Guild weaving day

 Last Saturday was guild weaving day although for me it was a bit of a struggle first thing. I woke up, checked the time with Ian who told me it was twenty to seven on the heating clock ( which is 10 min slow) No panic then until I picked up my phone and found out that it was actually 10 to eight !!

It appears that the heating clock had switched to daylight saving time a day early. The next hour was a mad rush to get up, shower, sort my stuff, realise that my inkle loom will no longer fit in the bus luggage compartments on the new bus, grab knitting and e- spinner instead and catch the bus into town.

Why so early? well, my Guild day starts with coffee and breakfast in town as my treat.

Anyway, I forgot to pick up my ear buds and thought I had forgotten my wallet so had to detour to the bank to pick up some cash for the charity sale table,

Nottingham seems to be torn between getting ready for Christmas and Halloween.

After breakfast ( I do like to sit and look out of the window ), I got stuck in a traffic jam, stuck at the rail crossing, and diverted from the normal bus route,

 I eventually arrived at the Guild meeting a little late.
Most people had already set up and there were plenty of looms to have a look at and have a go on.

I may have acquired a new to me loom as well but more about that in another post.

Speak soon x

craftiness abounds

 In-between the knitting and spinning , I have been busy playing with different things. We had a cross stitch session in the local cafe to make mothers day cards.

Followed by a lace making day with the demo pillows out for people to try, so busy that I forgot to take a photo but here is the progress on my own lace.

then I took my inkle loom down to the cafe to show how I make ukulele straps.

and even made it to a local guild meeting.

My cross stitch progress has been slow but I'm working on the big black thing whenever I get chance.

That about it craft wise, I'm trying to avoid the temptation of buying more fleece at the moment ! 

weather change

 Hi,

Yep, we finally had some snow worth mentioning. You have to remember that in parts of the UK, even 1cm of snow sparks excitement, I'm not sure that we had any around here last winter but yesterday this happened.

We had a couple of inches or so, enough to make the local kids head down to the school playing fields which have a good slope on them. 

Crafty endeavors this week? some fibre prep 

about 100gm of jacob which empties another of my many fleece filled pillowslips.

The inkle weaving is finished so I'm experimenting with some 'holes' and the next this will to be to see if I still have a bag of random buckles tucked away.

I forgot to show this last week, I'm intrigued by this style of sampler and found this chart on gazette 94 blog.

My book arrived.

Bargain for the price :-)

Since I bought my new desktop computer back in 2016. I haven't bothered replacing the paint programs  like paint shop pro and corel. I just couldn't be bothered and frankly lost interest in that side of things for a while. 

This week I downloaded Gimp just out of interest after finding a couple of pieces of my design work from way back when. I had a play with a couple of photos to try and find my way around the settings.

and this one of a peat stack I particularly like

The next experiment was to tackle one of my designs.

Now this is fun!!

I suspect I will be playing with this for a while :-)

That's about it for this week,, take care, speak soon xx

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.

Easter plans

Hi

I've been full of cold this week and I'm actually really grateful for the fact that I don't work on bank holidays! , today's challenge is to sort out the mess that we call home and to finish some weaving since the rain seems to have set in for the day.

The latest strap is nearly finished which gives me around six that need finishing off and the crowd of ukulele ladies is growing ever bigger :-)

Do any of you have etsy or folksy shops?  I could do with some sort of online sales presence but really small scale as I'm often asked if I sell on line but up to now I've not ventured down that avenue. Any advice would be welcomed. 

Anyway, it's 8 in the morning and I'm off to start tackling this....

Who knows what I may find !!!

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