Marina Skua

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.

So many fresh buttons coming to the shop this evening! At current count there are five garments in my house that feature...
17/09/2026

So many fresh buttons coming to the shop this evening! At current count there are five garments in my house that feature beautiful hand-turned buttons in local wood by Tom Dyson Woodworking. And it’s about to become six, which is partly why I decided to add a couple more sizes of buttons to the range; I have a cardi that needs some and the 15mm felt too small, and 20mm were a tad too big.

So if I’m getting in some 18mm laburnum buttons for myself, I may as well share the love and get a few more for the shop, and some teeny cute 11.5mm ones, and then I basically have to get the whole lot in yew as well. Now there’s no excuse not to have the perfect size of buttons on a project!

The limited edition fibre colours coming in this week’s shop update – definitely a lot of strong options for combo spins...
15/09/2026

The limited edition fibre colours coming in this week’s shop update – definitely a lot of strong options for combo spins in this lot!
Early access for paid patrons: Thursday 17th, 6pm BST. General access: Friday 18th, 6pm BST.

There are three colourways on the glossy and lustrous Feather blend; three on the matte, sproingy and bright Solace blend; two on soft and deep Tilth; and two on the moody and delightful original Skua blend. They’re all blends of British breeds, wool grown in the UK, specially blended up for me by Tom@wingham and hand-dyed in the colours I feel like in my studio in Wiltshire.

I’m back from maternity leave! And already frantically preparing for a hand-dyed fibre shop update later this week. Patr...
14/09/2026

I’m back from maternity leave! And already frantically preparing for a hand-dyed fibre shop update later this week. Patrons will get first dibs on Thursday 17th at 6pm BST, then everyone else will get access 24 hours later on Friday. I hope you’ll enjoy the colours I’ve cooked up in evenings and nap times in the last few weeks!
If you want to make sure you don’t miss out, I’ll prod you in the direction of the link to Patreon in my bio. And if you don’t feel able to join there, my mailing list is the next best thing and is free!

Making the most of the last few days of my leave. Evenings are either knitting or spinning, with a bit of reading before...
09/09/2026

Making the most of the last few days of my leave. Evenings are either knitting or spinning, with a bit of reading before bed. I’m enjoying a very plain knit in John Arbon Textiles Appledore Lace held double in the colour Billy Down Pippin. And, having finished a spin with beautiful Cottage Blend fibre from .and.yarn, plied with fawn Shetland from Tom@wingham (both gifted), I’m trucking through the rest of my fleece/flax blend (see the whole story of that one in my highlights).

I’m planning to sew a pair of Lala trousers, pattern by Lizzie Everard – I’m hoping to dive through my fabric leftovers and see if I can piece together something fun. We’ll see if I can find scraps long enough for my ridiculous legs. Would you be interested in a video about sewing them? I’m looking forward to creating project videos again!

And lastly I’m really enjoying reading Woven Into The Earth, lent to me so kindly by Bronwen Eva. It’s about a series of textile finds from the Norse settlements in Greenland and it’s fascinating. Can’t wait to get to the more dorky bits about textile construction!

I’ll be keeping going with these things after I’m back to work on Monday, but I’m expecting to struggle getting enough time to do everything alongside running the business and a hectic family schedule. It’ll be a while of adjustment and I’m so excited!

Almost there… with just over two weeks until I’m back to work, here’s a video with some of my knitting, spinning and sew...
29/08/2026

Almost there… with just over two weeks until I’m back to work, here’s a video with some of my knitting, spinning and sewing projects and plans. There’s a bit of love for Appledore yarn from John Arbon Textiles (I’m wearing the Scrumper Cardigan in the DK weight, buttons by Tom Dyson Woodworking ), and a look at some of the hand-dyed fibre colours that will be in my very first shop update of this year 🫨
Check it out on Patreon or my YouTube Membership. And here’s a reminder that Patreon subscribers on all paid tiers will get access to the shop update 24 hours before anyone else.
Hope to see you there!

The fleece/flax spin continues… ever on and on. This is approximately two-thirds plant-dyed Shetland-cross wool (Teeswat...
27/08/2026

The fleece/flax spin continues… ever on and on. This is approximately two-thirds plant-dyed Shetland-cross wool (Teeswater and Romney in the crosses), and one-third the shortest, fluffiest flax tow.
I’ve just finished one of four bobbins of singles of the second batch. I’m weighing out the fibre before spinning, so theoretically I should have fairly even bobbins of singles, leading to fairly even skeins of two-fly finished yarn. Theoretically. I’ve not yet weighed and measured my first two skeins – keeping that as the dorkiest of treats for when all the yarn is done.
And then one day, one glorious day, I will begin to weave it into fine-ish, slubby cloth with all the joy of the sun baked right in.
The wool is from Fernhill Fibre – Sheep Fleece & Fibres, flax from a course I did at flaxland many years ago, and the plant dyes are woad and rhubarb root from my old garden in Bath, plus onion skins both from the garden and supplemented from my Riverford veg box.

It’s been raining after a long summer, so I’m going full autumn hobbit mode. Though I daresay any respectable hobbit wou...
21/08/2026

It’s been raining after a long summer, so I’m going full autumn hobbit mode. Though I daresay any respectable hobbit would have ironed their linen, but heigh ho. It’s a joy to be able to wear my most recent Scrumper Waistcoat, which I knitted last winter in plant-dyed yarn by Julie Rutter -Black Isle Yarns.
It’s now just over three weeks until I return to work, and I’m so excited! There’s so much dyeing, weaving, knitting and fleece sorting (and, honestly, spreadsheets) to be done in the studio.

Doing a bit of plying; I use my Ashford Traditional wheel for plying because it has a jumbo flyer and bobbins. I’m plyin...
10/08/2026

Doing a bit of plying; I use my Ashford Traditional wheel for plying because it has a jumbo flyer and bobbins.
I’m plying fibres from .and.yarn and Tom@wingham (both gifted to me) – see my previous post to see the bobbins separately. I think this will be a very pretty yarn, like the haze of a summer’s morning.
I made this dress back in the winter from cotton I bought at The Organic Textile Company and vintage buttons from Millie Moon – up until now I’ve worn it with the bottom of the sleeves ungathered. I had sewn in elastic channels when I made the dress but only just put in the elastic yesterday, and I think it’s an improvement.

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