28 August: Wild Yarn

The Wild Fibre was plyed with the pale yellow single. There wasn't enough of the yellow, so the rest was plyed with a black Shetland single left over from the other batch of Wild Fibre. Here's the result -


There's a total of 183 gms of yarn there - what shall become of it?

There was another bag of fibre, which was plyed with black Shetland, producing this somewhat quieter yarn -


- of which there is 156 gms. Interesting to spin, and definitely a welcome change.

26 August: Wild fibre

It was time for a bit of a change - a fawn and white fleece bought at Woolfest has been spun (in the grease, and then the skeins washed)) -


- and a black Shetland fleece, from RSPB Saltholme, has been washed (love that wet sheep smell in the bathroom!) -


- and I needed a bit of colour. So I spun a 100 gm bag of Wingham WoolWork's "Wild Fibre" -


Some basic English fibre, from P & M, has been dyed and spun to make the other ply; I have no idea how it will turn out, nor what it might be used for.

20 August: A century

My mother was born 100 years ago today. Here are some pictures of her -


In this first one she was probably about 6 or 7, and it was probably taken when she was staying with her grandfather or an aunt and uncle. Wonderful outfit! I'm not sure if the finishing touch is the lace trim round the knees of her drawers, or the ribbons tying her shoes.

The next one is perhaps a little later, but not much, as her father is wearing the uniform of the RFC, which became the RAF in 1918.


And here she is with her children, my brother and me (I'm the cute one), in 1947. Those shorts look knitted to me.

8 August: The Saltholme bags

This project started back on 27 June, when Guild members were demonstrating spinning at the RSPB place at Saltholme - they have a small flock of Shetland sheep keeping the grass short, and it was shearing day.

I returned from there with a black Shetland fleece, a black Hebridean fleece, and half a grey Shetland fleece. (To add to the 2 Shetland fleeces bought from Woolfest.) My fibre preparation skills have had a good deal of practice since then!

The grey Shetland and the black Hebridean produced some tough yarn, so weaving seemed best.The warps were arranged in groups, black at the edges, then 4 grey alternating with 4 black, then a middle section of 2 grey alternating with 2 black. 3 separate sections were woven, the first one with black and grey wefts in varying groups; one with an inch of black weft alternating with 3 inches of weft in a multi-colour wool/linen yarn; and the 3rd section with a weft consisting of one strand of black together with one strand of grey.

The first 2 sections have now been made up into bags -


The straps are the same yarns woven on the inkle loom, in a tweedy stripe for the black and grey bag, and in an interwoven pattern for the multi-coloured one - this inkle has a narrow stripe of the multi-coloured wool/linen yarn between the border and the central pattern.

Both bags are lined with home-dyed cotton fabric from the quilting stash - purple for the black and grey bag, and green for the multi-colour one. Hand-stitched.

The button box yielded a suitable large button for a closure for the black and grey bag, but a search of the Durham shops had to be undertaken for the black horn bead that forms the closure on the multi-colour one.

They will have an outing to Gateshead next month, as part of a Guild exhibition.