Rowans Fine Art is a blend of fibre andcolour, especially blended for sockknitting, but can equally be used forshawls or other accessories. Made withm e r i n owool, kidm o h a i r ,mulberrysilk

Fine Art premium hand painted sock yarn

made with merino wool, kid mohair & mulberry silk10cm/4in

32 sts10

cm/4

in

42 r

ows

UK11 - 13

2½ - 3mm

US2 - 3

Fine Art premium hand painted

sock yarn

Fine ArtCollectionpremium hand painted

sock yarn

1. SNIPE 2. LARK SCARF 3. SPARROW 4. FALCON SCARF

5. GROUSE 6. GOOSE 7. CUCKOO 8. IBIS

9. STARLING WRAP 10. BUNTING & OSPREY WRAP 11.FINCH 12. WARBLER

13. QUAIL

ZB137

1 2 3 4

9 10

6 7 85

11 12www.knitrowan.com13

C03

9

45% wool 20% mohair 25% polyamide 10% silk 9802159 5 x 100g hanks per pack approx 400m (437yds) per ball

made in South Africa

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www.knitrowan.com • mail@knitrowan.com

Fine Art Leaflet ENGLISH UK_Layout 1 21/03/2013 12:30 Page 1

Cape Mohair Spinners (Pty) Ltd, is committed to secure their supply of raw materials from suppliers , who placehigh values in ensuring that the natural products utilised , remain sustainable and are produced in ways which areresponsive to both the environment and the community.

The hand-painting department started as a hobby forInes' Khoury, having always been a keen knitter but

struggling to find the sort ofyarn she wanted to work with,she decided to try her hand atmaking her own. Soon herhome became a hive of activity,from spinning all sorts of fibres,to learning to dye. Peoplestarted ordering from her andso a business was born.

Order quantities were initially very small and weremanageable with only two people. With additionalbusiness from Rowan, a change was needed in order toincrease the capacity of the hand painting process.

The first sampling (160kg)for Rowan was doneimmediately, but after thisthe decision to relocate toPort Elizabeth, into thepremises of Cape MohairSpinners and theemployment of additionalstaff was made.

In the beginning ... The hand painting process ...

If there is one aspect of this business we'd really like tohighlight, it's the empowerment of individuals. The hand-painting was born from the desire to be independent andself -empowered and this attitude continues to define theway the whole department functions.

The ladies we haveworking with us comefrom some of the poorestand still marginalisedcommunities in the area.One of our goals fromthe very beginning was

to introduce and develop the ideas of personalresponsibility and integrity and to create an opportunityfor genuine improvement in the living standards andexperience of the people who work with us.

The initial training focused on developing the requiredskills and then selecting individuals for specific aspects ofthe hand-painting process that suited them, because ofthe need for a reproducibleand consistent product, wehave developed a step bystep working method,easily taught and easilylearnt. Our personalexperiences of paintinghundreds of kilograms ofyarn, gave us the much needed insight into the variouschallenges and demands of doing this work well.

Each person knows their role and all of us are needed tomake the hand-painting team work well. We emphasisethe importance of personal quality control, of pride inskills and abilities and the continual striving forimprovement.

All in all, it's a great learning experience for everyoneinvolved.

Having experimented with many methods includingdip dyeing, squeezy bottles and spraying, we've

found using sponges to be the most reliable and easiestto repeat.We receive the yarn in hanks, pre-soaked and usuallybundled in 5×100g bundles. We lay the hanks on a plasticlined table, marked with dimensions according to theproject and apply the various colours to the yarn usingsponges.

It takes some practice to get a feel for how much dye tofill the sponge with, how to angle the sponge to makeneat joins between colours and so on. There's also specifictechnique for each type of yarn as each one takes the dyequite differently.

Once painted, the hanks are steamed until the colour isset. The steamed hanks arethen rinsed and softened.After drip drying the yarn isbundled and sent to thepacking house for finalhanking and packing.

Above: Letters from new employees

Fine Art is sourced and spun in South Africa Words by Cape Mohair Spinners (Pty) Ltd

Fine Art Leaflet ENGLISH UK_Layout 1 21/03/2013 12:30 Page 2