmas, perhaps.

In the meantime, more thread-winding for me. Have a lovely weekend.

US update (and happier things)

Thank you so much to my wonderful US customers for your recent orders; parcels are winging their way to you and hopefully – keeping all fingers and toes crossed – they should arrive in the US before August 29th. The Royal Mail target for international tracked mail is 5-7 working days, so we should be ok unless there’s some kind of international air disaster, but let’s try not to think about that.

I had intended to suspend all further US orders from Wednesday, but I’ve decided to bring that forward to today. The dates are causing me too much anxiety, and all I can think about is what if international post gets delayed and you all get hit with an $80 charge. It’s unlikely, but I’d prefer to play this as safe as I can, so today is my last day for posting to you. I’m sorry if you’ve missed out; do contact me if you have any questions.

In the meantime, US customers can still support me by taking my online classes – the White House machine isn’t tariffing digital products (yet!)

On to happier things. When I can, I’m continuing to work on this long cloth, Tabula Rasa.

It’s about 6″ wide and several feet long. Part autobiography, part therapy, part self portrait. Lots of sheer and semi-sheer layers, with stitching beneath and on top of the surface.

It’s rare for me to make something I like, or something I feel proud of, but this is it, happening right here. It’s a joyous feeling.

It’s also rare for me to use a limited colour palette in such a sustained way, but I’m finding that I like that too.

Progress is slow, because there are Many Other Things I need to attend to right now (more on that later) (and it’s nowhere near as exciting or intriguing as I’m making it sound!) But a few quiet moments on this cloth in between the general busyness is proving to be very calming and grounding.

I’m so sad to be losing my lovely US community. I hope the day we can reconnect through tangible thread is not too far away.

US tariffs

Bad news for my US customers, I’m afraid, and bad news for me too.

The White House has issued an executive order that suspends the de minimis duty-free exemption for low-value items entering the US. Previously, any goods worth less than $800 were exempt from additional tariffs and charges, avoiding Customs altogether.

From 29th August, US customers will now pay a tariff on all international items, regardless of the value. Currently the tariff for goods from the UK is 10%, but the Executive Order (section 3) states that anything shipped through the international post system will be subject to a duty equal to the tariff rate applied to that country (10%) AND/OR a specific duty ranging from $80 to $200 per package.

You can read more about this here and here.

I have no control over what happens to your package once it leaves me, but it sounds as if every US purchase from me will be subject to these new rules from 29th of this month.

I would suggest that if you’re in the US and you think you might want to order some of my threads and/or fabrics, then now would be a good time. The new rules apply to anything arriving after 29th August, so as long as your parcel arrives before then, everything should remain as it currently is and parcels with a value of under $800 should just go through the system without issue. I always send overseas orders via international tracked post, which normally takes a week or two to reach the US. Unfortunately I can’t guarantee that any order placed now will arrive before then, but in normal circumstances it probably would.

Of course all of the above only applies to physical goods; digital products like my PDF templates and online courses (for now!) are unaffected.

I am sorry to be the bearer of such unhappy news, and I want to say an enormous thank you to my dear US customers (and many of you have become friends) for your valued support over the last few years. Let’s hope the current tariff/cost situation changes some time…

Month: August 2025

August 2025

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Thread

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A pot of tea

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US update (and happier things)

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US tariffs

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