Wonderwool Wales 2014

It's hard to believe that it is already a week since we were setting up our stand at Wonderwool! So I thought it was high time I did a post about my time there. Unfortunately the weather was not wonderful but not as bad as it could have been! Lot's of rain fell over the weekend but it didn't deter the crowds as we were very busy especially on the opening day.

 

The My Fine Weaving Yarn stand looked magnificent as always with some new samples and colourful skeins of silk.

 

 

I didn't get the chance to have a wander about until late in the day but here are a few snaps of some of the things there were to see.

 

 

The stand next to ours was The Natural Dye Studio with some lovely crochet kits on show.

 

 

 

Here is the Threshing Barn stand.

 

One of my favourite exhibits is the National Wool Museum showcasing a lovely old loom and a bobbin winder which looks like a great wheel. At previous shows they have had the loom working but I didn't here it in action this time sadly - I don't think people like the noise!

An example of the lovely weaving done on this type of loom.

 

 

This year saw the show expand in to another hall and amongst the many stallholders here I found an exhibit by Alison Murray of her Giant Textile Books which looked very interesting and must have taken ages to make!

 

All in all the show was fantastic as always. Plenty of things to see and buy with lots of space between the stands for ease of access. Brilliant! Can't wait until the next show! Of course I did manage to make some purchases but more about that later.

 

 

Spring blossom and.......it's show time!

Spring seems to be well underway here at Deerfold. The hedge bottoms this year are a mass of wild primroses and wood anemones with the first bluebells and wild garlic beginning to show themselves too. I don't know if the wet winter has helped them or that we had such a dreadful spring last year we are noticing the flowers more now? Here are a few more photos of the latest things out in my garden and you must add the soundtrack of the birdsong yourself! Cue the blackbirds, willow warbler, chiff chaff et al.

A dwarf Azalea which I bought many years ago in Cornwall - I love the colour!

 

 

Mahonia

 

This patch of wallfowers has been in flower for the whole winter and is now into it's third year. The lovely burnt orange colour is one of my favourite wallflower colours and the scent is heavenly. Must dye some yarn that colour!

We have three wild cherry trees along our driveway which always look lovely at this time of year. With the recent heavy showers these past few days the petals are floating over the garden like confetti.

 

Not long after we moved here I planted a small group of Snakes Head Fritillaries in a sheltered part of the garden. I think they are settling in now and seem to be increasing gradually each year.

 

 

The star of the garden at the moment though is this hybrid Rhododendron - I can't remember it's name - which I can see from the conservatory. This definitely benefitted from the wet winter as the flower buds develop in the autumn and the plant likes to be moist at this time.

 

 

I hope the heavy rain that we are expected to get this weekend doesn't spoil the flowers. And I hope that it will not deter the crowds as ...... yes folks it's show time!!!! Yippeee! Helen, John and I will be setting up the stall tomorrow afternoon so we are ready for the crowds on Saturday. Let's hope the weather isn't as bad as forecast and certainly not as cold as last year! I've been told by Helen to wear my thermals! I'm not sure what I shall be looking to buy but I wouldn't be surprised if I came back with another drop spindle or two!

Sticky Buds

 

 

 

During a recent sunny spell I took a stroll around my garden and this is what I found.

Dandelion and Border Leicester Fleeces.

Whilst giving the sheep their breakfast yesterday I noticed that a patch of fleece on Dandelions back was starting to come away. So after a brief wrestle I managed to get him in a position to try and get as much fleece off him before he got it draped over all the hedges. I was quite surprised by how much came away and after a short while I had quite a pile of short, soft brown fluff. However Dandelion wasn't going to be cooperative for too long and as the fleece around his shoulders seemed to be reluctant to come off I decided to continue rooing him another day when, hopefully after some more warm weather, the fleece may be easy to pluck.

 

The fleece is very much like Soay or Castlemilk Moorit with a very short staple length and lots of skin flakes. So after consulting the Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook I gave a handful of fleece a wash and, once it was dry, put a few locks through my Louet Mini Combs - double row- and sure enough the skin flakes were not a problem.

 

 

When I manage to get the rest of the fleece off him I shall wash it and spin a sample up on one of my drop spindles to see what it is like. I have also been busy, weather permitting, washing a few fleeces from my stash as I like to get them dried outside in the sunshine. I managed to do two huge fleeces that were from Nibbles which were waiting to be done and a couple of fleeces that I bought some while ago when I was asked to teach spinning at a local heritage centre. Sadly these classes folded due to lack of interest and consequently I was left with loads of raw wool and an equipment surplus. I did get the wheels sold on Ebay but the fleeces have been waiting in the barn. Quite what I shall do with them remains to be seen but at least a couple have been washed!

