Leslie Keating

What an absolute cracker of a weekend!! Got to stay with some of my very favourite people at the absolutely beautiful @create_retreats in Warburton on Friday and Saturday. So many marvellous chats, great eats and inspiring projects took place (I cut out a bunch of wardrobe enhancements for future sewing and worked on samples for my upcoming mini skein beanie pattern as my car was too stuffed with wool for the usual craft weekend supplies!), followed up by a completely fabulous day at @yarravalleywoolcraftshow on Sunday 🙌🏻🔥🧶 Thanks to everyone who visited my stall at the show! Crafty folk are delightful people and I loved seeing your projects come to life in your heads as you ooohed and aaahed over my yarn - you all made for such a fun day 😃 Massive thanks to the @yarravalleywoolcraftshow team and all the wonderful volunteers. What an incredible event you’ve created, I’m already looking forward to next year!

All set up with plenty of goodies at @yarravalleywoolcraftshow , along with a huge bevy of fantastic crafty folk!! We’re here until 4pm, hope to see your smiley faces ❤️

Colours slightly skewed by the light here but I’ll have some new limited edition colourways of the Mini Stripe Scarf kits available tomorrow at the @yarravalleywoolcraftshow , along with all my tried and true colourways that have been redyed and put together in the past two weeks 🙌🏻 Plus Beanie Kits, Cowl Kits, Sock Sets, project bags, stitch markers and skeins of pretty much all my yarn bases! The line up for the market looks completely wonderful and the weather is set for a seasonal change, should be the perfect outing to pick up your next cosy project and settle in 🧶

A belated THANK YOU SO MUCH to Tess and Andrea for an absolutely wonderful day at their inaugural GABYS market on Saturday! @geelongandbellarineyarnshow Great venue, wonderful line up of amazing vendors, excellent demonstrations, and the NICEST visitors (plus very well dressed in their hand knits, so much inspiration!). Truly a fantastic event and the perfect jump back into markets for me after a year off 🙌🏻 I had to take yesterday to recover after running around like a crazy person for the past two weeks, wrapping @mazeandvale orders while working on market stock. Thanks to my husband for grabbing this pic near the end (and for driving down with me and helping set up/tear down ❤️), it was pretty consistently busy all day long and I didn’t even think about taking photos. Mini Stripe Scarf Kits were super popular again and the dye pots are already running hot to restock all the colourways before the @yarravalleywoolcraftshow in less than two weeks!

A massive and heartfelt thank you to everyone who took part in my Farewell Maze & Vale Sale, who sent their support and such kind words 🩵 To say that I was surprised by the flood of orders that came in would be a complete understatement, and it’s been very cathartic to wrap up all the pieces and send them off into the world. I wish I had the words to express how much I’ve enjoyed creating these fabrics, from sketching the designs to mixing the inks to pulling the squeegee across the screens to folding and wrapping them up, it’s all been such a joy. I will miss it, for sure. But I have a tidy stash of my own prints to play with, future quilts and project bags, that may appear here at some stage, along with my hand dyed yarns, which will continue to provide me with colour-playing joy. I chose theses photos as some of my favourite projects created with my fabrics. Hopefully they encourage you to get yours out and MAKE SOMETHING. They are meant to be used and enjoyed so I hope you will do both. Thanks again for all your @mazeandvale love over the years xx ps. There are still a few Freeform Patchwork Kits, Canvas Scrap Packs and one Modern Graphic Quilt Kit left at this point - all of these will give you a nice variety of prints to play with.

