Long time, no update.........

Basically because we've been dealing with a lot of cr*p at work, I have neither spun nor woven anything for over a week. Just haven't had the heart to create.

That's all changed now.

On Sunday, we took the car, went down to Bracklesham Bay and walked along the shoreline. It was wickedly windy, but we were well-wrapped against the cold.

I love the sea, in all seasons and in all weathers; I think it steals into my soul a little - the wildness and unpredictability of it. Kevin and I are like the pebbles on the beach - we are tossed and turned by the waves, but that only serves to polish us, burnish us and we are still here, albeit ground down a little more.

After Bracklesham, we drove to Uppark and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Unlike our fire, the National Trust's insurers obviously didn't argue about the pay-out and it took just six years to get the place open again in something like its past glory. Everywhere you look though, there are reminders of how devastating the fire was and how much could have been lost, had the fire brigade, family, volunteers and many other willing hands not set about rescuing irreplaceable treasures.
And despite inevitable loss, there was great gain - the lost art of lime plaster moulding was revived by necessity, in order to repair and replace the beautiful ceilings.

We left Uppark feeling strangely positive; what happens to us in the future may not be what we had planned, our direction may have to change, but we are still here.

Doing a happy dance..........

Because my weaving book arrived today and the lovely delivery man left it in the porch for me! I haven't had a real chance to get into it yet but I think it is going to be both inspirational AND educational!

I have finally taken a picture of my dotty pegs - I think they look quite pretty. Ah well, if they don't sell I'll simply keep them for myself LOL!

As for the spinning and weaving, the Jaeger Aqua Cotton is weaving up as a very open weave but I still adore the colour!

Paddy likes to sit with me when I'm spinning!

A closer look at the Jaeger Aqua

I'm currently spinning some caramel-brown Shetland and loving it! It really does spin out beautifully fine too, and there was me wondering if I'd ever be able to spin yarn without whopping great lumps in it!

I am in two minds over this single - I have some creamy white Shetland that I could spin and then ply with this one for a two-tone effect, or I could simply spin another bobbin of this colour and make caramel coloured yarn. Decisions, decisions.........................

Time for a cup of tea and a chance to look at my new book before bed, I think................

Banana Fibre is a bear!

No, seriously! I tried using this stuff for the weft with a Jaeger cotton for the warp, but really hated what was coming out on the loom. So I "unwove" it, rolled it back up into a ball and am probably going to knit a bag from it.

Instead, I have the Jaeger cotton on the loom, both warp and weft, and have even attempted a bit of Leno Lace. The yarn is a lovely Royal Purple colour, with a slight sheen. It is weaving up in a rather "open" pattern, so it will be interesting to see whether is closes up when it is washed.

I have finished the painted pegs and am really rather pleased with them - I think that, tied in bundles of ten with some pretty ribbon, they would sell quite well (hope so, anyway).

As for the spinning, well, I have found that the Traditional with Scotch Tension is good for spinning merino/silk tops (much easier than my double drive Traveller for some totally unknown reason), so I have Shetland on the Traveller at the moment.

Amazon have just informed me that the weaving book I've been lusting after has been despatched via City Link. Which is fine, except that he usually comes after I've left for work :0(
I'll keep popping back, to see whether I can catch him, LOL! I NEED that book (Jane Patrick's "The Weaver's Idea Book - creative cloth on a rigid heddle loom).

Will now go and card some more Shetland for the wheel!

Knitting and Kittens

Paddy went for his "Kitten Check" today - some kitten! He is just 6 months old and weighs in at 11lb already! He totally charmed the staff at the surgery, scarfed down a whole load of cat treats and was so incredibly relaxed and laid back about the whole visit that I wondered whether his mother had dropped him on his head when he was really little! I'm not sure he'll be so enthusiastic on his next visit (in about 4 months, when he goes for the snip-snip).

I had planned to warp up the loom with some purple Jaeger cotton tonight - the weft will be the banana yarn - but I left it a bit late and had a pile of ironing to do, so that will happen over the weekend. In the meantime, I have started a scarf from my cousin's 4ply Shetland wool (carded and spun for her by the Natural Fibre Company in Launceston). It is a traditional Old Shale pattern, which seems appropriate for the Shetland wool but needs a little bit of concentration. I'll post a photo when I have done a few more pattern repeats.

