dreaming of easier times

 Hi

We are planning a couple of getaways for later in the year in the vain hope that we will be able to get the van out of storage, hoping to get back up to Scotland at some point and maybe just a  few days at the coast more locally although I can think of some wonderful coastal campsite north of the border.

I'd love to go back here

or even here 

But that would involve a few ferries (outer Hebrides)

Still, I can visit in my imagination 😃

Anyway, Its been a different sort of week, I still haven't left the house but Ian had a weeks holiday owing so we tackled one or two small jobs around the house. The weather wasn't the best so stayed mainly inside.

At least the sunrise was colourful this morning.

Finally, a quick crafty round up.

I've been thinking about what to do with fleece and handspun other than knitting which is my usual go to. I've come up with a little list so here is number 1

Inkle weaving or sometimes called band weaving. Woven on an inkle loom with the pattern being picked by hand with each pass. The warp is continuous and this is a warp facing weave ie you don't see the thread that is on the shuttle.

This shows that path of the warp round the loom, this is only the second time that I have tried weaving with hand spun yarn, it catches in the heddle strings but not too badly.

I only have a few inches to go so it will probably be finished later today.

I have made some progress on the garden SAL and I'm currently adding the third week.

No spinning this week or knitting. I seem to have spent more time thinking than doing if you know what I mean !

My no spend on craft supplies attempt has been redrawn at £10 per month which makes a little more sense plus makes me feel better having ordered a book for the grand price of £3.27 including delivery ( thank you Prime) more about this when it arrives.

that's about all for now, take care, speak soon x

a quick break from the lace

I still have a strap on the loom, just another foot or so to finish :-)

even the pattern on the reverse is quite pleasing. see bottom of the last photo.

It's the weekend !!

Hi,
Thank goodness it's the weekend! Sometimes working full times seems a bit too much especially when you were only there for two days in the week previous due to illness.
Today is housework,  going into to town and sorting out one or two financial issues, stocking up on bird seed and trying to find times to chill.
I may buy some black card as we have some pastels at youth club and I thought we might try using them next week.
I also have a band on the loom that needs finishing and adding to the ever growing collection.

As you can see, the strap collection is growing nicely :-)

Inkle loom

It's a bit damp and grey here but I've had coffee, tidied the kitchen and got the washing machine on so I have a few mins to blog before tackling the next room.

I've not been spinning much for various reasons but I rediscovered the inkle loom and have been playing around with it for that last 9 months or so. I originally bought my first loom 3/4 years ago and like any serial fibre nut, played with it constantly for a few months then got distracted back into spinning.

I made myself a banjo strap a year or so ago and have recently been making ukulele straps, slowly perfecting the leather ends that have proved a little bit awkward

The original banjo strap, I then made a narrower strap to test out on my mandolin

then I started to play :-) 

 

please excuse the mess , I have tried to tidy up since !!

 

The project on the go at the moment involves using hand spun sari yarn that I spun at a demo a couple of years ago and has just been sitting around since. Exactly what this will become I'm not sure but the texture is interesting :-)

Well, its time to tackle the bathroom, wish me luck, speak soon, Sue x

Does anyone still read blogs?

Hi, seems ages since I  was here but 2014 turned out to be a bad year on most fronts and I ended up just sort of hibernating.

Now I'm just wondering if people still blog, still read them, is anyone reading this??

Well I suppose I'm about to find out.....?

As this is a quick post using the app on my tablet, I'm going to try and post a picture of my latest attempts at inkle weaving and will be back soon with some photos from out last trip to Scotland .

Uke Fest GB

Its taken a week but I think that we have now recovered from the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain which was held at the usual venue in Cheltenham.

There was plenty of beer, lots of ukes, 

 Some amazing artists

 a big busk with several hundred players

 and an open mic stage which proved to be too small for this group of uke lovers

I managed to make new friends and weave a mandolin strap during the weekend

I even managed to find a video on you-tube......look out for the lady holding the drop spindle in the opening scenes !
This is the third time that we have been to this festival and this was the best one so far!!

loom bands

We have tried various crafts up at the youth centre but at the moment the big trend is for loom bands. I am always amazed at the amount of excitement that a pile of small elastic bands can produce and how productive a small group of teenagers can be!!

However, I have found another use for them, they stop the threads slipping off my inkle loom when I'm warping it up and I've used them to attach my scissors and thread ready for our next trip.

