Tynedale WSD Spinners' Gathering 2013

We drove through floods, torrential rain and near gales yesterday morning to get to the Stocksfield Spinners' Gathering - goodness me, the weather was bad.  Luckily, I hadn't brought a waterproof so once we got there I scurried inside clutching Gladys and left Mark (plus lots of willing helpers) to bring everything else in.



The light isn't terribly good inside the hall, so I frequently sent people to the outside to compare colours in daylight.

We had a lovely day - we saw lots of friends (especially Tim, Denise and Hazel), the food was excellent (not as much cake as last year, and perhaps an overabundance of quiche, but nice salads and pies) even though I only got a third of one of the strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese topping.

We came back with a bottle of wine that Mark won in the tombola. I traded for some fibre and indigo-dyed sock yarn from Natural Born Dyers, and got lots of knitting done on the Karelides Cardigan.

And surprisingly good sales.  I'm spending this morning sorting out the freshly dyed yarn I've had hanging up all over the place - some is part of a couple of orders I have had in from the States, the rest is to be labelled up and added to stock. Then I'm dyeing yarn this week and practising my spinning for next week's Back-to-Back Challenge in the Netherlands.

Bowland Guild on Star Wars Day!

Toddled off to Bowland Guild in Gisburne yesterday, to teach my workshop on Spinning & Knitting with Beads to them.  Mark didn't want to miss another Saturday morning at the gym, so I took Mum for the lovely drive up.

I know quite a few people at the guild, as does Ma, because of the Alston Hall gatherings.  Ma hung around for a bit and then wandered away for a potter; she ended up at the Auction Mart, chatting to farmers and learning about cows and sheep!

I sold a bit of fibre too - rather alarming but at least I have more money to invest in more undyed stock.

I couldn't do the workshop quite as planned, as there were a few novice spinners, but everyone produced a couple of tiny skeins of beaded yarn before lunch and a  bit of beaded knitting afterwards.  Then a few people asked me to demonstrate long-draw spinning - it ended up looking like Jackanory, as I say on a chair making rolags with 8 or so people sitting cross-legged on the floor around me. Much inspiration was shared and it was brilliant.

I got a lovely strawberry cream meringue too!

And last night Mark and I went to see Nordic Fiddlers Bloc at Otley Courthouse - brilliant far Northern fiddle music, and I got lots of knitting done on the Bohus Guld too.

Wonderwool Wales 2013

Just a few photos from this year's Wonderwool - I was frighteningly busy for most of it, as I was leading a two hour workshop on drum carding both afternoons, hence spending over three hours away from the stall each day.

Doesn't Mark look splendid in his new kilt?



I brought the quilts down almost as a last minute afterthought, but was really pleased I did so. Lots of people commented on how well the stall looked.  I have passed the cardboard cut-out sheets on to someone else now - I've had them a few years and am feeling a bit inspired to make more quilts now.  Perhaps one with my name on to act as a nameboard?

We made very good time driving down to Wonderwool this year (even stopping at Ann Kingstone's to drop off a not-quite-completed sample for her) so had time to drive through Builth Wells to visit the Prince Llewellyn monument on the other side of the town.



Very sad monument, full of what-might-have-beens, and I shed a tear and apologised on behalf of my nation.

But we spotted this rather beautiful sculpture carved from a tree stump by the side of the brand new road:



Both nights' camping were sub-zero this year, and I didn't sleep at all well due to my shoulders getting cold. (My new airbed lasted well though, didn't even soften slightly).  So for next year I'm planning to track down some dog-friendly self-catering accommodation.  And if we don't have to take camping stuff, and have invested in a roofbox for the van, we won't have to hire a bigger van and can then stay down for a few days more and explore mid Wales.  We know the North of Wales, and the SW, but have not really spent time in the middle even though we've been to every WonderWool so far.

It was a successful show for me; back to the dyepans.

Wonderwool is imminent

Well, here we are. All the fibre is packed, labelled, priced, and in bags forming a huge mountain in the middle of the sitting room.

I've been into Bradford to collect change from the bank, post a parcel and retrieve one from the sorting office, send off my passport renewal at the Post Office.

