New Year Catch Up....... new books, new techniques and a new feline friend.

Where does the time go? We are already well into the new year and it has been ages since I felt inclined to blog. Not that there has been much to share....the usual pre-Christmas stuff after a few weeks of getting all the outside jobs done before the weather closed in. So far the winter has been mild and wet with more than the usual gales. However, last week we did get a day of snow ( all of 2 inches!) but I did get out and about and take some photos.

 

 

By the next morning most of the snow near us had melted leaving only the distant hills covered in white.

I have recently started an online Tapestry Weaving class with Rebecca Mezoff . I have attempted tapestry weaving quite a few times over the years since I started spinning but I never got very far. I suspect this was due in part to the equipment as we were shown how using a simple wooden frame and basically string for warp! This is my sample so far.

 

 

I'm using a Mirrix tapestry loom borrowed from my friend Helen and I have eventually got the hang of it as it is quite fiddly to set up. I'm using 12/6 seine twine for warp as recommended by Rebecca and the weft yarn is from Weavers Bazaar although my aim ( if I like tapestry by the end of the course!) is to spin my own yarn and use that.

The other new-to-me technique is Saori weaving. Now, don't get me wrong, I still love "traditional" weaving, I'm a big fan of twills and overshot and one day I WILL weave that overshot coverlet! But last year at Wonderwool Wales I saw a stand demonstrating the Saori style or freestyle weaving. I have my doubts that a lot of this type of weaving will not stand any use and I dread to think what it will look like if it ever goes near a washing machine! But I'm very attracted to the use of colour and texture and after quite a bit of dithering I have eventually bought the book!

 

 

It does have some great ideas to make your own clothes and the instructions for setting the loom up are very comprehensive, so if you were a new weaver and followed this book you would be set on the right track. I also go along with the philosophy behind the Saori technique but I still think some of the weaving looks a bit slap-dash or shoddy. So I have set up my loom with a black lambswool warp sett at 20 epi and threaded in a Rosepath Twill  to play with yarns and colour and not to worry about patterns too much.

 

 

 I have pulled out lots of yarn from my HUGE stash and got stuck in! A lot of the yarn is some of my hand spun and I worked out that it must be nearly 20 years since I spun it up, so it's about time I used it!

I'm not thinking about what to make with the finished fabric as I just want to enjoy the weaving at the moment, but I would like to make some of my own clothes to wear to the fibre shows this year. To this end I purchased a couple of interesting books recently and it is my intention to use them as guides to sewing my own clothes from my hand woven fabric as I still break into a cold sweat at the idea of dressmaking after an unhappy time sewing at school. I only have to think of paper dress patterns and the vision of Mrs Hodby rises before my eyes!

 

The first book ( on the left) is "Weave, Knit, Wear" by Judith Shangold. It's packed with ideas for clothes that can be woven on a Rigid Heddle loom but can also by used by multi-shaft weavers too.

 

 

The second book is "Get Weaving" by Sarah Howard and Elisabeth Kendrick which is also aimed at the RH weaver but would also give a multi-shaft weaver some simple ideas for making clothes.

 

 

 

And finally meet Humphrey our new feline friend....

 

 

Humphrey has been staying with us since about September when he would sit with us in the garden. After a couple of days his owners (neighbours) called around to see if we had their cat. They took him back home three times during the week but Humphrey came back the next day. It appears that they had got a couple of new kittens and as one had got older he had taken a strong dislike to Humphrey causing him to leave home. He has settled in well with us as you can see, taking pride of place on the sofa, my side of the sofa where I sit at my spinning wheel I might add, and has even charmed the men of the house (and they are tough nuts to crack!) 

Bristol Wool Fair

Well I have just about recovered from another busy weekend helping my good friend Helen at the very first Bristol Wool Fair. What a great time we had too! The weather was sunny and quite warm with only one heavy shower of rain on Saturday morning, but that didn't spoil things one little bit. We met some of our fellow stallholders we see at the others shows we do and met lots of new friends as well.

 

Helen had an Ashford Sample It loom warped up and demonstrated weaving on it which attracted a lot of attention. The men (and one boy!) were fascinated by the mechanics of weaving whilst the ladies/girls liked the colours and sparkly bits! All we were keen to do was pass on the message to give weaving a try!

 

 

Of course I had to make a few purchases while I had the chance. Here are just a few choice items....

 

 

Pirkka-lanka yarn from Finland to knit a shawl with and some Lithuanian linen from Midwinter Yarns.

 

Some merino/silk fibre and some dyed carrier rods from Wheeldale Woolcrafts. I also bought some wool blanket bundles for rug making from Phillipa too.