I am also painting dolly pegs and putting little white spots on them - hopefully these will be good enough for my cousin's Christmas Craft Fair. They do look rather pretty, even unvarnished (I'm using acrylic paint and they will need to be "waterproofed" in case folk decide to use them outside).

So many projects, so little time to do 'em in!

Honey, lemon and whisky ROCKS!

I felt much more human today! I LOVE honey, lemon and whisky (the early night might have helped too, of course). There must be a bug going round, though - there are a lot of people sniffling in my vicinity!

I have finished the scarf. It ended up shorter than I'd anticipated, but I am really quite proud of my first effort, and would be happy to wear it (it must look reasonable then - I'm really picky about my "home made" efforts and if they don't look "right", they never see the light of day!).

The order that I placed with Scottish Fibres arrived today - two skeins of banana fibre in blue-purple and white, another ball of Ashford Tekapo in Aqua and a ball of the Ashford Random. The banana fibre is odd  - Carole had me spin some at my final lesson and it is strange, silky stuff; I found it tricky to spin and ended up spinning it semi-worsted. These skeins are a lovely colour, with a subtle sheen and are destined to become the weft for another weaving project (yes, probably a scarf, LOL). I have some Jaeger cotton yarn which will do nicely for the warp and rather than try anything clever, I think I'll just weave it as simply as possible and let the banana fibre speak for itself.

I have so many projects that I want to get moving on - I need a few more hours in the day and more days in the week, really. And I have a positive Everest of ironing to get through too, *sigh*! Will HAVE to start that tomorrow, as I am seriously running out of T-Shirts for work.

Stupid summer cold!

I woke this morning feeling horribly bunged up and slightly "spacey" - and concluded that, since I had done nothing to deserve this feeling on Saturday, I must have picked up a summer cold.

Rats!

We did go to "Wings and Wheels" at Dunsfold, though. This year, it is being held over two days; this could explain the absence of cars in the "Club" area. The Morgan Owners usually go and we had hoped to see them, although we no longer have our old Morgan, but perhaps they will be there on Monday instead.
Still, we saw the Vulcan flying, and my other two favourite planes (Spitfire and Hurricane). We left early and got caught in the rain about a mile from home (fortunately, we'd stopped at Sainsbury's in Farnham and put the hood up on the Z3 or we'd have been drenched).

I think I need to catch some zzzzzzs. Thank goodness tomorrow isn't a work day!

I did manage to ply off the merino/silk blend this afternoon - it is definitely another one of my "specials", LOL! I have some other yarns of a similar weight, so they may all come together in the next weaving project.

We watched "The Golden Compass" on DVD this evening (from LoveFilm). This is the second DVD of this film that we've had from them and the soundtrack on both was decidedly "iffy". Constant crackling sound - most off-putting.

I took the opportunity this time to study some of the lovely knitted garments used in the film - I'm pretty sure that there are patterns on Ravelry (Lyra's hat for example, which looked as though it could be knitted from Rowan Country. I have a LOT of that yarn).

Tea and bed, I think! Or honey, lemon and whisky and bed - but definitely bed!!

My "Studio"

Also known as my dining room............... just a couple of photos of my loom and wheels, and some current projects.

The Traveller and the Traditional

The Shetland that I scoured, carded and spun this week

A silk and merino blend

Ashford 32" Rigid Heddle Loom (and first serious project)

A closer look at that project!

Mission accomplished!

Three cats jabbed for another year (£96.00 odd, and that's with the discount!). Even though they are "indoor cats" and never go into a cattery when we are away, there is always that sneaking feeling that they may come into contact with a cat carrying something infectious and unpleasant when they are in the run outside.

Paddy was distinctly miffed that he had been left behind; he was on the dining room windowsill when we returned, doing his "poor little orphaned kitten" act.

My husband has just told me that Hobbes was using my work-in-progress on the loom as a trampoline this morning (!!!!!) I meant to wind the work on last night and didn't, so there was a significant piece of woven material for him to bounce on. He can't have done much damage, because I didn't notice anything this morning when I did a little more work on it. Still...............memo to self - do NOT leave the door open when there is work on the loom.

Cat Jabs!

Eeep! Three of the four cats have to go for their booster vaccinations tomorrow afternoon. This means getting three cat carriers out of the garage without them seeing them, assembling them and then persuading three wily Maine Coons that they WANT to go see the lovely vet.

