Cowgirlblues

From a home experiment to a dye studio

Founder Bridget Henderson returned to South Africa after an international career in strategy consulting. Taking up knitting and crafting again, she began experimenting with texture and colour. When she could not find suitable wool locally for a project, she started spinning and dyeing her own.

The business moved beyond her kitchen in 2013, taking space at Montebello Design Centre. Later moves brought production to Woodstock and then, in 2017, to a larger studio in Maitland. Cowgirlblues describes this studio as the home of its dyeing and a place where customers can see the process and meet other makers.

Colour across different yarn bases

The same colour idea can behave differently on merino and mohair. Cowgirlblues tests new colours across its bases before settling on a palette, looking at how the actual dyed yarn appears rather than treating a colour reference as the final result.

That attention is useful when planning a project with more than one yarn. Combining a smooth strand with a mohair strand changes the visible colour as well as the fabric’s surface. A matching colour name is a starting point; viewing the yarns together gives a better sense of the combination.

For larger projects, allow for the variation inherent in hand dyeing. Check the skeins together before starting and consider alternating them to distribute differences. When comparing an alternative, look beyond the dominant colour to the size and frequency of colour changes: they can alter a garment’s appearance even when gauge matches.