I have several bags of fleece/fibre/dyed stuff/blending stuff organised for the workshop. Plus my two drumcarders, my box of tools and carders, and three more arranged to borrow when we get to the show.

I now need to retrieve the transit from the hire place (luckily just about 400 yards up the road), sort out the camping stuff, clothes and bedding, and pack the van.  Then a couple of classes at the gym this evening from 7.30 (what! you thought I'd miss gym?) and we'll have pizzas from Waitrose for tea.

Stressed out massively as normal. This year it hasn't helped that I've had two sample sweaters to do for a friend's knitting book.  The second one, a man's hoodie with some colourwork, only had one sleeve done when she told me that the photoshoot was this Sunday (and she told me this on the Sunday just gone).  So I have done very little but knit furiously on this for the last four days and my hands are telling me about it.  I shan't get the hood done, but I will get up to the neck. We're dropping it off early tomorrow morning on our way down to Wales.

I'll post photos from the show when we get back. Hope to see lots of friends there.

And yet more...

Goblin King, on white Polwarth, oatmeal Masham, black Shetland/silk.

 
Same wools, white Polwarth, oatmeal Masham, black Shetland/silk, this time in Triton.


Thicket on oatmeal and black BFL. A new colour, which on white is probably going to be a  bit bright and teal-y, but on the coloured wools is lovely.


Another new one: Strand, again on oatmeal and black BFL.


Mordred, on white and oatmeal BFL.


Lorien, on white and oatmeal BFL.  I've added green streaks rather than green dots this year.


Littleheart, white and oatmeal BFL. I do like this one, even though it's not normally my colours. But the shades inbetween are so lovely. I really fancy some handspun socks in this.


The old favourite, Northern Lights, on white, oatmeal, and black BFL.


Manx and oatmeal Masham dyed in Grail.


Another perennial favourite, Copper, this time on Manx and oatmeal Masham.


Sunrise on camel/silk.


Flora on camel/silk


Copper on camel/silk - this one's worked particularly well.

More pretty colours.

I've been at the camel and silk blend again. This time I've tweaked the dyeing of this particular blend slightly.  It's one of the most difficult to ensure the dye penetrates all the way through, so I've dyed this batch in lots of 200g rather than 300, and made the dye solutions slightly more intense. I'm rather pleased.

Red Leaf:


Purple Ink:


Guinevere:


Dryad:


White BFL/silk dyed in Silver Sky. Although this is atypical of my dyeing, it's been one of my most popular colourways. (Not worth dyeing on anything other than white fibre, though.)


Oatmeal BFL/silk in Nightfall:


Oatmeal BFL/silk in Birchbark:


Oatmeal BFL, on its own and with silk, in Sunrise (a new colourway this year):


Oatmeal BFL, alone and with silk, in Rivendell:


Grey Shetland/silk, white BFL, white Devon Longwool, in Red Leaf:


Same wools as above, in Lazuli:


And the same, this time in Flora:


These won't be going into the Etsy shop until after Wonderwool.

Sock yarn for Wonderwool

Here we are, lots of lovely sock yarn freshly dyed up for Wonderwool.  Not as much as I'd like,  but there's some nice colours in the usual yarn bases - all British, both Falkland Merino and  Blue-faced Leicester, with either bamboo, nylon, or Donegal nep.  (There are a few of last year's yarns up on the Etsy shop, but that probably won't be updated now until after Wonderwool).

Adelaide Walker have asked me to sample a possible new fibre blend.  I buy all my bfl and bfl/silk from them, but this could be rather nice.  Black Jacob top blended with bamboo:



It really is very nearly as metallic-looking as it looks in this photo!



I have spun it into a fairly airy 3-ply that looks like dk thickness but will actually knit up as a hefty-ish fingering weight, and make particularly lovely bouncy socks, which is what I am making for AW to use as an example at Wonderwool.

Given the other sample knitting I'm doing for Ann Kingstone, and the vast amounts of fibre to be dyed too (a batch just having come out of the oven so some bread can go in), I'd better get on with it.