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!

Handweaving For Clothes....... progress so far.

You may recall in a previous post I mentioned that I was spinning some yarn to use in fabric for a dress I wanted to make.

 

This pile of gorgeous Kerry Hill, which was dyed using Landscape and Gaywool dyes turned into this....

 

 

And eventually this.....

 

 

By the end of September, in time for Yarndale, I hope it will be looking more like this....

 

 

At the moment I have plans to make two more patterns from Get Weaving, a skirt and another dress, so both wheels are currently busy and the dye pots is constantly on the go! Better get cracking.....

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?

 

 

Yarndale 2013

This past weekend saw Helen and myself attending a new show with My Fine Weaving Yarn. This was Yarndale aimed at the knitter and crocheter mostly, and held in the Auction Mart at Skipton in Yorkshire. We did get a few weavers visit our stand and buy yarn, some were regular customers and some were discovering us for the first time. It was nice to catch up with our regulars and see what they had made with the yarns they had bought which is always inspirational. I was pleased to meet quite a few men who were either already weaving/knitting/crocheting as well as ones who wanted to have a go. I met one man who wanted to try inkle weaving as a change from hardanger embroidery!

 

Here is MFWY before opening.

 

 

Once the doors opened at 10am it was very, very busy! It was so busy we didn't stop for even a little break until 3.30pm. I think the organisers had underestimated how well their advertising of the event had been! The next day it was reported that there had been 6,000 visitors on day one!! No wonder the car parks were full and the queue for the toilets was a long one! I took the next photo to give you an idea of the view we had all day!

 

 

 Sunday was a bit quieter so we both had the chance to walk around and buy a few things for ourselves. I added to my ever growing collection of spindles.

 

 

The one in the centre I bought from The Mulberry Dyer and the other two I got from Sheepfold Wheels, the one on the left being the heavier and longer of the two.

 

 

I bought this set of double row wool combs with clamp from Wingham  Woolwork as well as some roving - a camel/merino blend and merino/possum blend.

 

 

L. to R. - Merino/camel blend, Ile de France roving, Merino/possum blend.

 

 

I also got a finishing brush to put on my carder from Classic Carder. But the finds of the day for me was some extra special fibre. The stall next to us was Wheeldale Woolcrafts which is run by Phillippa Joad and her brother Harry helping out. I spied some bumps of fibre poking out of a basket which I had to buy, namely Ile de France. I remembered seeing this sheep breed mentioned in the Deb Robson book and thought it looked interesting but probably never get the chance to spin. There it was on the stall next to ours....I had to buy some and I took some back to our cottage that evening to have a play with it on my new drop spindles. What lovely fibre! So I went back next morning and bought the remaining bundles - a kilo in total. I have since found out that Ile de France is a cross between Dishley  Leicesters and French Merino, so that explains why its so nice! I also sought out The Little Grey Sheep stall as I follow Emma's blog and wanted to buy some fibre.

 

 

I got two packs of Gotland lambs wool locks and six packs of beautifully hand-dyed European Merino. I must say that this is the best hand-dyed merino I have ever spun! Merino is very susceptible to felting when heated so dyeing it can be tricky, but there was no sign of any felting when I had a trial spin back at the cottage. I'm really pleased with all my purchases which have all been taken to my workroom as I have now started to spend more creative time up there with the onset of autumn. Yes its raining again!!! Looking forward to Yarndale 2014 already.

Guild Summer School Trade Fair

Last Saturday I headed in a south- westerly direction and across the hills of Mid-Wales to the Guild Summer School at Carmarthen where I joined up with Helen of My Fine Weaving Yarn. This meant a really early start in order to be with Helen before the Trade Fair opened up for business at 9 am sharp. The roads were clear of holiday traffic thank goodness and I had a trouble free trip over the cloud covered hills and came down the other side into sunshine. Business had been good the day before as the students on the various courses had the opportunity to buy from the Trade Fair before members of the public had the chance to buy on Saturday, so we were hoping for another busy day. It was lovely to meet some of our customers from Woolfest who had bought yarn from us specifically for the courses they were doing here. We had a great time chatting with them about their time at Summer School and Helen managed to visit a few of the classes later that day to see some of their work. I did a little bit of shopping too!

 

I bought one of the new Zoom Looms that Schacht make from The Threshing Barn along with some more Gaywool dyes and some wool roving with dyed nepps. As you can see once I got home I had to have a play with the Zoom Loom and I must say it has great potential!

 

 

I also couldn't resist buying a couple more spindles from my favourite spindle maker IST Crafts. The one on the left of the picture is a Tibetan spindle made from Ebony on Sycamore with an African Blackwood shaft with a matching bowl. The spindle on the right is a bottom whorl made from Birds Eye Maple with an Ash shaft. I'm having such fun using my other spindles that I can't believe I haven't spindled before!

Our next outing with My Fine Weaving yarn will be at the end of September when we go to Skipton in Yorkshire and the new show called Yarndale. Before then I will be off to another steam rally and then we are off across the Chanel to Germany in our Mk II Jaguar on the MSA Euroclassic - more about that later!