Gwrych Castle Medieval Weekend, August 18th. & 19th. 2018

Another action-packed weekend for the Guild at Gwrych Castle in Abergele.
Val, Betty and Alison entered into the spirit of the "Medieval" theme, and demonstrated low-tech. spinning for two days with scarcely a break for meals.  Our stand was in an excellent spot up on the terrace, right on the itinerary of the Castle Tour, and hundreds of people stopped to talk to us.  We lost count of the number of times we had our photographs taken, and were very grateful not to be out in the blazing sun.
We had a beautiful variety of naturally dyed fleece and dyeplants for the public to see, courtesy of Val, and we kept to our drop spindles in accordance with the period (no modern spinning wheels with carbon fibre bearings for us this weekend!).  Betty came to join us on the Sunday with the star of the show - a Great (or Walking) wheel.
There was hardly time to look round the rest of the event: re-enactment of medieval living and armed combat, plant sales in the formal garden, birds of prey, horses, traders....
Many thanks to the Gwrych Castle Trust for inviting us.  Have a look at their website and try to support their events if you can - they have just bought the castle and need all the help they can get.

Entering into the spirit of the thing.

An elegant demonstration of long draw spinning!
Perhaps we should make some medieval-style hangings to disguise our gazebo next year.

AC
2018

Friendship Day 2016: hello and goodbye

Once again, we had a lovely time at our Friendship Day meeting friends old and new.  Somehow, calling it a "friendship" day seems to guarantee a good atmosphere:  everyone comes to enjoy themselves, have a good natter and possibly do a bit of spinning.

The Committee and our Catering Officer (hello, Val!) arrived bright and early to set up the tables and get the kitchen under control, followed by our stallholders and their wonderful stuff.  Thanks to "Nunoco" for their grand spread of mixed and coloured fibres, Krithia for her pots (including some very desirable spinning bowls), Pea Restall of the Peculiar Gallery for some scrumptious ceramic buttons, and Helen Melvin for her naturally dyed fleece, books and inks.

Setting up...

Nunoco - their little packets of fibre have wonderful names: batt droppings, anyone?!

... and in full swing:

 

Especial thanks to Chris Jukes for bringing some of her enormous collection of spindles for "supported" spinning, and for giving a fascinating talk and demonstration.  

Chris taught herself to use a supported spindle in ten-minute bursts while watching the Tour de France some years ago, and is now completely addicted.  Her collection of spindles and spindle bowls must be second to none: all kinds from simple whittled wooden sticks to spindles with sophisticated spun glass ends like miniature paper weights.  After keeping us all spellbound by spinning a fine and even yarn, she generously allowed us to pore over the collection and a couple of brave souls had a go.....  the trick is to use a long draw technique, and to have a nice shiny and stable bowl on your knees to keep the spindle safe.

Many, many thanks to Bryn and Jenni for their hard work in organising the stalls, the raffle and the stash table (and thanks to Jenni for "fixing" the raffle so that everyone got a prize!).  Thanks also to those who brought cake and biscuits.  We packed up a little early, tidied and swept up and were out of the hall at four o'clock on the dot.  

As you may remember if you've been following this blog, we have a new venue for our Sunday meetings from next month onwards.  Today we said "goodbye / hwyl fawr"  to the Community Centre in Llanfair T.H., set the burglar alarm and locked up for the last time.  We have had some good times in Llanfair but we are looking forward to moving into our new home in Betws y Rhos for Katie Weston's core spinning workshop on May 8th.  See you there!

AC

Masterclass with Ann Campbell, Sunday Nov. 8th.

Another well chosen "workshop" on Sunday: Ann Campbell shared her extensive knowledge with us in a Masterclass. 
Ann is one of North Wales' most experienced textile artists, specialising in handspinning and dyeing.  She started our day by explaining and demonstrating the technique of long-draw spinning, which was completely new to some of us:  thanks to Ann's expert help we were all able to produce a lovely lofty yarn in double quick time. (Our newest member "got" the technique in a trice, and was whizzing away as to the manner born within minutes!)

General busy-ness.  Note the long draw spinning!

Thereafter Ann gave us all individual tuition on any topic we asked, from the preparation of wool and cotton to the plying and finishing of hanks of spun yarn.  She also showed the whole group new ways of blending fibre using blending boards - simply made by fixing a large piece of carding cloth onto a bread board.  While not suited to the preparation of large quantities of fibre, a blending board has the great advantage of taking up far less space than a drum carder, and it costs a fraction of the price.  We rummaged happily in Ann's boxes of gorgeous hand dyed fibres and were soon able to produce attractive multicoloured punis  for spinning at our leisure, using the techniques of art yarn spinning Ann demonstrated on her own wheel.  She brought some beautiful examples of her own spinning and knitting to enthuse us, and we have resolved to use up all our bits and pieces of yarn and fibre, and Make Something.

Before...

....and after the Abergele Guild had been at the boxes.

Purple tops and hand knitted foot covers (with apologies for the unflattering viewpoint).

More busy-ness.

All in all, this was a wonderful day with a warm and positive atmosphere inside the hall, contrasting with the bleak weather outside.  To crown everything, we were treated to a wonderful soup-and-bread lunch by Val, our catering suprema. Other members chipped in with some bits and pieces, including delicious cake, and the result was a real feast.
So, many thanks to Ann for her generous and expert tuition and to Bryn and Val for the organisation.