What Have I Been Doing?

Well, quite a lot actually! As well as the usual gardening tasks which have built up over the summer on account of the miserable and rather wet weather, I have been to a couple of fibre shows. The first of these was Bristol Wool Fair and it was held in a different venue to their first show last year. No more cosy marquees but the usual cavernous auction sheds.

 

This year Helen added a demonstration/sales area for Ashford spinning and weaving equipment and David Herring came along to give his support and advice. There was also a couple of attractions outside for those visitors not so interested in wool! I really liked the display by some Viking reenactors who had set up a small living history area and did a few battle skirmishes in the arena.

 

 

 

 

This chap was very impressive!

 

 

 Then at the end of September we went to Yarndale held in the auction mart, Skipton which is on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. I could only stay for one day but I did manage to get a bit of shopping done and catch up with friends before the end of my show season. I wore my new pinafore and Sarah from Get Weaving gave it the thumbs up and took my photo which she has kindly let me post here.

 

 

The pinafore is very comfortable to wear and I'm already planning on making one, probably two, more! Many thanks yet again Sarah for your lovely patterns and it was great catching up with you and Elisabeth at the show.

Meanwhile, now I'm back home I have warped up one of my looms to weave a different pinafore pattern - more later- and I have begun to dye some different colours for another project I have in mind.

 

 

This is a blend of white alpaca fleece from one of my own alpacas and some sheep fleece from dear old Trixie who is a Texel x Icelandic.

 

 

I blended the fleece and alpaca together on a drum carder and then dyed the resulting batts of fibre with Gaywool dyes using the idea of flowers in my garden as inspiration.

 

 

Happy spinning and weaving!

Finished At Last!

Well I have eventually got my sewing project completed and I'm quietly pleased with my efforts. I have a problem with any form of "dressmaking" as I had a "dragon" of a sewing teacher at school who has haunted me ever since! Mention zips/interfacing or any other sewing terminology and I will break into a cold sweat! But I can sew quite a decent quilt, which does involve using a sewing machine.......strange I know.

I shall be wearing it this weekend at Bristol Wool Fair where I shall be helping Helen on her stall. I'll try and get a photo of me in it. I have also been busy spinning some more yarn for the next pinafore-type dress which is another of Sarah Howard's Get Weaving patterns. 


 

 

I found a huge plastic box full of drumcarded batts of some Llanwenog fleece that I had done awhile ago and as I love using this type of fleece I decided to dye it whilst it was still in the batts. I used Landscape and Gaywool dyes choosing some nice bright blues and greens. To spin it I tore a strip off a couple of differently coloured batts and drafted them together. Some pieces were more towards the greens and some a bit more blue and the end result is quite nice I think. I now have quite a few skeins of a softly spun 2-ply yarn which I will use as the weft. I will also be trying this colourway and spinning technique in the future for a knitted jumper of cardigan as it is fun to do. As I sat spinning my mind was filling with loads of ideas for more weaving projects!

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.

A Busy Summer Ahead

Since my last post I have had word from my friend Helen that she will be going with My Fine Weaving Yarns to all the fibre events that she had applied to. Yippee! So I shall be going along with her to lend a hand again. I can't wait! Our first event will be Wonderwool Wales on the weekend of 26 - 27 April. I hope the weather will be kind to us this year as it was very cold last time.

Wonderwool Wales 2013

 

 

 

Woolfest 2013

 

We are also off to Woolfest at the end of June. This should be quite special as the organisers will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the show. At the end of July I shall be off to Fibre East which I haven't been able to go to in previous years. Hopefully I will be attending one of their workshops but I will post about that nearer the date. Another new show is Bristol Wool Fair which is due to be held at the beginning of September, closely followed by Yarndale at the end of that month. All the accommodation has been booked and paid for, so I just need to start saving my spending money! I wonder what treats I can buy this year?