Rehoming

A few months ago I decided after much soul searching that I needed to find a new home for my floor loom. This was indeed a difficult thing for me as I had bought the loom from my spinning/weaving teacher sometime ago, so the loom came with a lot of "baggage" you might say. But after the purchase of my lovely 8 shaft Louet Spring loom at the end of last year I had come to the conclusion that I couldn't see myself using the floor loom much at all and there was still a scarf warp on it that had been there for over a year unfinished. So it was time to move it on and make way for other things as my workroom was getting a bit crowded and I could do with the large chunk of floor space that this loom occupied. I have successfully sold a couple of looms on The Loom Exchange website so I thought I would give it another go despite there being a lot of old 4 shaft floor looms that had been advertised for some considerable time. Ah well if I didn't sell in six months I would have to sell it on Ebay cheaply and try not to worry about it's future.

 

But within the first week I had three enquiries and, joy of joys, I sold the loom!!! What is even more amazing is that the new owner - another Helen, I seem to collect friends called Helen! - only lives about 5 miles away. How about that! And the other great thing is that she wants me to show her how to weave on it as she is a beginner weaver and needs a bit of help. So I shall still be seeing the loom on a regular basis and I'm sure Elizabeth would be thrilled to think that her loom is going to be used to introduce somebody else to this wonderful thing called weaving. On Tuesday I went to see Helen and we managed to get the loom back together in her new loom room and next week we will be getting the heddles back on the shafts, tying up the treadles and making yarn choices for a sample warp. I'm really looking forward to helping Helen. We need to get more people weaving and I want to pass on some of the ideas and encouragement I got from Elizabeth all those years ago attending her classes. What a great way to do it with her loom.

Keck

At this time of year the countryside is bursting with flowers. The hedgerows are a mass of Hawthorn or May blossom and the grass verges are a full of Keck.

 

You may know this plant by another name - Cow Parsley - but where I grew up in the East Midlands it goes by the lovely name of Keck. For me it heralds early summer and reminds me of those lovely sunny summers of childhood that we all seem to recall but did they really exist? Here are some photos of it along the edges of my garden and along the side of the lane where we live.

 

Finally the warm, sunny weather we had at the weekend was all a bit too much for my elderly alpaca Monty. He decided it was time for a paddle in the water trough!

Congratulations!

Yesterday my niece Lydia celebrated her 21st birthday! How time flies!

 

 

Happy Birthday Lydia!

Aberystwyth cycling photos

As promised here are a few photos of the cycling at Aberystwyth that my son Nicholas took and also one of the view across to Constitution Hill to give you flavour of the place! Hope you like them.

Catch up

Apologies for the distinct lack of blogging just lately, I haven't been idle in case you were wondering, I just couldn't find the time at the end of the day to get around to blogging before bedtime! Lot's of things have kept me busy and I'll try to mention some here without boring you.

The sheep have recovered from their haircut despite the weather turning very chilly for the couple of weeks after shearing, and I have managed to wash two of the fleeces since then.

I did manage to get a visit to the lambs eventually and they certainly have grown. I took the "Aged Parent" (aka Granny) with me and had another good day trip to the coast in lovely sunny weather yet again. I didn't take as many photos as I had planned but it is very difficult when your attention is being demanded by such lovely lambs! We were there for nearly three hours! I'm sure Lucy must have been relieved to see us go home! Here's one of Granny and Baloo.

 

I also managed to bring home a car full of fleece from Lucy's sheep and as we have had sunny weather again I got a few of them washed before too long.

 

 

I'm really looking forward to spinning with these fleeces as the small samples I have done so far look very promising. By the way I use Fibre Scour, an Australian product that I find is wonderful at getting fleeces clean quickly. You can find it at www.aussieknowhow.com.

