ASSOCIATION OF GUILDS STAND AT ALLY PALLY

I thought that the Middle Essex Guild members who set this up did a lovely job of setting up the stand at the knit & stitch show, and it looked great - a good advert for what we do. It was a shame that the area was a tad small this year - especially as the stand next door had a small display and no people manning it at all! however, we managed.

My goodness what a lot of interest we had on the day I was there - we had a lot of people from guilds around the country popping in to say hello, which is always fun. This year though we had an enormous resurgence of interest from people interested in taking up spinning or developing skills that hadn't been used for a while - in previous years I've never been aware of this much interest, so it's really exciting to find this happening now. In fact people were practically falling over one another at times trying to get close enough to ask questions and I'm pretty sure that it was like that on the Friday too.

HURRAH - I HAVE MY CAMERA LEAD!

It came this morning, so I shall endeavor to upload lots of pics.

I can hardly wait 'til the end of the week for the Knitting and Stitch Show at Ally Pally - I'm going Friday and Saturday. Friday I shall shop 'til I drop and Saturday I'm on the Association of Guilds' stand demonstrating. Woohoo - only another three days!

I'm busily preparing rolags so that I'll have plenty to spin - I hope to have a bag of border collie rolags, a bag of persian cat and a bag of pink rayon/angora.

RIGID HEDDLE WEAVING WITH THE GUILD

We had a guild meeting Saturday where we used the guild rigid heddle looms. Several of us keep a loom which belongs to the guild and, because we have these looms each year a workshop is done specifically for rigid heddle weaving.

This year the chosen project is a rag rug bag - I believe it's based on a pattern from Handwoven magazine - simplified for us idiot beginner weavers!

The guild member who ran the workshop put in lots of work preparing instructions suitable for non-weaving folk, finding out what colours we'd like and sourcing the yarn. She also warped up looms for people and helped others with their warping up. Besides all that she baked some lovely goodies for morning coffee and afternoon tea - so well done her - we all award her a medal.

It was a good day - everyone was in good spirits. I was the only one who hadn't warped up - so used the time to warp up and get started - I'll add photos & progress reports here as I have them.

A EULOGY ON ROLAGS

"THE ONLY NORMAL PEOPLE ARE THE ONES YOU DON'T KNOW VERY WELL" (Joe Ancis)



http://www.quotablecards.com/








I love rolags - I love the way they look and the way they feel - and, because I love them so much, I enjoy making them. In the eyes of the other members of our guild (East Herts & West Essex Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers) this makes me a very strange person indeed!





My husband & I have a little game (oh please - put your imagination away!) - I tell him to close his eyes and hold his hands out and then I drop a rolag from about a foot - it's amazing how he often can't feel the rolag land.





With the bamboo rolags that I prepared in Norfolk you could hold 30 in your hand and only feel a whisper of a fibre tickling your skin.





The bamboo rolags were deliciously tactile - soft to handle and with a delicate sheen which intensifies when they're spun.





I recently dyed a mix of Llama, silk and wool in my slow cooker - it came out of the pot in beautiful shades of sugar pink, peach, raspberry and lavender - the rolags from this were almost edible - looking at those I found it hard to imagine why anyone wouldn't just want to make rolags just to admire them in their own delightful right. (hey we all have our quirks - right?)





Of course it's quicker to spin from tops direct, even if you have to open the fibre out first, but no matter how pleasing little nests and balls of prepared tops are I have to say that, in the main, rolags win my heart.

KAFFE FASSETT TALK

Today I went to a talk and slide show by Kaffe Fassett held by the Middle Essex Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers at White Notley (near Braintree). Wow what a day! We had a free pass to the Museum at Braintree for the morning - I would most definitely recommend visiting this museum if you are interested in textiles as there's plenty here to see including quite a lot of information about Courtaulds and Warners. Not far away is the Warners textile archive which I didn't get to today but am told that it's well worth a visit - one for the future then!







The talk began at 2pm and the hall contained - well it must of been over 100 - excitable women eager to hear Kaffe Fassett talk. He provided a slide show which showed some of his inspiration and a lot of his work. He talked about how his ideas come about and proclaimed that it's so easy we could all do it! (If only we all had his special eye for mixing colour). He showed us so many things including latest designs for the Peruvian Connection (oh how I wish I could afford this stuff - beautifully designed and made - wonderful colours - ah well, maybe one far off day in the future!).

If you get a chance to see Kaffe Fassett talk do take the opportunity - he is so inspiring - I am buzzing with ideas for what to do next - watch this space!



He then showed us a selection of his samples and quilts.



After the talk we were able to buy his signed books. I desperately wanted his "Pattern Library" but by the time I got to the front they were all gone - I shall just have to see him again in the future!

If you want to see what Kaffe does visit his website at

http://www.kaffefassett.com/

and you can see his work for the Peruvian Connection at

http://www.peruvianconnection.com/

There were also displays of books published by members of the Middle Essex Guild and many lovely hand spun yarns and beautifully knitted woollies (see pic - I don't know which Middle Essex Guild Member did this but it's really lovely).





All in all a very yummy day indeed!