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.
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