 

One Friday evening I went with my son Nicholas to Aberystwyth on the west Wales coast to see the cycling. They have a town centre cycling series here in the U.K. and Aberystwyth hosts one of the stages every year. It was a lovely sunny evening but with a blustery wind off the sea which gave the cyclists a bit of a strong crosswind to contend with. Nicholas took some lovely photos but as yet he hasn't sent me any to show you. I shall have to badger him some more!

 

On Spring Bank Holiday Monday (27th) Nicholas was invited to join a friends trip to the local pub driving his steam traction engine. Hubby and I went too and I got the chance to take some photos to show you.

 

The traction engine is a Marshall built in 1912 and was sent to Tazmania to work in the logging industry and was brought back to the U.K. in the 1990's I believe. A jolly good time was had by all!

 

As well as all this jollification Granny and I have been toiling away in the garden, trying to subdue the creeping buttercups and the ground elder which have taken over some areas as a result of the dreadful weather last year giving rise to a total lack of gardening. We have decided to plant more ground cover and try to stick to hardy plants which can cope with our bad weather and clay soil here at Deerfold. We shall see!

 

 

 

Shearing Day

The big event in my sheepkeeping/spinning year must be shearing. After using the services of local chaps - some better than others I might add - I found the perfect chap for the job about three years ago via the jolly old internet! Finding the right shearer was quite difficult. Most shearers are doing commercial flocks of sheep where the fleece needs to be taken off the sheep quickly and is more or less chucked to one side and almost treated like waste. When you have chosen your sheep for their fleece you would like the shearer to take some care when removing said fleece from your animal - no second cuts please! It's quite annoying to see someone slicing through the beautiful fleece and seeing it chopped up before your very eyes. However Philip isn't like that. He comes from a family of handspinners so he knows what spinners want and he also doesn't mind how small the flock numbers are - another problem when dealing with commercial shearers. The next problem is of course the wonderful British weather. Last years shearing was cancelled a couple of times due to snow and rain and I was keeping my fingers crossed that this year would be o.k. I kept the sheep in their field shelter all morning so they were nice and dry when Philip arrived as handling a wet fleece is no fun and the fleece need to be dry for storage until they can be washed.

Nibbles having a haircut.

                                                           And now it's Huberts turn.

 Of course the weather has now turned nasty with lashing rain from the cold north-west with the threat of snow on high ground. What lovely May weather again!

The proposed trip to see the lambs was canceled as a result of the weather. I'm hoping to go next week but Lucy sent some photos taken on the last warm sunny day we had.

May Bank Holiday Weekend

What fantastic weather we have had for the last fews days! Suddenly we have had blue skies and warm temperatures, so much so that I even abandoned wearing socks yesterday! Being a Bank Holiday, we went on a family outing to a local village show that we haven't been to before. This was held in the lovely village of Dilwyn only a few miles from home. It wasn't a large event but it had plenty to keep us entertained for a few hours.

 

It had the usual selection of food stalls, a craft marque where I bought a lovely needlefelted picture of some sheep, classic cars, vintage tractors and ponies etc. Hopefully next year we will be taking some of our classic cars along too.

 

By the dog show area I got chatting to a nice lady about her dog which turned out to be a puppy of a breed I hadn't come across before. Basset Fauvre de Bretagne or Fawn Dog of Brittany. He was a super chap and very friendly with the lovely name of Woody. Here he is.

 

And here is his chum whose name I can't remember, but he is a Standard Wirehaired Dachshund. Another beautiful dog and much bigger than the Dachshunds you normally see out and about.

 

 

I have also managed this weekend to begin washing fleeces and get them dry outside in the sunshine. I will do a post on this later this week. I'm afraid the weather looks like rain for tomorrow which is a shame as I'm visiting the lambs and hoped to have nice weather for it. Ah well, I knew it wouldn't last! I'll finish this post with a shot of the flowering currant and forsythia bushes in my garden. They are full of flowers and the bumble bees are enjoying them. Hope your Bank Holiday was a good one too!