Another busy day.

Lots of busy-ness at our regular Monday evening meeting in Abergele. We were pleased to welcome a new member and a visitor, as well as a returning member - croeso i bawb!
Photographs of spinning wheels get a bit "same-y" after a while, so here are some shots of Jenni's peg loom weaving (made from a mixture of hand spun and commercial yarn).  Nice and thick and comfortable for a seat cushion.

See you in Llanfair in August!
AC

Apologies.

Well, I suppose it had to happen one day. 
My apologies to anyone who received an alert about a new Abergele blog post, and came to the page only to find nothing new.  I accidentally posted my own artist's blog update on this page.  I have now cut and pasted it onto my own page.  Sorry for any inconvenience.
(I could send you the link to my post if you want!)
A.C.

A Sunday in July

A dull and muggy day in the country saw 11 spinners and a visitor meeting in LlanfairTH.  Everyone was very busy, taking advantage of the chance to have a whole 6 hours of uninterrupted spinning.  Once again, we managed to get a lot done despite the distractions of tea and chat.
We also had the opportunity to catch up on the news from Woodfest at the end of June.  Unfortunately, it sounds as though the Friday team drew a very short straw indeed and did not have the space originally allocated us - with all the hassle associated with moving at short notice.  However, Saturday and Sunday went off much better, and teams 2 and 3 really enjoyed themselves.  They had such fun, they didn't take any photographs.  The Sunday team had the added pleasure of being given hand-made drop spindles by a kind woodturner.

Thank you to all who took part and shared the crafts of handspinning, weaving and dyeing with the public.

Back to LlanfairTH today, and the usual eclectic mix of fibres and spinning wheels:

Bryn - brave soul - is working towards the National Association's Certificate of Achievement, preparing and spinning a variety of different fleece.  The current task is Gotland:  beautiful to look at, but not so beautiful to comb and spin. The yarn is turning out to be rather hairy and coarse.

Shawl gallery:  Yvonne and Hilary.

Yvonne modelling her shawl.

Hilary's beautiful "random" effect woven shawl.

See you all in Abergele next time.
AC.

Sunday Spinning, June 14th.

A fibre sampling day.  Bryn kindly organised little bags containing 10gm. each of a variety of fibres:  Blue-faced Leicester, Manx Loaghtan, Herdwick, Lincoln Longwool, Cheviot and Corriedale. The challenge was to spin and ply each of these, and comment on its' properties.  The Lincoln Longwool was popularly thought to resemble a horse's tail.

Some of the samples were woven into triangles on Kate's pin loom, and will make a nice start for our contribution to the guild challenge at the All Wales Meeting in October.

AC

Being in two places at once...

Today we were in two places at once, 7 miles apart.
Jenni F. and her Gazebo Gang were at the Gwrych Castle Fete in Abergele, survived the cold and probably met the best part of a thousand people.  Val's husband provided refreshments from the campervan and earned the title of Guild Roadie. (Pictures to follow, I hope.)
A select group of less adventurous folk came to LlanfairTH and stayed in the warm, with cake, and got a great deal done. Several full bobbins and some finished weaving between us. (Pictures to follow, once I work out how to upload them from a tablet computer.  The eventual solution: email the pictures to myself, and then upload them from the P.C.)

First of all, the Cake Picture - affected badly by the red heat lamps

More amazing fibres from Katie Weston - these are a very dark plum colour with touches of peach

Jill's colourful weaving on a Kromski knitters' loom.  This is a rigid heddle loom designed to take knitting yarn; it has a neat warping board incorporated into the base and folds up neatly with the weaving in situ.  Jill is weaving red merino on one shuttle and red merino plied (plyed?) with recycled sari silk on the second shuttle.

Quiet concentration on the other side of the room.

Friendship Day, 2015

Thank you very much to all who helped to make our Friendship Day such a success on Sunday, April 12th. The weather was, quite frankly, terrible:  windy, cold and wet, and we were very glad to be inside.  Despite the poor travelling conditions our visitors came from all over the area, and by lunchtime the hall was a veritable hive of activity; spinning, weaving, braiding, knitting, crocheting and more.
As usual, our "Stash table" provided a way of getting rid of unwanted stuff, before restocking with gorgeously dyed fibres from "Mam a mi.  Jenni Frost brought some prepared fleece from her flock of Shetland sheep (and didn't take much home). 
Our request to bring a plate of food" turned up trumps, and people brought a brilliant variety of goodies, from home made bread and biscuits to exotic chocolate traybake, with all sorts of savouries and sweets in between.  We had lots of unsolicited help with the washing up, too, which was greatly appreciated.

Waiting for the rush...

Mam, ( "Mam a mi") and some very tempting packets of fibre.

Jenni's Shetland stall.

Busy,

busy, busy.

So, that's over for another year, but there are lots of other opportunities for us to meet like-minded spinners and weavers over the next twelve months, starting with the Clwyd Guild Friendship Day in Llysfasi next Saturday.
A.C.