Lowdham Show, Part two, the sheepy bit!!

OK, so the real reason for being at the show was to do our spinning thing on behalf of the Notts branch of the Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers which makes us sound a whole lot stuffier than we really are. There were just six of us around today and unfortunately two had to leave early but it still left enough wheels to interest people in what we were doing.
Note the umbrellas , not just for decoration given the Met office forecast of heavy showers which fortunately didn't turn up until after we got home.

ermm..the two that left early had Ashford spinning wheels, these three are also Ashfords so where was my wheel, all on its own outside the tent and sulking.

I have been told off by other spinners about the state of my wheel, the dinner lady stickers are not very becoming, the other stickers just ruin it, look at the state of the wood and where is your wooden thingy that should be on the end of the bolt bit sticking out at the back??? Well, this wheel has been dragged halfway across the country on more than one occasion, its been on buses, trams, cars, trains and pulled along on a little trolley. Its been used in pubs, clubs coffee houses, art galleries, office staff rooms, fibre festivals,outdoor events, on camp sites and an ukulele festival to name just a few.

Why was my wheel sulking? because it's a Kromski?? no. it's because I was spending my time giving some tender lovin care to this..

 

And this cute little wheel belonged to the owner of theses lovely beasts :-)

Well, the rain mostly stayed away, lots of people came to see how to spin mainly because of a TV programme shown last night about spinning and weaving and we all had a good giggle including the clown who remembered us from last year when we got him spinning on a drop spindle whilst on stilts!!

Please forgive me if you have seen this picture before, all in all, a grand day out!!

Lowdham show, Part one, the flowery bits!

I've just got back from Lowdham horticutural show ( near Nottingham) where there guild have been spinning in public and avoiding the rain.(just!!) I grabbed the chance to disappear into the show Marquee for a few mins to look at the flowers and veg.

Look Hairy leaves!!

And they had a lovely section for childrens entries.

And more flowers !!

 and spikey thingies!!

coming soon, part two...the sheepy bits !!

at long last.....

The Celtic band is finished.......

eventually this will be a ukulele strap , once I have worked out how to attach it or bought the parts to do this.

I have many more projects in mind but also have a road trip looming so for once house work type stuff is going to have to be done!!

Have a great weekend xx

collectors item?

I fancied doing a bit of hand stitching tonight and reached into my box for some wool to stitch onto felt and saw this label..

so do I use it or not ?

shopping

During our wander round the festival last weekend, Bikerted spotted a book for me, well two books but I declined on one of them. This one is dated 1921/22 and is part of the collectors series.

 I think this may be my bedtime reading for a while and if I come across anything intriguing, I will share it with you.

 Also this beauty came through the door and we have been hanging our noses over it ever since.

In the mean time, I am still working on converting this

using this

into this

Only about 3 feet to go then I can play with the new patterns or would it be easier to get another loom???

Have a great weekend!!

a bit damp last weekend.

Hi
This post was going to be about the Nottingham Riverside Festival but like a complete dope I forgot to put a memory card in my camera. So all I can say is that the music was good, I did some spinning whilst in the folk tent, met hubby later in the afternoon and watched the street performers. The general idea was to go back the next day and take photos......until I saw the weather forecast!


Plan b...take two spinning wheels, one drop spindle and a set of knitting needles ( between four of us) into a local bar and chat.

The rain came down, the white spots are hail :-)

 and continued to come down

but coffee soon put things right ( and cider and beer)

We rounded the day off with a meal in the evening, perfect end to a lovely afternoon, thanks Laura, Rich and Pete xx

what I did last weekend...

Sun, picnic,music,chat,friends,bar,club,music,booze,taxi,home,happy,bed. Thanks guys xx

Down on the farm.... I spy with my little eye

a viking fighting

a girl with a very long bow

a metal bird

a chic scarecrow

chickens hiding from the sun

a man with an owl

some strange slow motion martial arts

all down at Stonebridge City Farm Grand Open Day

saturday chillin

just in case you wonder how I generally spend my Saturdays afternoons, the answer is having fun where ever we end up! today it was at Fade and the hard to find cafe in Nottingham, a pint of cider, a mug of coffee, what more do you need. erm, yes, an Inkle loom :-)

guerrilla spinners are now guerrilla weavers !!

The Beach is Back !!

Although the idea of a sunny summer seems very Alien this year, the beach is on it's way back to Nottingham City Centre.

Slowly decking, fairground rides and sand are making an appearance and hopefully the sun will come.

School holidays have just started and the opening of  the beach has been put back a day because of the bad weather that has been with us for the last few weeks.

This photo was taken yesterday with more storm clouds coming in, hopefully today the sun will shine and everything will be up and running...watch this space.

BTW I have just read my post for this evet last year which reads pretty much the same about the weather!!!

What a difference a day makes!!

The beach is BACK!!

Geting Crafty

So the day for the craft show dawned and after a quick meeting in the coffee shop we made our way down to the pub where the fair was to be held.
To be honest there were not many visitors to the fair but having previously experienced standing behind the shop stall at a craft fair in the freezing cold for a whole day and not taking a penny we felt that things could not be any worse. We had our toys, a inkle loom and a spinning wheel to play with, so we were quite happy and giggly.

So we didn't make our fortunes but we did sell some items and the verdict from Wikkidknitter was that we will do it all again!!

Whatcha knitting?

The question was asked at work when I placed two balls of yarn on the table as I emptied my bag to find my keys. Two balls of acrylic DK yarn that I had just bought from Knit Nottingham whilst dropping off some postal receipts with them, one cream and one black. Now, anyone who knows me will be aware that this is not my usual knitting material as I generally knit with my own hand spun.

So the answer to 'watcha knitting' was 'I'm not going to knit anything with it' Why do people always assume that balls of yarn=knitting, why not crochet or as in my case, weaving?

I have the urge to weave a long band with Celtic knot work on it so the next step is to sort out some new heddles for my inkle loom ( lost the last lot or maybe threw them out by accident)

The next day I turned up at my usual coffee shop before going to work with the loom ( yes, I take weaving to knit club sometimes-rebel that I am) and started to make heddles with pink cotton.

I don't like PINK!!!! says the coffee shop manager, 'it's not for you!!' I reply and enter into a conversation about weaving carpets and learn the Italian word for heddle which I promptly forgot.sorry Franco x

The heddle making continues into lunch break much to the bemusement if the young people that I work with, they have just about got their heads around seeing a spinning wheel in the staff room most Tuesdays but this is something more confusing!

I started to warp up the loom and continued this at knit club ending up with 67 threads which made the design look more like a bar code that anything else :-)

I found a pattern on the Internet although I would like to design my own at some point soon just so I can put my own 'stamp' on it.

This is the progress so far .

Having a panic

Its Wikkidknitters first craft fair tomorrow and we are both running round like mad trying to make sure that everything is ready for the big day. Every time either one of us thinks its sorted, a text comes through saying have you got ......

One of Wikkidknitters shawls will be raffled on the stall to raise funds for one of the featured charities and last night I was running round Morrisons knowing that I had seen raffle tickets for sale there somewhere but they were on the top shelf and I kept missing them. Then I had to chose which colour!!!

So I'm taking a few mins to think about calm thought before entering the fray again and to help everyone concerned, here are some pictures taken after the rain last weekend in my Mums beautiful garden.

 

Have a great weekend and I will let you know how everything went :-)