Woolfest 2015

Well another Woolfest has been and gone for another year.

The weather turned wet and windy for set-up day but by the second day of the show the weather was lovely and sunny. But we awoke on Sunday morning to very blustery weather with lashing rain, not nice for a long trip down the motorway. As usual there were lots of lovely sheep on display again, here is a sample.

Some of the local Herdwick sheep.

 



  Portlands.

 

And the undoubted stars of the show were these Valais Blacknose sheep which are originally from the Valais region of Switzerland. This breed was introduced with stock imported from Switzerland a couple of years ago and I believe there are now over 400 of them in Britain. I have managed to buy a Valais fleece recently which I will post about sometime soon. Usually the alpacas get all the attention but this year it was these cuties, the pen was constantly surrounded by people and it took several visits before I could get in close enough. And there is always a stack of inspiration! Meet the two "Get Weaving" ladies Sarah and Elisabeth.

 

 

Their range of clothing patterns is really fantastic and I am busy weaving fabric from my hand spun to make the dress that Sarah is wearing (on the left). I also have plans afoot to spin some Cotswold fleece that I am dyeing at the moment to make the weft yarn for a skirt from one of their patterns. I also found time to visit The Saori Shed and meet Kim, the lady I bought my saori loom from.

 

 

So much lovely stuff to inspire you!

 

 

It is always nice to have the chance to chat with the visitors spreading the word about weaving and catching up with our customers who come to our stand and show us the projects they have completed using the yarn they have bought from us. My next show with Helen won't be until September but I shall have plenty of time, I hope, to finish weaving my fabric and maybe even get it sewn up!

 

And Now For Something A Bit More Cheerful

17th April 2015

Despite the sadness of the previous post I have been able to get some weaving done and also to welcome a new loom to the collection. Yes my new Saori WX60 loom has arrived!!!

 

What a beauty! Such a simple 2 shaft loom yet it can help you weave such amazing cloth. I was weaving on it within half an hour of sliding it out of it's box as it only needed the warp to be attached to the back of the loom and to tie it on to the cloth beam. The built-in bobbin winder is fantastic, no need to get up from your seat when you need a new bobbin. I'm smitten.... it's the old drop spindle thing all over again I'm afraid. Can you hear me eating my words? I have already woven off the warp that came with the loom ( already threaded and in the reed I might add) and at the moment I have a navy blue cotton warp which I did myself from yarn in the stash. Waiting in the wings are 3 more ready made warps purchased from Kim at The Saori Shed. This is what my first Saori loom woven warp looks like. The ends haven't been trimmed yet and I think I shall sew it into a summery top to wear with my linen trousers.

 

 

It was a black cotton warp and I wove mostly with cotton and some cotton mixes with a few additions of novelty yarns. I'm really pleased with the way the fabric drapes so I must get cracking and sew it up before the weather breaks! The next thing to show you is the first bit of Saori-style weaving I did on my Louet Spring loom. The warp is black lambswool and the weft mostly wool with a bit of mohair including quite a bit of hand spun. I was originally going to make a skirt out of the cloth (to wear with long boots) but after draping it across the dressform I recently bought I'm thinking of wearing it as a shawl.

 

 

It has a Scottish look about it.... you can almost hear the skirl of the pipes! And finally I wove a long length of fabric, again on the Spring, to make into a tunic-type top. The warp is a mixture of lambswool and a few ends of Jaggerspun Zephyr left over from scarf projects.

 

 

A lot of the weft yarn is my hand spun taken straight from the spinning bobbin and used as a singles yarn. It seems to have worked alright and I really liked the mottled effect of the merino/silk mix top that I spun. I have started another warp on the Spring, which I'm hoping to get finished soon, in greens and yellows and I'm only using hand spun yarn for the weft this time.

 

 

The green-blue yarn is some that I dyed a long while ago and chain plyed it to knit a jumper but never got around to it. The yarn making the warp floats is some that I corespun from a mixture of merino tops, alpaca and glittery bits mentioned in a previous post. It's going along quite nicely and I would like to get it off the loom soon as I want to wear it to Wonderwool in a weeks time. Yes. It's showtime again!! Yippeeeee!

What's Been Keeping Me Busy Lately?

I thought that it was about time I did a post about what I have been up to in the weeks since my last epistle. The weather here at Deerfold has, on the whole, been wet and gloomy so the spring tidy up in the garden has been very sporadic to say the least. Most of the old dry growth from last season has been cleared away ready to burn and the snowdrops could eventually be seen in all their glory. This has given me extra time in my loom room before the gardening really needs to be done. Here is a glimpse of the creative chaos at the moment!

 

With my recent discovery of Saori weaving I have at last found a use for spinning some of the novelty yarns - I won't call my efforts "art yarns"- and so I spent a few happy hours playing with bits of fibre hence the messy room. With a vague idea of weaving some fabric in a cheerful spring colour way I made lots of batts from leftover merino tops, bits of silk, some white alpaca and of course some sparkles!

 

 

This is the start of the yellow pile and I also did pale greens and then did a few really dark blues for a change.

 

 

So far I have done quite a few bobbins of a really nice, soft core spun yarn which I'm hoping to use in weaving a shawl or wrap soon.

 

 

I have also been busy weaving. Last year I decided to make a tablecloth for our kitchen table but couldn't decide what design to do - dithering again. I did know that I wanted it to be in greens and blues to go with the blue Aga we have. After cutting my previous weaving project off the loom I started straight away making a warp from cotton, cottolin and other varieties of cotton and linen yarns mostly leftovers from projects or gleaned from Ebay all in greens and blues.

 

 

Here it is in progress.

 

And finished!

 

 

 

I'm quite pleased with the end result and I have already got an idea for another one but maybe this time I won't weave such wide panels. The fabric has a lovely drape to it and would make a nice tunic top to go with my blue linen trousers this summer. My next warp is already on the loom and yesterday I heard from Kim at The Saori Shed that my Saori loom has arrived and I'm hoping that it will be with me before too long!