Cat & Sparrow was set up by two fibre fanatic friends who loved nothing better than talking about fibre and creating fibres for spinning and felting. We now have Cat & Sparrow Australia and Cat & Sparrow UK. This is our Aussie shop run by Cat, for our UK shop run by Sparrow please go to: www.catandsparrow.co.uk

Hi! I'm Cathy (Cat) and I run Cat & Sparrow Aus from Melbourne, Australia. I used to be an obsessive knitter and did crazy things like 12 shawls in 12 months and 12 sweaters in 12 months, but ever since I started spinning a little over four years ago my fibre obsession took over. My knitting had been neglected, well, I still cast on projects on whims they just marinate in the UFO pile... dyeing and spinning is my happy place, my relaxation and meditation.

I am a spontaneous dyer (read: I don't take notes), well I never used to! For me dyeing is a creative outlet, when I dye I tend to go with the flow, my intuition takes over and I embrace whatever the outcome... until I started getting custom requests for repeats of my colourways. So now I try to document what I do, not punctiliously but rather loosely recording the steps and ingredients, much like when I try to record cooking instructions! For me dyeing is an art rather than science, so each time I dye the result is different, even the same colourway. But isn't that the unique beauty of hand dyeing?

I am a perfectionist when it comes to fibre quality, and I will not let anything leave the shop if I wasn't satisfied with it myself. I will only sell items that I'd gladly pay for myself.