Summer school, last day exhibition of work – great fun – great week, inspiration, fellowship and something to look forward to next year
Summer school on Thursday was about structure in spinning and weaving. We made boucle yarn, and did lots of weaving on knitters looms.
Summer school on Wednesday was all about Colour, yesterday was about Fibre, tomorrow Stucture. Rachel showed everyone how to use acid dyes. We used specially prepared Dye Bags each containing merino/bamboo roving, wool roving and goat angor locks (£5 each). Also dyed silk hankies of the type we learned how to spin the day before. […]
Dyeing naturally seems the best way to do it after Judy Hardman’s workshop demonstrated how much fun it is. I am really inspired and will be driving around roundabouts assessing the vegetation from now on – never mind the traffic. Natural dyeing is full of surprises but one can ‘modify’ the colour you get with […]
Woolfest was at its most wonderful and best. Although I did 2007, 8, 9, and 2010 as chair of Guild of long draw spinners, this was my first time as a visitor. I was never happier than this last weekend, lovely place, inspired and talented people doing lovely things with wool, and all serenaded by local musicians […]
Makitfair on Sunday will be my first exhibition at Peterborough Showground. A great place for fibre and textile artists of all sorts, lacemakers, knitters, weavers, as well as spinners. Try the Superflyer for Big Yarn and my unique new Table Carder from Golden Fleece, for easy carding and blending. I’ll be showing my range of […]
Art yarn spin for joy: this picture says it all. This lady started with my Beginner pack only last year and produced this glorious art yarn from left overs – it is absolutely yum- scrummy. Yarn art draws on texture, yarn structure, colour and fibre – You don’t have to be a gifted, talented artist to produce […]
Woolly Socks Day – There was a heavy footfall of hand spun and hand knitted and hand dyed, spun and knitted socks on Saturday’s woolly sock day. My star pupil Mary modelled a lovely pair of socks knitted by Julie – she looked so good in them that Julie gave them to her. What a […]
Art Yarn: What is it? is a question I’m often asked, followed by ‘What do you do with it? Over the next few months I hope to answer these questions in a practical way at my Tuesday Workshops. We know art yarn when we see it, but to define art yarn we need an understanding of what we […]
Helping and inspiring others is how see my role as a teacher and share my passion for spinning and woolly things. But….I don’t feel inspired at the moment so have cancelled Barnsdale on 3rd Feb and Spinning School on 10th Feb. My mother died last night – she was 87 and worn out, and it comes […]
A hat dyed with madder by Judy Hardman is just one of the lovely things you can see and do with Judy at my next SpinningSchool day on 13th January – fingers crossed for fair weather. She will teach us how to use a selection of natural dyes featured in her new book ‘Natural Dyes’ […]
Exotic yarn from Wildfires of Oakham proved irresistible to spinners at SpinningSchool on tuesday- we were enthralled by Uday’s talk and video about the cooperative movement in his native Nepal – we saw a video of women harvesting nettles and retting, boiling and spinning the yarn which was on sale. He has a shop at […]
Handspan pastel pullover being a man’s choice is quite unusual – but this one is absolutely right for Mike who regularly attends Woolly Days with his wife Yvonne. I asked him how it came about…..“Oh, I decided l wanted something “totally different” and seeing the delicious range of colour on offer at Fibre East – the idea […]
A Colour wheel with Ashford dye is a really useful piece of kit to have; if you don’t manage colour it manages you so last Tuesday’s acid dyeing workshop was all about controlled acid dyeing and we each made lovely wheels of colour to keep and use whenever we want to create a particular colour. […]
Golden Fleece carders, blending boards and brushes will be making their UK debut on the Spinning School stand at The Big Textile Show this weekend. Also on the stand will be the new Ashford Kiwi Superflyer, spinning wheels, looms and accessories as well as local handmade and milled yarns from some of my pupils’ own […]
Off Piste Spinning class last Tuesday brought out some interesting yarns, Sue did a Shetland on the country spinner, Frances used the Kiwi Superflyer for her Leicester Longwool fleece, I did a demonstration boucle big yarn in merino, silk which was core spun onto woollen rug yarn, then merino silk roving held in place with a final […]
My dear aunt has been staying for a week – she came to Woolly day on Saturday and did some weaving on the Knitters loom I had warped up for her to play with – she is a knitter but had never done any weaving before. On Monday I finished it off while demonstrating at […]
Jane inspired us all last week with this Manx Loachtan rug; it was spun on the Country Spinner and then woven on a peg loom. Glorious.
I love my van – ‘The Van That Can’ It proved indispensable once again. We did our dyeing in it on a portable cooker – it was an amusing and happy event – more pictures to follow thanks to Lidia