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!