. YVWHS26 | THE HANDS BEHIND IT @fibresmith The creative playground of textile designer Leslie Keating, Fibresmith is all about considered making and distinctive colour. Working with quality, all-natural materials, Leslie creates yarns, textiles, and handmade pieces full of depth, character, and quietly striking colourways. One to visit if you’re drawn to thoughtful design and beautifully crafted fibre. We’re so excited to welcome @fibresmith as a first time creative business to the Yarra Valley Wool & Handicrafts Show 🧶 ✨ 2026 Yarra Valley Wool & Handicrafts Show 3 May • Mooroolbark Community Centre • 10am – 4pm #knitting #textile #fibre #handmade #visitvictoria

Maze & Vale pals, I've got good news and bad news... Let's get the bad news out of the way first, shall we? Almost a year on from moving out of the warehouse and I've had to face the reality that my fabric printing days are truly over for the foreseeable future. I will always adore screen printing and absolutely love creating my own fabrics, but the space and drive needed to keep the Maze & Vale dream alive is in very short supply. So, after putting aside a hefty collection for my own personal use, I'm officially retiring my beloved fabric range. The good news is that I do have a decent amount of goodies available right now, and they are all on sale. Hopefully this will help you find the bits you need to finish any works in progress or snap up pieces for a future dream quilt. I've shared a few highlights here, find a link in my profile to take you straight to all the goodies 🩵

I'm putting all other knitting projects aside to get this mini skein beanie pattern finished before the GABYS market next month (see last post for market details). Choosing colours has been super satisfying, I'm using Olive, Aster, Pink Clay, then Steel, Pond, and Fog to finish it off. Sneak peak in the last pic of the new oversized (sweater sized!) project bags I've been working on with hand dyed organic cotton canvas pieces 💚🩵 These will also be launching at GABYS.

I'll be popping up on opposite sides of the city in April and May and bringing with me hand dyed yarn, project bags and stitch markers aplenty. Lots of works in progress, pics to come. Hope to see your faces and hear about your projects! x

Ever feel like some projects are just cursed? This brioche cowl, man, it's testing me. So way back in 2018 or 19, I wanted to create a squishy, two colour, brioche cowl. I knit a sample and it was lovely, but way too wide. I knit another, still too wide. And a third, finally a 'just right' circumference 🙌 I knit a few more samples, then released it as the 'Goldilocks Brioche Cowl', with all three sizes included. I wore my Small sample A LOT and loved it, but also wished it was a taller, for even more squish and warmth and cosiness. It niggled at me and in 2023, I began knitting a new sample, with the idea of rereleasing the pattern. But it was the end of winter and we were jumping into holiday market season and then the whole 'moving out of the warehouse' chaos, so I pushed it aside. This past Christmas, I began again. Chose Straw And Flax in the same 10ply Merino from the original pattern, same needle size, a stitch count just eight stitches larger than the original Small. Knit it up. and it came out wider than I wanted. Resigned, I cast on another in Kingfisher and Pond, using the same stitch count as the original Small. Knit it up and was happy with the width - huzzah! Took a few pics yesterday in the good, overcast light and then remembered I needed to block the new sample, as I had the Straw/Flax one. I soaked it, laid it out, and, GOD DAMNIT, it's grown to basically the same size as the first one 😩 So back to the drawing board with this one... Casting on a new test piece today. Good thing I really love the flow of knitting brioche in the round 🙃

Gimme all the green, all the time 🌳🥦🍏🥝🍈 1. Big, gorgeous, batch of 10ply Merino hand dyed in Meadow, sent out this week to a clever maker. I'm guessing this will become the cosiest of blankets... or a family set of ridiculously cute jumpers 🤗 2. new cast on for a mini skein beanie pattern that's been in my head for a year or so. 4ply Merino (held double) in my most favourite hand dyed shade, Olive 🫒 3. Garden = all the greens 💚 #australianyarn #handdyedyarn #knittersofaustralia #aussieknitters #nonsuperwash

Two colour brioche in the round, super soothing, and such a satisfying, double sided, stripe effect 🙌 This is an updated version of the brioche cowl pattern I released a few years ago. I realised I wanted a closer fit, squishier, version so have reworked the shape and simplified the instructions along the way. This sample, knit in my hand dyed Kingfisher and Pond Merino 10ply, is now ready to be cast off (I took these photos a few weeks ago and kept forgetting to actually share them 🤦‍♀️) so I'll have the updated pattern, and some suggested colour pairings, ready to share very soon! #fibresmithhanddyedyarn #madeinmelbourne #nonsuperwash #australianyarndyer #knittersofaustralia