We clipped their claws this evening - which should make the procedure less bloody. Fortunately they are a healthy bunch, so we don't have to do the vet trip too often. The fact that we only have to drive round the corner to get to the surgery is a blessing as well, although to hear them wail, you'd think we were shipping them to some Vile Prison.

This is our latest addition - at 6 months, he isn't included in the party tomorrow but will be going on Wednesday for a check-up. He's going to be HUGE!

Carded and Spun!

I have carded out some of the Shetland that I scoured on Wednesday evening and did a bit of spinning with it tonight.

It's turning into a "novelty" yarn - beautifully fine in places, but with lumpy bits in others. This only goes to show that I hadn't prepared the fibre as well as I could/should have.

I have some Jacob that needs carding - I think I'd better have a go at that and improve my fibre prep before launching into the Shetland again. Hey ho, I live and learn.

My First Post

A little bit of self-indulgence, I guess, but since I've never been any good at keeping up a handwritten diary, I wondered whether my thoughts (clad in my purple prose) would be better recorded on-line. Hence this blog.

So....what am I all about? I'm fifty-four, married, work with my husband and last year I learned to spin.

2009 wasn't a good year for us; in August, we had a disastrous electrical fire at one of our two production units which put us out of action for a year. I had already arranged to stay with my cousin in Devon for the FibreFest weekend and my husband insisted that I should go. I'm glad that I did, because her smallholding is the most magically therapeutic place, her Shetland sheep are adorable and FibreFest was awesome. I "discovered" spinning - bought a drop spindle, brought home some of her fleece and set out to find someone to teach me to spin.

That "someone" was the lovely Carole.Over the next six weeks, with expert and patient tuition, I learned a lot about fibre production and how to spin on a wheel. I used to drive down to Liss every Monday morning for a two hour lesson. I swear that it was the only thing that kept me sane because dealing with the insurance issue was a nightmare - I no longer had a dining room  because my office had been at the affected factory. The dining room table became my desk and I was surrounded by removal boxes full of files. Entertaining was impossible.

After much research, my husband Kevin bought me my first wheel - an Ashford Traveller, double treadle, double drive. I had both clean and mucky fleece from my cousin, so not only did I learn to card and spin, but how to scour too.

At first, I produced "knicker elastic" yarn - I guess all novices do that - but gradually my technique is improving. I have learned that I like spinning "in the grease", that I'm not awfully fond of the commercially produced tops that I've tried, and that Maine Coon cats are genetically programmed to supervise all spinning operations (and can and will remove the drive band if they think the wheel is getting more attention that they are).

As for spinning as a sanity-saver....in November last year, Kevin was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma and had a kidney removed. Fortunately, the cancer was completely contained and he has made a full recovery but on Christmas Day, he had to have a partial removal of the gall bladder and complications followed. He was in and out of hospital until the end of January.

In between hospital visits and work, I did a lot of spinning. And knitting. And eating! Kevin lost 5 stone and I put on 2!

Fast-forward to July 2010 - while hunting for a seat for the porch in a local antique centre, we came across what looked like an Ashford Traditional wheel. The scotch tension knob was missing, the footman was swinging free and the flyer hooks (and other bits) were corroded but a renovation looked "do-able", so we bought it for £55. I sent pix to David at Frank Herring's in Dorchester and he confirmed that it was an Ashford (about 30 years old). It took a weekend, lots of TLC and Ashford Wax, a maintenance kit, new tension knob and Kevin's expertise (he had to take the wheel apart, hub and all, and re-glue it), but in the end, I have a Traditional that spins beautiful fine yarn.

As for the loom - all this yarn I was producing (some of which looked distinctly "individual") required an end use. I didn't think knitting would cut it and I was fascinated by the idea of producing cloth. Thanks to my mum sending me a birthday cheque, I was able to fund the purchase of an Ashford 32" rigid heddle loom and am teaching myself to weave.

So, that's me so far.............. we have to start the business from scratch as our customers have (quite understandably) found other anodisers and finishers to process their work. Financially, it has been and continues to be hard but we are determined to survive and prosper.

What am I going to do with this blog? I will post about my projects, my cats, my family. If it is of interest to others, then that's lovely.