Spinning in the Museum Gardens (and puppy update)

We were very lucky yesterday - we had lovely weather for spinning and it's a lovely setting. A lot of people don't realise that Harlow museum has beautiful walled gardens - there's a knot garden with lavender, large lawns and paved areas with seating (where we gather to spin) and some lovely planting. I found a couple of dye plants which we may be able to use for our dyeing in October - Solidago (golden rod) and Tansy

The museum is very interesting in itself - with the Roman history of Harlow, bits on the Anglo-Saxons and a room full of exhibits for each decade of the 1900s - you will see stuff your grandma was using! The old bicycles are worth a look too.

There were only a handful of us yesterday but it was still a nice meet - we had a few newbies which was really nice and I continued to spin the yarn I started last weekend at the Sammy Rally - a blend of pink silk (from the travelling tea box) and Samoyed fur from last year's Sammy rally.

My In-laws visited the pups yesterday - they were all very good (the pups that is).

Here are number one, four and five looking much more grown up now.

SILK PAPER MAKING

I meant to post this earlier but have had flu all week. I'm still not right, but, at least in terms of relativity, am feeling much better.

Last Saturday I had a lovely day out at the Middle Essex Guild, at a silk paper making workshop run by Claire Sylvester.

We started off with decorating Christmas baubles with silk - quick and easy, we all made at least two - some made several. (I've only kept one of mine - a friend has the other). It was done using silk throwsters waste and a cellulose paste - we arranged a small square of fibres, painted the paste onto the bauble and then put it all together - then there was a certain amount of fiddling 'til it looked right (or otherwise).

Next we made sheets of paper. We used a different method for this, it was a method I've not used before so I was quite excited to try this. It was also a lot quicker and easier than I expected (I made two sheets). First we laid out a layer of gummy silk fibres on a sheet of baking parchment, then we laid another layer on top in the other direction (like wool for felt making). Next we damped it with a water spray and then sprayed dyes onto it. To finish we made a sandwich of it with another sheet of baking parchment and ironed it - the moisture and heat work with the seracin (gum) in the silk to glue it into a sheet of paper. Great fun.

The final part of the workshop was to make a bowl, this used the same method as the bauble except using more of the silk. I decided not to make a bowl and to make another sheet of paper/fabric instead. But there were many lovely bowls made.

I was also rather chuffed to find an old paper making kit on the sales table, which I brought home and am looking forward to trying when I feel more like a human being again!

FEELING FINE AND DANDY

How utterly fabulous - we've discovered that the local library has free internet access so we're not entirely cut off from the world! So here we are side by side at Wroxham Library (a delightfully friendly place) playing on our favourite websites (him on Ebay and me on Blogger/Ravelry and Etsy).

The last few days have been superbly relaxing - I've finished the morning surf scarf apart from washing and blocking and I'm stuck into the Llama, silk & wool blend that I'd dyed with logwood. It's spinning up really nicely and I've done a little tension square that looked good too - I can't post photo's here so those will follow when I get home.

OFF ON HOLS

We're off to Norfolk for a short break - I'm hoping to do lots of spinning .......and stuff while we're away so will post upon our return.

We'll be in a strange car - one that is bigger but actually has less space rather strangely. However it has air conditioning and a fab stereo and is quite nice to drive - slightly nippier than mine (well actually quite a lot nippier!)

I've prepared a heap of rolags in a fibre that's a blend of llama, silk and wool, which I dyed with logwood to a rather nice purple colour. Should be able to post a bit about this when I return.

DYEING DAY

Last Saturday (actually it's a few weeks back now - pre Irish break) our guild held a natural dyeing day at one of our members houses. The weather was a little unpredictable so, instead of dyeing and spinning in the garden, we were housed in two barns - one for dyeing and one for spinning, chatting, eating and general conviviality. There was a good turn out and we also had visitors from the Mid Herts guild which was really nice.

We arrived in the morning and got ourselves settled in with tea and coffee and some wonderful home made biscuits - yumm. Then the mordant baths were set up and we all put various bits and pieces into each bath - four mordants were used - alum, chrome, copper and tin. These were then left to work and we went off and spun or knitted or socialised or all three. I had a sock knitting lesson - which was great fun and I may have a new obsession gripping me now!

After lunch various dye baths were brewed including coccineal, cota, bracket fungus (don't know which one) hollyhock, comfrey, coreopsis, dyers chamomile and maybe a few others - actually I wasn't paying proper attention as I picked three dye baths only, and then went back to sock knitting and yattering. I had some super wash merino and silk fleece which I split and put into the coreopsis and cota dye baths and I also had some alpaca, silk and wool fleece which I put into the cochineal dye bath. In the afternoon the tea and coffee came around again - this time with the most amazing cakes - I was briefly sent to heaven with a chocolate muffin stuffed with cream and jam.

I wasn't totally happy with the coreopsis samples, so I've over dyed one piece with some ancient dye bath which I'd had in the garden - I think it may have been madder - it was a little pungent and it came up a warm brown which I was quite pleased with - I'm planning to over dye another couple of bits - hopefully with a very fresh madder dyebath - perhaps next weekend when we get back from Ireland - I'm hoping that I'll get a stronger orange - can only try.

sadly I have no pics of the actual day as my batteries were out of power - lack of planning and forethought there!

I'd hoped to post this earlier but life is a little busy right now - my in-laws have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary so it's been a very family oriented time with my niece and nephews over from Canada and brother & sister in law over from Paris and the celebrating and general getting together. Then my own father will be visiting later this week, in order to go to the cricket at the oval with my hubby. All of this means that housework needs to take precedence over spinning (and blogging) - how dull!

NEXT PROJET - ANOTHER SCARF

Having spun the bamboo fibre that I'd made into rolags I'm now mulling over what to do with it - I fancy making another scarf. I'm now spinning some cotton which I'm planning to ply with some silk yarn that I bought at Handweavers Studio. Somewhere I've got some Soy Silk so that will be next on the wheel.

I have it in my mind that I'd like to crochet a similar scarf to the last one but this time use undyed fibres of different types to create the "stripes" - then when it's all crocheted up I want to dip it in an indigo dye vat and see what happens - I have a suspicion that I may get a slight variation in each yarn so that it will end up shades of Indigo blue - it'll be fun to try - will keep you posted as it developes.

Below is a pic of the Bamboo yarn - not a very good one I'm afraid it doesn't really show the soft sheen to the yarn.

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.

WHERE TO GET YOUR FIBRE

There are many sources of fibre - it's not uncommon to find people who have a few sheep in their garden who have fleeces to find homes for - very often these fleeces are simply given away to whoever would like them - however these fleeces are frequently not the finest!

There are quite a few websites that sell fleece and tops - below are some of my favourites:

Hilltop http://www.handspin.co.uk/page2.html

P & M Woolcraft http://pmwoolcraft.co.uk/

Wingham Wool Work http://www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk/

My favourite shop is The Handweavers Studio in Walthamstow - only a short drive for me and sooo exciting to visit - I would advise taking cash only and no cards otherwise you WILL overspend! there is a website which I will find asap (but the shop's better):

http://www.geocities.com/athens/agora/9814/



It's also possible to find hand dyed fibre on ebay some ofwhich is really stunning - it's certainly worth a look.