Our Winter Tour: Part 1

Our thanks to Bryn for volunteering to host the first day of our Winter "Tour", if that's the right word for it.  As it can be cold and miserable in North Wales in the winter months, two members of the Committee have kindly invited us into their homes for our Sunday meetings.  On February 8th. a goodly number of us journeyed to Bryn's house and had a lovely day spinning and chatting.  After a bitterly cold, foggy and icy start to the day the weather turned sunny and clear, apart from a persisting black haze over the hills in the distance. Bryn generously made two delicious kinds of soup, and other members brought cake. Despite the temptations of the latter we all managed to fill bobbins - many of them using the gorgeous colours we produced with Katie Weston last month.

AC

More amazing colour blending with Katie Weston

We had a brilliant start to 2015 with another excellent colour blending workshop with Katie Weston.
Building on skills we learned during her visit last year, we produced even more sophisticated hanks of yarn, with some amazing variegated effects.
Firstly, Katie showed us how to make "punis"/ mini-rolags of blended fibre, taking a wispy but uninterrupted length off the drum carder using a dowel (to which the wool sticks) and a knitting needle (which slips out of the puni easily, so that the dowel can then be removed).  With a bit of practice, and not too much bad language, we all produced mini-rolags, ideal for using with a drop spindle.
Our next task was to make a tri-coloured fibre blend which can be spun to make a yarn with gradual colour changes.  Using Katie's gorgeous coloured fibres, we blended three separate batts of wool, silk, bamboo, Angelina...... and then teased them out to three thinnish slivers which were drawn onto the drum carder so as to make a single batt with vertical stripes. Then, working down the batt in the direction of the fibres, we "Z-stripped" it into a long sliver which clearly showed the change in colour along its' length.
Finally we made another three-coloured batt and took it off the carder using a diz.  Like puni-making, this requires practice, and a certain amount of non-Sunday language could be heard as the fibres fell apart and fingers were stabbed on the carding cloth.

Katie shows how to make a "puni" - a tiny rolag of fibre wound between a dowel and a knitting needle

And now a larger batt...

.. which comes off the carder in one piece, with three distinct areas of colour (looking from left to right),

and is then separated and "chained" into one long piece with the three colours running separately along the length.

Supporting the component fibres on a chair prevents them falling apart and thereby avoids grief and gnashing of teeth.

Stripes in the making.

Everyone produced large quantities of luscious fibre, and rushed home to start spinning.  We can't wait to see the results - (an idea for a Guild Challenge, perhaps?).
Very many thanks to Katie for her patient and expert tuition, and to Bryn for organising the event.
We take a break from Llanfair during the depths of winter, so our next couple of Sunday meetings will be in private houses. (Probably just as well:  driving past the hall this evening I noticed that the playing fields at the rear are flooded, and the river is very, very high). We are meeting as usual on the fourth Monday evening of the month in Abergele and will be back in Llanfair TH in April for our Friendship Day.

AC.

A Happy Christmas to all our readers

The title says it all, really.
Our pre-Christmas meeting in Llanfair was busy with spinning and weaving, interrupted only for a delicious meal in the pub across the road.  As usual, my camera gave up at the crucial moment, so no photographs of the festivities I'm afraid.  Our thanks to Jenni for organising the meal.

Bryn warping up her rigid heddle loom under the red electric heaters.

  

 Photographs courtesy Jenni Frost.

AC

The weaving continues

Soft woven scarves

Some banner felting results:

Feltmaking

We had a busy day in LlanfairTH on Sunday, 9th. November:  as part of the preparations for our 30th Anniversary next year we have decided to make a new felt banner.  We don't have a definite design yet, but seem to have arrived at the idea of a "Tree of Life" as a basis (this may change!).  So, today we were busy making leaves in felt.  Some of us made traditional "wet" felt pieces while others had a go at needle-felting.  Jenni and Bryn had been on a short course, and passed on their experience to others.  A few needles were broken, and a few fingers were stabbed during the process of repeatedly and rapidly prodding fleece to make felt, but everyone had a very productive time.  Some bolder souls had a go at three-dimensional work and produced some impressive rodents and insects.  Let's hope there will be room on the banner for everything.

Several people took photographs, and I'm hoping they will post them.  In the meantime, here are my poor efforts which were badly affected by the red light from the heaters.

"Wet" felting, with water (yes, really) and soap.

Needle felting on a piece of foam rubber.

AC