 

 

And a selection of wool rovings from Adelaide Walker. As I said at the top of this post I had a great time and look forward to next years event. I'm off on my travels again this weekend as I'm heading north into Yorkshire for the Reeth Rug Retreat. This a new thing for me especially as we are staying in a Youth Hostel. I'm sure I'll have lots to say in my next post. Until then....Happy Crafting.

Another spindle and another day trip

Well it's September already and, although I don't like to say it too loudly, let's hope the weather is better this month! What a dark and cold month August was and it seemed much worse as we had such a lovely hot July. Let all those people who moaned about the heat keep quiet next time! But I digress. I have recently added another wonderful spindle to the ever increasing spindle collection - number 24 no less! After a lot of pondering I decided to treat myself to a Golding spindle...

 

This is one of their 3" spindles with a lovely sheep decoration called Flock. It weighs slightly more than my other spindles and after a bit of a test spin I am going to do some sock yarn with it for starters. I'm sure there will be more Golding spindles added to the collection in the future.

  A couple of days ago I went on a day trip to West Wales - Mum coming along for the ride - to see a lady who keeps Llanwenog sheep. I discovered the delights of this particular breed a few years ago as the lady I bought some Polworth fleece from also kept Llanwenogs. Of course I had to get a couple of fleeces and after some sampling decided I needed some more before I could plan a suitable project. Alas the lady had sold her flock of Llanwenogs by the time I had got back in touch with her a year or so later. What a pity. But last week I was browsing Ebay over coffee and came across some Llanwenog fleece for sale in small lots. A quick email conversation later and a trip was planned to see some fleeces. Yippeee! Luckily we had good weather as we needed to cross the Welsh hills and head towards Lampeter and we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the lovely views in the rain. I did spot some fields around the village of Beulah where I am sure there were some Beulah Speckle Faced sheep grazing? Another breed I need to get some fleeces from in the future.

   We got to Lampeter in time for some lunch and have a quick stroll around the town. We have never been to Lampeter before and we were both surprised by how many shops were there and what a cheerful place it seemed. It was even better after we came across a wonderful knitting shop called  Red Apple Yarn. This is not your average knitting shop filled with bright, cheap acrylic yarn. The owners, Jude and Ceri, are keen crafters and are very selective with what they sell. I could have spent all day there hunting through all the little jars of buttons, stich markers and bag findings etc. I did have to buy something... some new sock pins, stitch markers, buttons and a skein of yarn.

 

 

We will certainly be making a return trip later this year. The added bonus was their lovely dog.....

 

 

Meet Vinnie a Cockerpoo!! He is a hearing dog but also helps out in the shop. Next we motored on to meet Patricia and Bryan Cobbold of StarChild Alpacas where we were greeted by another new canine friend.....

 

This is Yin a Tibetan Terrier who looks exactly like my dog Toby! Sadly his friend Yang is no longer with us and rather amazingly he was black like my dog Jack!! Spooky!!! After a lovely long chat over a cup of tea we had to make our way homewards over the hills but not before buying 2 fleeces. Unfortunately all the chatting meant we didn't get chance to see the sheep or the alpacas but next year I'm sure I will be going back for more! It was so nice to meet all these lovely people - and their dogs - and see such lovely countryside, which seemed a bit different to where we live, it felt like we had been on holiday for a week! I have a busy weekend ahead as I'm with Helen at Bristol Wool Fair selling yarn so I am off to pack my bags and head off later this afternoon. I will let you know what went on in my next post.

Fibre East 2014 .....another busy weekend!

The last weekend of July ( crikey where has the year gone too?) saw me motoring down the M1 to attend Fibre East with Helen from My Fine Weaving Yarns. I haven't been to this particular show before but I believe this was the third time for Helen. Friday was set-up day and we managed to do a pretty good display despite the heat and had it all sorted by late afternoon.

 

This weekend was going to be special for me as I wasn't going to be helping on the stall all of the time......I was doing a couple of workshops. I must admit to being rather excited about this as the ladies in question were from America, Sara Lamb and Sarah Anderson, and I have been looking forward to this weekend since Helen booked them at last years show! Also attending Fibre East was Deb Robson and Abby Franquemont! I managed to visit their classrooms before the start on Saturday and get them to sign my copies of their books. I would have loved to take their classes but I couldn't be in four rooms at once! I was particularly excited to meet Deb Robson as her Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook is a constant reference for me when I am deciding what way to spin a given fleece and also what fleeces I would like to try next. I should have got someone to take a photo of me with her but it was a bit of a rush and I didn't want to get in the way.

The first class I did was a full day with Sara Lamb on spinning to weave and she had most of the samples on show that she made for her book of the same name.

 

 

I came away with my head buzzing with all the ideas for projects that I could spin and weave this coming autumn/winter. Needless to say I got Sara to sign my copy of her book and you can probably tell from this photo how chuffed I was!

