Marina Skua

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Marina Skua

Hand-dyed natural-fibre yarns from the South-West of England, and modern, wearable knitwear design. www.marinaskua.com

Hand-dyed natural fibre yarn, fibres sourced from farms in the South-West of England. Rich, wearable colours with environmentally and ethically conscious provenance.

16/10/2026

The podcast is back! I actually managed to find some time to make a video, which I was beginning to think would never happen. There’s a link to my channel in my bio; please join me for a chat about my current projects and recent wool and dye adventures.
There’s lots of John Arbon Textiles yarn, hyper local wool and a nice collection of colours dyed on my blended spinning fibre, processed for me wonderfully as ever by Tom@wingham.
And if you think a friend would enjoy it, please send a link along to them too! I’m hoping to make videos about spinning techniques, colour choices, and some slightly more technical yarn stuff in addition to my usual monthly updates.

11/10/2026

Thank you so much to everyone who came by Tetbury Wool Fair today and gave me such a warm welcome back at my first show in a year! It’s always lovely to help people pick out projects, talk about where my wool comes from, and see the occasional finished garment made with yarn purchased at previous shows.
And thanks so much to for being the best helper and making sure I wasn’t completely overwhelmed!
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Keep an eye out for a shop update later this week of the new things that didn’t sell out – patrons will get access a day early as ever.

09/10/2026

Introducing: brand-new yarn! I’m delighted to start dyeing on lustrous, drapey and soft Devonia by John Arbon Textiles. This is the 4-ply weight, all British wool from farms here in the Westcountry. These are limited edition shades I’ll be bringing with me to Tetbury Wool Fair this weekend – I had such fun creating them and hope they’ll become lovely knitted things soon!
The colours (in the order of the second photo, left to right) are Olympic Flame, Mother of Pearl, Ruby Glow and Moss Wood.

07/10/2026

Dilly and Whitney – two magnificent Dutch Spotted x Suffolk ewes. I collected their fleeces from Holly Osborne Hypnotherapy back in the spring, skirted and sorted them, and have worked their magic with each.
Carded sliver of these will be coming with me to Tetbury Wool Fair on Sunday. They spin up into gloriously honest and bouncy yarn; I’ll have a couple of little hand-spun samples for visitors to feel.

05/10/2026

The palette of hand-dyed wool top coming with me to Tetbury Wool Fair this weekend. I like how these shades have come together; spruce, rust, berry and olive with a lot of natural sheepiness shining through. I often say it but there are quite a few things that would make fantastic combo spins here.
These are all dyed on my exclusive British breeds blends, processed for me by Tom@wingham – still so grateful for the wonderful work they do.

04/10/2026

Early autumn camouflage, hiding at the overgrown bottom of the garden amongst the bindweed and the not-quite-fallen-down-yet shed, the gradually diminishing ash tree and the carpet of mint. The smell is surprisingly fresh and enticing.
Scrumper Waistcoat designed by me with yew buttons by Tom Dyson Woodworking. The yarn was a gift many years ago from Katt Weaver, which I dyed with a LOT of woad seeds. Bramble Skirt designed by .and.yarn, cotton fabric from The Organic Textile Company.

25/09/2026

Happy Appledore day! John Arbon Textiles have just released a resplendent array of new colours in their rich, nuanced, and durable Appledore range of yarn and wool tops.

They also have kits for my designs pictured here: Beechmast, the Scrumper Waistcoat and Scrumper Cardigan. There’s an affiliate link in my bio to the John Arbon Textiles website where you can purchase them.

Get 20% off the patterns on my website and Ravelry with the code APPLEDORE.

Beechmast is in Appledore Aran, shown in the colour Blenheim Orange, which I originally designed as the shade Fallen Leaf. I’m so pleased they added it to the permanent range!

Beechmast in Appledore Aran in the shade Blenheim Orange. Use the code APPLEDORE for 20% off the pattern, and kits available on the John Arbon Textiles website.

Side detail of the Scrumper Waistcoat – a super versatile, unisex pattern in Appledore DK. This shade, Dufflin, is discontinued and so is on sale, and there are kits in some of the beautiful new colours available from John Arbon Textiles

Scrumper Waistcoat – use code APPLEDORE for 20% off the pattern

Scrumper Cardigan in Appledore DK yarn. There are kits available in new colours, as this one, Sweet Coppin is sadly discontinued (but on sale at a discount while stocks last!

Side and underarm detail of the Scrumper Cardigan – get 20% off the pattern with code APPLEDORE.

22/09/2026

Fleece processing / in the weeds. Earlier this year I rescued quite a lot of fleeces from smallholdings and pet flocks in the surrounding villages. Most of them were destined for the compost heap, thus have an enormous amount of straw in them. But just because they were unwanted and undervalued, it doesn’t mean it’s bad wool.

There are some wonderful surprises; who would have thought that an unlikely cross of Ryeland (dry, matte, highly crimpy) and Dartmoor Greyface (long, coarse, wavy) would be something delightfully open, bright and shiny? Most of this here, though, is blocky, dense Dorset Down. As I’m removing the straw and yucky bits, I’m separating out fleece that’s too short for spinning into yarn, which will carded into sliver – note the measuring tape on the window sill to check staple length! Local breeds from local farms, to be processed by a local mill. This is what I’ve wanted to do for years!

(I’m wearing Llif, designed by Theresa Shingler - knitting pattern designer, knitted in hand-processed, hand-spun yarn. I barely had enough to finish it, hence shorter length than designed for, and skimpy ribbing at neck and armholes.)

Address

Ipswich

Website

http://www.marinaskua.com/

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