 With thoughts turning to this years shearing I have been thinking of getting some of those fleeces on my wish list. Breeds that are not usually seen for sale either because they are rare or they are of more commercial breeds. I have been trying for a couple of years to get my hands on a Border Leicester fleece but without success. I did have a conversation with a lady at Woolfest last year who came from Scotland and she thought that she may be able to get one or two, but sadly that came to nothing. So a few days ago after reading about Border Leicester sheep in the lovely book Adventures in Yarn Farming by Barbara Parry I decided to trawl the internet one coffee time and see if I could find somebody willing to sell me a fleece or too. Lo and behold I found a website all about Border Leicester sheep and I contacted Ellie Stokeld who owns the Doulton Flock of prize winning sheep. What a find! After a couple of lovely emails I will hopefully be going up to North Yorkshire to collect a couple of fleeces and get to meet Ellie and her sheep. What a result! She kindly sent me a photo of one of her shearling rams.

 

 

This handsome chap is called Pavarotti and now lives in Italy! I'll let you know all about the fleeces when I can get my mitts on them.

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?

 

 

Late Winter Blooms

I know that it has been along while since my last post - apologies once more - but not a lot has been happening here so far in 2014 apart from the incessant rainfall and roaring gale force winds that is.  My netbook decided to die on me in January which left me with a couple of weeks without a computer then we all caught the flu. So my Babette blanket was perfect for snuggling under whilst lying on the settee. Not much weaving has been done since the end of last year as I think my weaving muse has gone on a holiday to sunnier climes for a while, but I have been doing a lot of knitting in front of the log burner trying not to notice the lashing rain on the windows. 

I knitted this cardigan over the Christmas holiday period finishing just before New Year. It is a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern which I downloaded from Patternfish and is my first top down project. It was lovely to knit and I will certainly be using the pattern again. The yarn is some of my hand spun which is a rough blend of one of my own sheep's fleeces and some kid mohair. I spun the yarn quite a long time ago and I had tried knitting a couple of things before with it but wasn't happy with the results so I unravelled it. The stuff has been sitting in my stash for about two years and each time I came across it I didn't now what to knit with it. However after a quick swatch it turned out to be perfect for this project! And it knitted up lovely and the mohair should hopefully bloom a bit once I start wearing it. I just need to get some buttons.

Other knitting projects at the moment include a trio of Elizabeth Zimmerman items, two jumpers which have reached the armhole stage and one shawl which is halfway through. I have also done loads of spinning and drum carding trying to work my way through the enormous pile of fleeces that I have amassed before this years shearing is upon us. Quite what I shall do with all the yarn when it's spun up I don't know but I enjoy spinning so much I don't really care!
The garden is looking quite dreadful at the moment. It has been raining so much since the end of last year that the ground it totally waterlogged. Some of the border edges have been flooded several times. I just hope we haven't lost too many plants. Here are a few examples of flowers which are braving the elements at the moment here in my garden.

 

This double primrose has been in flower since Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Surely the rain has to stop soon? I find it hard to imagine myself mowing the lawn ever again! At least the evenings are getting lighter. I hope we have a dry Spring the year.

 

Finished Projects and Christmas Greetings.

It's been awhile since my last post, apologies yet again! But with Christmas zooming upon us the time left to enjoy myself in the loom room disappeared too quickly. However I have managed to finish off a few projects already written about on this blog. Remember my version of the Babette Blanket?

 

Well here it is! Finished at long last after a break from the endless joining of the squares. I'm quite pleased with it and I even had enough fine yarn left in my hand spun stash to make the last strip of squares, something that I thought I would have to miss out doing. I fancy doing another one but this time with some hand dyed yarn. What do you think?

 

 

I have also managed to finish both of the cardigans I was knitting, again from my hand spun yarn.

 

 

 

This is the Fylingdales cardy from the Lisa Lloyd book "A Fine Fleece" which I managed to complete by the end of Wovember. I also struck lucky and found that I had just the right buttons in my stash! I can't remember where I got them from - probably from a quilt show - but they were perfect. I have worn it on a couple of outings and it is very cosy and no doubt will be a firm favourite! I spun the yarn from one of my own sheep which is a Shetland crossbreed and this is what she looked like before shearing this year.

 

Poppet

 

You may recall that I did a post about some Portland fleece I was working on? Well I have also finished that project too apart from finding the right buttons.

 

 

 

 

For this cardy I used the pattern recipe from "The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater patterns" by Ann Budd. This looks like it will be cosy to wear once I can find the right buttons of course. I have another knitting project on the pins at the moment but more about that after Christmas. I won't be doing anymore spinning for the next couple of weeks as my wheels have been put away for the time being to make room for the Christmas tree. Maybe I will find something to spin on a drop spindle?

 

 

As the wet and very windy weather is lashing the UK at the moment with no chance of snow for Christmas may I wish everybody a Happy Christmas and I look forward to sharing my fibre exploits when the festive season is over.

Best wishes from us all at Deerfold.