 

 

On Sunday I did a morning workshop with Sarah Anderson on making a bubble crepe yarn. This is one of the many fancy yarns she has created for her book The Spinner's Book of Yarn Design. I could have spent a lot longer with Sarah as she had been doing other classes over the weekend on yarns such as spirals, coils and slubs, a morning wasn't really long enough but it was really fun!

 

 

 

As you may have guessed I had my picture taken with Sarah too! I really had a great time in both the classes and would love to do more. "What no stash?" I hear you cry........don't be silly of course I bought something! Fortunately I managed to grab a few things before the classes started and I also sent Helen out with a shopping list. So I got a few bundles of dyed woollen blanket for rug hooking (more on this in a future post)......

 

 

 

 A Schacht niddy noddy, another spindle and a vintage rug proddy.

 

 

The spindle is by Turned On The Cut and is made from Sandalwood weighing 30g. Who could resist? All in all it was a brilliant weekend that whizzed by too quickly. At home the hay was cut and it has all been baled and now sits in the hay store ready for the winter, we just need to sell the surplus.

Woolfest 2014 cont'd.

In preparation for my trip to Woolfest I made myself a shopping list in the hopes that I wouldn't get too carried away and spend my money "wisely". Well........... that sort of happened! I did buy all the dye colours I had on my list and the 2 extra bobbins for my Matchless wheel ( the plastic ones). But I'm afraid I just had to buy some more Portland fleeces!

 

I bought these lovely fleeces from Shaun on the Harcourt Rare Breeds stand. All are now washed and safely tucked up in my gigantic stash of fleeces! My willpower proved equally jelly-like when I realised that there would be a stand selling spindles from America. Spindlers2 are Carol and Pete Leonard who have been lucky enough to go the Spin Off Autumn Retreats for a number of years - I do envy them. They import some lovely spindles and even though I had resolved not to buy any more I just had to buy one or two!

 

 

OK five then....what's the difference!

 

Left to right the spindles are as follows :   Supported spindle by Thomas Forrester, Ontario, Canada in Birch and Maple - I'm using it to spin some Cashmere top. A McKenna Lee (35g) in Red Mallee Burl and Bloodwood with a Mahogany shaft by Greensleeves Spindles. A Modular spindle by KCL Woods which has a lovely whorl made from a mixture of ebony, walnut and maple burl. I've used it to spin up some rolags I made on my blending board. Next to that is a square spindle by Spindlewood Co. from Oregon. This is made from Australian Laurel burl with a Walnut shaft (28g) and at the moment I'm spinning up some fine Jacob fleece which I've drum carded and kept the colours separate with the idea of knitting a lace scarf. Finally there is a Loki spindle (27g) by Greensleeves made from Australian Red Gum with a Red Oak shaft. I shall be going to a couple more shows where Spindlers2 will be selling......so watch this space as I'm sure to be paying them a visit!

                                                                      

Woolfest 2014........part 1

I can't believe it is already a week since Woolfest and I have just about recovered! What a wonderful show but exhausting. As always there were plenty of lovely stalls to look at and lots of "like-minded" people soaking in the fibre fumes!

 

 

Our stall, My Fine Weaving Yarn, was a riot of colour as always and was a hit with a lot of photographers over the weekend.

 

 

There are always plenty of sheep to see at Woolfest and I couldn't resist taking a break and paying them a quick visit.

 

 

Castlemilk Moorit on the Castlemilk Moorit Sheep Society stand.

 

 

A Greyface Dartmoor in mid chew!

 

 

Teeswater sheep also having a chew!

 

 

And of course there were Herdwick sheep too.

 

 

You also get to meet some lovely people at the show. Our stall was next to The Threshing Barn  which has just become a UK agent for the Strauch Fiber Equipment Co. I bought one of their double wide drum carders back in 2008 so imagine my delight to actually meet Otto and Joanne Strauch who had flown over from Virginia especially for Woolfest and were demonstrating their products. I know they were kept very busy and they both looked very tired at the close of the show. More about my purchases etc. in my next post.

Today In My Garden

I would like to share with you a few photos of the flowers which are blooming in my garden at the moment. My mother and I decided a couple of years ago that we no longer wanted or enjoyed growing vegetables here at The Mount. The garden has very heavy soil and gets quite waterlogged over the winter months and we had a couple of bad harvests which made us change to growing flowers instead. This year it is looking quite nice as the plants that we have put in the garden over the last couple of summers have started to form reasonably large clumps and they are spreading over the soil nicely. Mum has raised a lot of them from seed but we have also rescued plants from the local garden centres when they are on the point of being thrown on the compost heap - a friend of mine told me of this great way of getting lots of plants cheaply!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Midsummers Day.