Spinning Sunday

For once the weather has been kind:  cold certainly, but also dry and sunny.  The snowdrops are out, the daffodils are out in some places and the lambs are skipping around the fields.   So where were we?  Indoors, spinning.
Half a dozen of us met at Hilary's house and luxuriated in her large, centrally heated living room with a view across the valley through the French windows.  The birds feeding in her garden provided almost as much interest as the spinning; all the "usual" culprits (bluetits, great tits, chaffinches, robins, collared doves, a wren and a coal tit) but also a great spotted woodpecker which caused a lot of pleasure with its bright red cap.  And then, several fly-pasts by the local sparrow hawk, who didn't actually catch anything.
But back to the spinning:
Two of the earliest arrivals spent a happy morning mastering the art of using a drop spindle (and one of them had done no spinning at all previously).  Drop spindles are so portable, and of course perfect for hypnotising babies...

(note also Kate's beautiful knitted slippers).
The rest of us took advantage of a whole day to ourselves to fill bobbins for our latest projects (or just to fill bobbins with no particular project in mind).  It's amazing how much you can do when you just sit and spin. And as always, no two wheels are exactly the same.  Here's one of Hilary's:

Thanks very much to her for the hospitality and unlimited cups of tea.
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2016

2016 up and running

January Cake Picture - after the gannets had descended.....

There has been a bit of a gap since our last post here, but we have been busy - honestly.
On the second Sunday in December we met in LlanfairTH as usual, and at lunchtime crossed the road to the Black Lion for our annual Christmas lunch.  Almost everyone made it, including Kate and her very new baby - he was competely delightful, and very tolerant of being passed from arm to arm for cuddles.  We filled the time before our meal by applying ourselves to Jenni and Bryn's festive spinners quiz.  Great fun, but not easy.  Thanks to to them for finding the exam paper - I think courtesy of Hilary Miller of the Gwynedd Guild (someone will tell me if I'm wrong).  Thanks to Jenni for the raffle prize.  We all had a delicious meal, and even did some spinning later in the afternoon.
Unfortunately our January Sunday meeting had to be cancelled, but our Monday meeting went ahead as usual in the nice warm vestry at Capel Mynydd Seion. Six of us attended, and we were pleased to welcome two visitors and a spinning wheel in need of a little attention.  It's fine really, and will be even better once restored to its' original double drive.
Pin loom weaving continues to be a popular activity, and Val was wearing a very impressive tweedy waistcoat pieced together from her squares.  No photograph I'm afraid, but it was very smart!

Val's home made pin loom and tweedy weaving

A more open weave from Betty; once off the loom and fulled  it will  become nicely compact.

AC2016

All Wales Meeting, Llanidloes 2015

Another minor miracle - like bring-a-platter buffets which turn out to have just the right
ingredients without there being a plan - Abergele's display had a good selection of yarns, colours
and techniques. Although I didn't, Jenni did have a plan and the flow of textiles across our space represented a mountain range. Compliments were received! So, thank you everyone who put their work in. Fewer members of the public this year but guilds were out in force. Displays included a little black dress, woven boxes, unusual fibres such as yak. Ours was the only one to go Roman and use LX for 60 years on our Challenge board.

B.T.

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.

Sunday in LlanfairTH

Working from left to right:  Yvonne's new wheel; Val spinning in a very smart knitted jumper;

Hilary busy making lace; Edith spinning a beautiful dark red yarn;

Kate and Bryn suitably dressed for the occasion.

First class work on the peg loom by Kate's 4 year old daughter (joined together by Aunty)

And finally:  The Cake Picture.  Bara brith on the left, and Val's delicious orange malt loaf on the right.

Our first meeting in LlanfairTH. for a while, having had to cancel at short notice in September.  Not a huge turnout, but those who managed to come had a good and productive day.  The weather is turning colder, after a late blossoming of summer weather - we look a bit spread out in these photographs, when perhaps we should have been huddling together for warmth.  The clocks will have gone back before our next meeting.

A nice day with books and wool.

A small group of us this Sunday, but some interesting pieces for our "show and tell":

Yvonne's Möbius loop scarf, made with yarn from Katie Weston's fibre blending session:

Jenni's peg looming - going to be a nice warm seat cover:

And Alison's locker-hooked seat covers:

Both sets of seat covers show excellent ways to use spare yarn or fabric; as peg looms produce a weft-faced yarn, they certainly get through the yarn!
Bryn was busy knitting pieces for a "free-form" jacket, but didn't take any photographs of them.
We had the usual tea, cake and chat - mostly about books, for a change.  Some of us read on-line, some prefer real books, and some read so much that we need both virtual and paper pages.

(By the way, does anyone know how to post photographs direct from Gmail or Google Drive to Blogger?  It seems illogical to have to download to a PC and then upload them again. There doesn't seem to be any way to get the various bits of Google to communicate?????)
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