KDD & co

a picture of rain

By: KDD July 28, 2020July 28, 2020

landscape, photographylandscape, photography, rain, Scotland, weather28 Comments

It has been a very wet and cool July. As our Spring was unusually dry and warm, the garden has definitely appreciated the wet weather, and apart from having to wear the dreaded rain pants on my long daily walks, I’ve rather enjoyed it too. Certainly there is something rather jolly about hearing the rain…

keeping shop

By: KDD July 23, 2020July 23, 2020

art, History, womenart, empire, Glasgow, History, manufacturing, painting, People MAKE Glasgow, retail, rum, shopkeeping, slavery, sugar, women's history12 Comments

As part of my research for the introduction to our People Make Glasgow book, I’ve been doing some highly enjoyable work poking about the city’s eighteenth and nineteenth-century post office directories, which provide intriguing lists of Glasgow’s merchants, manufacturing and retail businesses (much like the yellow pages). Looking at these directories across a century or…

ReJean Denim

One of the things I’ve been really struck by, as I reach the end of the process of writing our People Make Glasgow book, is just how many thriving enterprises in this city are led by brilliant young women. I’ve found learning more about the innovative work of makers, artist and designers like Rachel E…

four writing tips

By: KDD July 15, 2020July 15, 2020

writingtips, writing33 Comments

I’m in full-on, heads down, focused writing mode right now, completing our People Make Glasgow book. Someone sent me an email a couple of days ago asking about my approach to writing, and it occurred to me just how much I love to write, and that my approach to it was probably pretty simple –…

Birlinn Yarn love

Hello! Friday is project reveal day, and today I wanted to show you a new iteration of one of my favourite designs of 2019 – the Udal pullover, designed for and with Meg Rodger’s Birlinn Yarn Company. Inspired by one of my favourite Hebridean places, and using Meg’s own fabulously hardy and beautiful Hebridean wool…

found feathers

By: KDD July 9, 2020July 9, 2020

birds, collaboration, Crafting Futures, photographybirds, Crafting Futures, feathers, found objects, landscape, photography28 Comments

I’ve been thinking about how I might incorporate local found materials into the pieces I’m making for my Crafting Futures collaboration with Pilar. So, for the past couple of months, I have been picking up the feathers I come across on my daily walks. I’ve not done anything special when gathering these feathers – I’ve…

An ideal shopping list

By: KDD July 8, 2020July 8, 2020

embroidery, People MAKE Glasgow, stitch, stitchingCastlemilk, community, creativity, Deirdre Nelson, embroidery, Glasgow, Glasgow life, linen, stitch10 Comments

I’m currently working hard on our People Make Glasgow book, which approaches its final stages (exciting!) and am finding the different stories the book covers about the city’s making and producing communities really inspiring, thought provoking, and often moving. As well as creative enterprises of all sizes, in fields from woodworking to whisky, the book…

this oak is

By: KDD July 5, 2020July 5, 2020

landscape, photography, poetry, seasonal, walking, writinglandscape, nature, oak, oaks, photography, poem, poetry, seasons, trees, writing15 Comments

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been really struck by how colourful the oak trees I see on my morning walks are at this time of year, with their wild orangey-red foliage so different to the surrounding trees heavy green. So here’s a poem I wrote in my head about those oaks this morning. The…

treit

By: KDD July 3, 2020July 3, 2020

design, kits, knitting, yarndesign, gardening, knitting, Lace, Milarrochy Tweed, summer, Treit, yarn, yoke13 Comments

Good morning and happy Friday everyone! Today we are feeling particularly pleased because Ardnamurchan is back in stock! And with stock of this lovely tealy-green shade available, we can now release this new summery design of which I’m really very fond – Treit. Treit is a simple tee with a lace yoke, knitted from the…

magpies

By: KDD July 1, 2020July 1, 2020

birdsbirds, housemartins, magpies, summer, the indifference of birds46 Comments

It has taken a while for me to make my peace with magpies. For a long time, as a child, youth, and young adult, they were a creature I profoundly disliked. The reason for this was pretty simple: a magpie killed my tortoise, my only childhood pet, named Werner. So I came to regard magpies…

Marianne North

By: Michelle June 23, 2020June 23, 2020

art, books, History, painting, textilesbig pic, botanical illustration, flora, Kew, Marianne North, Michelle Payne, plants, travel27 Comments

Hello, it’s Michelle here, with a post about Marianne North (1830–1890), a Victorian traveller and nature artist who left an extraordinary legacy. Painting 684. North painted the sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) from a garden specimen in Java. For almost 140 years North’s paintings have been on permanent display in the gallery she established at the…

red shawl and yellow belt

By: KDD June 20, 2020June 20, 2020

weavingbelt, inkle weaving, loom, pattern, weaving, woven bands24 Comments

I imagine most of you were looking at the shawl I’m waving about in these pictures yesterday, but today I’m going to talk about the belt I’m wearing too. I wove this belt back at the start of the year, when I’d really got into pick-up weaving In fact, it was one of the first…