Keeping Busy

             Wow! I hadn't realised it was such a long time since I'd posted!

For the last few months I have resorted to weaving with woollen yarn to keep me busy and feeling positive.

Uppingham yarns sell a colourful range of shetland woollen yarns and having started our daughter in law off with her first weaving project, before she, our son and two grandsons went to live in Australia, I was encouraged to weave with them.

I was going to weave lengths to make bags but, as shawls and 'tartan' clothing has become fashionable I decided to come up with a range shawls in interesting colour schemes.

At first I planned to weave only one shawl per warp but it takes some time to work out the warp design and set up the loom ready for weaving so I decided to plan two shawls per warp. These two shawls, in a russet colour scheme, were the first.

I was commissioned to weave one similar in 'Christmas' colours and I must admit to being a little concerned about this - red and green - but the finished shawl pleased the recipient and because the colours were quite subtle I was pleasantly surprised/happy with the result myself!

 My favourite so far!  

Spinning yarn for a Weaving project

Bedfordshire Guild Ruby Celebration

Bedfordshire Guild WSD began in 1979 and this needed to be celebrated!

    I am spending more time spinning than weaving at the moment and have been for some months. I'm itching to get on weaving some fabric!!

        

  Those of us who spin admire the yarns and fibre blends produced by John Arbon and his team and he was only too happy to create a 'Ruby' colour blend in 80% Merino/20% silk fibre.

Most members ordered an amount between 100g and 1 kilo. Spinning it has taken some time and nearly all have completed their project.

As I wanted to weave a length of fabric the spinning of my yarn kept me busy but very happy.

 

  Years ago, when I learned to spin and weave at college, I was determined that I would spin to weave a length of clothing fabric. Sadly, it has taken me some time to be brave enough to get on with this huge undertaking.

  It has been said that it takes 7 spinners to supply a weaver and knowing, from experience, that preparing a warp, setting up my loom and weaving a 5 yard length would take a week I knew I would have to prepare myself for a 'long haul'. The plying of 100g (2 x 50 g) of yarn took all evening, approximately 4 hours!

What a find!

Getting things in order!

Sorting and tidying craft materials and projects is always a chore but sometimes this can have a pleasing/surprising outcome.

I bought the above fibre, 80% merino/20% silk at Fibre East one of my favourite suppliers, John Arbon. But.... I had stashed it away and forgotten I had it!!!!!!!!

I often spin just for the sake/enjoyment of it but this yarn was intended as the weft in a hand woven scarf which was supposed to be one of my items for sale at 'Living Crafts' at Woburn Abby this May.

All events like this were cancelled because of 'C' virus and I've not spent time making items for sale. 

Instead my husband and I have filled our time catching up with chores around the garden (we have a big one!) which had been neglected for some time. Dick has made several quantities of victoria-plum jam. 

Now that the bramley apples are ready to be picked. I can make one of my lifelong favourites - blackberry and apple pie - combining them with the blackberries I have in the freezer, picked earlier this month.

All Colours 'Arranged'

DYE SAMPLES ARRANGED

  ' There is a tendency for all of us to use dye colours straight from the pot, without mixing and creating new shades, unless of course there are small quantities of liquor left at the end of a project. It is time consuming and expensive to make your own shade cards. This year I am working with two Weavers, Spinners and Dyers guilds to produce, hopefully, the shades that can be produced with all 16 of the Texere Acid Dye range. Hundreds of skeins and many cards to file the colours have had to be made and distributed, but later this month the project will be close to completion. Fingers Crossed!!! Above are photos of the first batch of samples, waiting to be threaded on to the file cards. Don't they look great! It seems a shame to split them up.'

   Since we, Bedfordshire guild WSD, along with Guild of Longdraw Spinners took the time to create this useful reference it has been used very infrequently.
   New members have joined the group and they want to learn how to create their own self striping yarns, mainly for socks and small items to be knitted or crocheted. So, the samples have been retrieved out of the cupboard and arranged in a ring binder. It will be good to see the results of the workshop.

Nature's Inspiration

 INSPIRED BY NATURE

I have always been fond of primulas and violets.
As a child I picked many primroses and cowslips on the banks at Cresswell, Northumberland, where my parents took us regularly, even before they had a static caravan on the site facing the North Sea.
In our garden patches of primulae alternate with the flowers of spring bulbs.




   












Two or three days ago I was wondering what my latest craft project could be. With this in mind I had a rummage through my 'stash' of spinning fibres and decided to try to spin a yarn that represented the blooms in our garden.





I spun with green alone on one bobbin and the second I spun with equal amounts of the flower and leaf colours.

Unfortunately, the green is rather more blue than the actual leaf colours and maybe I should have distributed the colours more evenly in small amounts/flecks of the flower colours but still, I think I will dye some wool roving, matching the colours better with the 'real thing'.

I have just the resource to help me!!!!!!!

 This was a project undertaken with the cooperation of the members of two guilds, Bedfordshire Guild WSD and Longdraw Spinners and should be very useful to those who want to 'colour match' and not simply use the dyes as they come from the 'pot'. I wonder how many people have used them?

PROJECTS FOR A RAINY DAY

ACTIVITIES TO INSPIRE WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS

   The above pictures are not mine but they served to inspire me to start a spinning project that would help with boredom and inertia on bad weather days. I probably wouldn't usually buy or dye my own tops with these colours but I do like the resulting yarn, so maybe it's a colourway for the future.

   It looks to me as though the yarn is 2 ply and has been created by dividing the tops in half down its length, after which each each ply was spun and then both plied together.

   

   This photograph was taken at the bottom of our garden last year and it inspired the hands pun skein below. I didn't dye the fibre. I used coloured tops that had been unused, having been bought as individual colours to create batts.

   A  two ply yarn, one ply of which is all green the other is a combination of slubs in pinks, yellows and lime green spaced along the second ply of the yarn.

 

    Several days ago I found myself with no particular project in mind and went down the garden again, taking photographs of the primulas, my favourite spring flower after the snowdrops, daffodils and crocuses but couldn't decide how I was going to spin some yarn to do them justice.

   I began some trials with other colours to help me decide how I was going to put the colours together and how many plies I was going to spin to create a yarn that represented the colours distributed in the garden.
  The first skein - above - was spun with the individual colours in turn on one bobbin   , then the resulting singles was Navajo plied into a smooth (ish) 3 ply yarn with each colour plied on its self.
   In the yarn below I divided the colours to create a 'fractal' yarn.

A Yarn to Celebrate

Bedfordshire Guild Ruby Celebration

Bedfordshire Guild WSD began in 1979 and this needed to be celebrated!

  Those of us who spin admire the yarns and fibre blends produced by John Arbon and his team and he was only too happy to create a 'Ruby' colour blend in 80% Merino/20% silk fibre.

Most members ordered an amount between 100g and 1 kilo. Spinning it has taken some time and nearly all have completed their project.

As I wanted to weave a length of fabric the spinning of my yarn kept me busy but very happy.

 

  Years ago, when I learned to spin and weave at college, I was determined that I would spin to weave a length of clothing fabric. Sadly, it has taken me some time to be brave enough to get on with this huge undertaking.

  It has been said that it takes 7 spinners to supply a weaver and knowing, from experience, that preparing a warp, setting up my loom and weaving a 5 yard length would take a week I knew I would have to prepare myself for a 'long haul'. The plying of 100g (2 x 50 g) of yarn took all evening, approximately 4 hours!