Abergele WSD flock visit

 

Making history for our Guild, we got out in the field with the Shetlands whose fleece we've been spinning for the last few years. Jenni's flock was excited to see us, too. Perhaps it had something to do with the interesting buckets of feed she was bringing them. For once, the sheep flocked towards the people, providing opportunities to examine the lambs, depth of coats, stroke their hard heads and hear about the lambing statistics this year. Lambs were strong and showed all the colouring variations of their type:  panda-eyed Yuglets, tan Moorits, dark Gulmogets with white bellies, a Mirkface with a white stripe and dark patches on the face. Then there were the rams, tan Moorits with surprising black depths to their fleece.

Walking the fields in bright sunshine and long views down the valley, it was great to be listening to the sheep and dogs. Back indoors there was an impressive display of rosettes and show photos,and a welcome tea.  

B.T.

 

Some new links to inspect.

For those of you who don't do Facebook, or who haven't realised that by clicking on the "Home" button on the top right of our Facebook page you can see some interesting extra stuff:

http://tomofholland.com/ will take you to the blog of Tom, an expatriate Dutchman living in England.  Believe it or not, he darns things.....but he also knits, and his blog has lots of links to follow.  He writes about the Sanquhar glove pattern, which our late member Jean de Salis used to knit.

http://www.shetlandwoolbrokers.co.uk/  Jamieson & Smith, well known to all I'm sure.

http://www.shetlandwoolweek.com/  - fairly obviously, a week's festival of wool in Shetland.

http://www.rozannehawksley.com    Textile artist - you  may have seen her exhibition in Ruthin Craft Centre some years back.
Have fun (and watch this space for a report of our visit to Jenni's flock of pedigree sheep)
AC

Sunday Spinning, May 12th

A small but select gathering on yet another cold, wet Sunday.  Lots of spinning and chat, and lovely cake (thanks to Jenni & June)

Jenni & Bryn getting some work done

Jenni plying yarn from her own sheep on an Ashford "Joy" wheel

Bryn's plying on an Ashford traditional wheel. (Bird's eye view - stray toes removed with the clone brush)

Krithia spinning Shetland fleece, also on a Traditional Ashford wheel

Superwash marino for a baby's shawl on Alison's "Traveller" wheel

A portion of gorgeous red silk on Betty's beautiful wheel. (I think it might be a Timbertops???)

Our next treat is a visit to Jenni's flock of pedigree sheep, and then we meet again in a month's time for more spinning, weaving and cake.
AC