TDF Day 7, short and sweet

 Quickie post today, yesterday (day 7) was a spinning day, the last of the prepared Ryeland is now spun making the Ryeland total so far 400gm ish.

I took my Nano to knit and natter and finished the 25 ish gm of Bowmont. I have another knitting group later today which I rarely get chance to show my face at and will take either the Nano or my knitting. Depends on how I feel and if its raining I may not bother fighting my way into town.

Last night I settled down with the scrappy shawl, this is all oddments of Shetland spun on the Nano and left over from other projects.

last night I sorted through the bag of the Lleyn cross, this is the last of the fleece from last year. Again around 400 gm to spin.

Back to the spinning wheel :-)

TDF Day 6, Pots of tea, coffee and Museums

Today was a little different as I had to renew my museums friends membership at the Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum which is just outside Nottingham. The website link is here and this video explains things a lot better than I could.

As it was a quiet day in the museum, after a cup of coffee I was able to wander around the machine shop on my own and take photos.

and one of the machines so you can see the whole thing.

I also popped over the road to the village museum as it is only open two hours a week ! like many small museums, its an old school house containing artifacts rescued from various buildings.

The chip shop caught my eye, abandoned when the owner went to war in 1941 it was rediscovered in 1985. the owner had lived a recluse since returning and after his death, family members were astounded to find the cip shop still in the parlour exactly as he left it in 1941, fat still in the fryers, money in the till and his coat hanging up. The fryer, counter and all the other implements ar now in the museum.

The pharmacy cupboards etc were rescued from being destroyed when the chemist was refitted so they form an interesting corner.

The museum  is very hands on, things are passed down off the shelf to you, children have mole hunt map ( looking for the stuffed toys)

Looking through an assortment of pegs, dolly pegs, gypsy peg with the tin bindings, I found these. Anyone know why they have a hole in them?

A very small amount of spinning was done over coffee at the museum

TDF day 5 catch up

 Day five was an 'at home' day, household chores and admin needed attention. I even put a few more rows on the scrap shawl.

I also had chance to glance at a book that I picked up at the guild at the weekend. Its instructions to knit a gansey but more importantly it also takes you through each step by knitting a sampler ie a miniature gansey. I may just have to have a go at this :-)

The six bobbins of ryeland are now plyed, another bobbin has also been spun.

and this may be as close as I have ever come to having the same amount of yarn on each bobbin.

Day six is just starting with me packing my backpack ready to head out to a couple of local museums one of which is only open two hours a week so fingers crossed.

TDF day 4

 Good morning, yesterday (day 4) was more talk than action :-)

I spent most of the day with friends, charring, drinking tea, a little spinning but not much.

The nano has been in action as I made a start on the bowmont 

and I managed to start plying the Ryeland but after a while it seemed like a good idea to start looking for campsites for September instead haha.

Day five plan is to ply and skein the bobbins.

Future plans include a couple of trips to nearby places of interest so stay tuned x

six woolly bobbins TDF day 3

 Six woolly bobbins standing on the shelf, that could be a song :-)

Six bobbins of Ryeland waiting to be plyed , not bad for the first three days. Progress will probably be a little slower now as is back to the Nano today with some Bowmont which means fine spinning plus I could do with processing some more Ryeland.

Todays plans are to meet up with friends at a community centre as our usual Tuesday cafe venue has closed due to the state of the building.

I'm expecting some weird comments about the wheel but it may be a good tool for initiating conversation.

Had a sneaky pot of tea at Costa as I was out fetching some fresh veg yesterday, had to explain to all the young staff what I was doing, what the white stuff was etc.