The teenagers have a more traditional use :-)

I will be back soon, have a great weekend !!

weaving.....

We are off to the Ukulele festival of Great Britain soon and I usually rock up with my spinning wheel and spend the day in the cafe in Cheltenham town hall whilst he wanders off to do various workshops. At the moment we seem to be workshop free and trundling round my wheel is more difficult these days so I'm planning to take something else.

I mentioned this to one of the musicians who is playing there and he said that maybe I should take a loom this year, an inkle loom would be easier to carry and I just happen to have another celtic strap on one that was recently started.

In the Sunday, the uke players get together and busk en mass outside Waterstones in the centre of cheltenham so I thought that maybe I would hide inside somewhere like Costa with the the small loom and work on this.

well, that's the plan at the moment :-)

Summer Fair

I was back at the windmill again for their Summer Fair and the launch of their Fundraiser Appeal to replace the sails and expand the site and the science centre. Three of the  spinners and myself offered to go and demonstrate and as one of the spinners is himself a trustee of the mill we were very well looked after.

We found ourselves a space under one of the marquees to set out the wheels and an inkle loom along with the display table.

Sue and Zoe made themselves comfortable with their matching wheels... It is beginning to look like Kromski are taking over in this part of the world, mainly because of their portability and the fact that there is a dealer within 60 mile of here.

Denny did manage to fit in some spinning in spite of having other duties to perform on the day

 

The Windmill was decked out with the bunting and the strong wind made it an amazing sight as the sails whished by.

 

The display of handspun and assorted braiding caught peoples eyes as it fluttered in the wind and we all held our breaths as each dark cloud appeared but the rain came late on the day and didn't last long.

As this was the launch of the fund raising appeal, the Sheriff of Nottingham came along to add his support and have a go at the game called.............now here's the problem, I can't remember what they called it but it involved the apprentice miller John

having wet sponges

and flour

thrown at him by most of the people attending including the Sheriff!!

These events always make the Windmill buzz and once the funds are raised and the site developed more it play even more of an important part in the local community.

 

Whilst all this was happening, Zoe simply borrowed my new mitts and carried on spinning.

ikle inkle

Now people who know me will be aware of my fondness for coffee shops, somewhere to knit/spin/whatever and watch the world go by. This week it was somewhere to doodle on squared paper...

 much to the amusement of the regular staff who always take an interest in what the spinning lady is up to! I was trying to come up with a new pattern to use on the inkle loom but unfortunately I don't like the bit inside the diamonds.

I don't like the dashes that travel the centre of the weaving so tomorrow evening I will try and replace them with something else and see how that works out.

A likle inkle weaving

I've been playing on the inkle loom again, this time making wrist bands with plastic clips to put on a friend craft table next weekend. A impulse purchase of 30 balls of crochet cotton has meant that I now have a wider colour selection to play with.

On the loom at the moment...

 the collection so far....

the only problem is that I get so far with these then suddenly get the urge to do something far more complicated!!

woolly wednesday

Hi

This post may be a bit disorganised as I didn't know about Woolly Wednesday until a few hours ago! So  this is going to be a monthly round up of things woolly and is you check my side bar you will see a link to spinspiration where hopefully several bloggers will join in to share their projects and adventures. Since this is all going to happen on the first Wednesday of the month I have had to delay my post about Ludwigsburg but this may be a good thing as Bikerted is busy uploading some vids of the festival so I will be able to share the sounds as well as the sights with you.

So, what have I been up to? well I did take some knitting to Germany with us, strapped to the back of the bike with a drop spindle and an ukulele :-) Its a simple stocking stitch shawl that mainly shows off the colours of the yarn. The yarn is hand spun merino dyed by Babylonglegs purchased and spun a year or so ago. It had been sitting in my stash bag waiting for me to decide what to do with it!

An Oxford down fleece mysteriously followed me back from guild last weekend and some has now been washed, carded and is sitting ready for me to get one of the wheels out to have a good spin.

 The inkle loom has a super skinny scarf on it, merino/silk blend which may be dyed once finished.

 and the large bag on top of one if my many sewing machines is merino/baby alpaca dropped off by one of my friends at the weekend, she had promised to grab me something nice and soft and certainly did !!

I think that is possibly about it for now so I will leave you with a photo of spinners hard at work :-)

Although I suspect that, judging by the number without owners, that some of the spinners have sneaked off for a coffee!!

TTFN Guzzisue x