Beginner’s spinning ‘First spinning is very special – it is the measure of future improvement – but it is difficult to imagine a more satisfying outcome of your first spinning than this lovely hat in blue faced Leicester fleece in its natural colours. It is only a few weeks since Angie inherited her spinning wheel from […]
Gotland pullover – pupil news from Jane who completed this cosy pullover for her husband. Jane learned to weave this time last year and subsequently learned to spin – so she has not been spinning for a year yet. What an achievement! It was prepared with hand carders and spun on her Ashford traditional.
This is a BIG THANK YOU to you all at Summer School! Val and I found these beautiful feathers in one of my fields = inspiration! We acquired a Jacob fleece at the Summer School and I had an intro to flick carding at Knuston Hall, so my half of the Jacob got flick carded […]
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 […]
Off to Navajo country. Gillian loaded her four dogs into her pick-up truck early in the morning and headed off to Winslow to meet Carol who will be bringing the Churro fleece – she took these fantastic pictures on the way
I have a lady who has a selection of grey, mixed and white Leicester longwool fleece for sale £10-20 each – she will bring them on Saturday for us to see. Their fleece is long, lustrous and most unusual. You can see some Leicester Longwool sheep at Loddington, their fleece is not for sale this year […]
We had a colourful day yesterday, blending was the most popular choice of activity. We used Ashford blending boards and a variety of fibres. The results were spectacular.
The weather was so lovely on Wednesday we sat by the pond…Erica couldn’t resist spinning up some of the new clip Shetland I had washed
These two young men soon got to grips with the drop spindle at Open Farm Sunday- and bought one each!
Ruth is learning to spin raw fleece ready for when her Leicester long wool sheep are shorn in June, she plans to make rugs on the peg loom. There was plenty of help at Woolly day
.. I know Making perfect rolags sounds like hard work but I plan to make it fun by mixing in a bit of colour and blending skills in Tints Tones and Shades. So, while you learn to make perfect rolags you will see acid colours change into easy-on-the-eye sophisticated shades and the learning won’t seem like hard work! (I want to insert a lovely […]
The fleece came out beautifully clean – but we had to pull off some green weed…
The grease can be seen clouding the water as soon as the fleece is submerged. We left it in the water for about two hours…..
..is to put it in a haynet and dunk it in the river. Spinners are always interested in new ways of washing fleece – this is new to us but it has probably been going on for hundreds of years. The only problem was it floated and had to be poked beneath the surface with […]
If you have a load of Jacob and don’t know what to do with it, how about making a rug like this? It couldn’t be easier and you don’t need to actually spin all of it either! Join our Rug Weaving course March 26-29 2012. Just bring your fibre – loom will be ready to […]