We are enjoying these demos, having the chance to speak to people about what we do and why and look forward to doing more of them
Thursday, 30 June 2011
spinnotts in action again
this time at Colston Bassett village fete where they kindly provided a marque to protect us from the rain. A lot of interest especially from people with sheep, alpacas and dogs, all asking if we could spin for them. Highlight for me was watching a grumpy little girl in a pink tutu drag a dog also dressed in a pink tutu in and out of a line of cones. Will not post the picture for obvious reasons but it did make me smile.
We are enjoying these demos, having the chance to speak to people about what we do and why and look forward to doing more of them
We are enjoying these demos, having the chance to speak to people about what we do and why and look forward to doing more of them
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Lace update
My poor lace pillow has been abandoned since I finished the bookmark commission so I have made another bookmark just to keep my fingers moving the bobbins.
I'm as happy to take my lace pillow to a cafe bar as I am to take my wheel and many of my younger friends are expressing a desire to learm. Many of these friends already spin and knit is this part of a trend to return to tradional craft skills?
((OOpps looks like this and the previous lace post came out in the wrong order, Sorry))
I'm as happy to take my lace pillow to a cafe bar as I am to take my wheel and many of my younger friends are expressing a desire to learm. Many of these friends already spin and knit is this part of a trend to return to tradional craft skills?
((OOpps looks like this and the previous lace post came out in the wrong order, Sorry))
Monday, 27 June 2011
White Rabbit and another new knitter?
As many of you know I am happy to knit, spin, and make lace pretty much anywhere as long as there is coffee and cake. So much so that I thought I would mention some of the smaller cafes in Nottingham as I find them. So the latest eatery to be explore was the White Rabbit Teahouse on Houndsgate.
A tiny cafe tucked away just out of the main throng of shops. Due to the small size I would not take the usual fluffy bits , just use it as somewhere to sit and enjoy coffee with friends. I love the flowery china and accessories, sort of reminds me of Sunday teas at my Grans when I was small.
We settled for coffee followed by breakfast and a good gossip.
What did we do for the rest of the day? we window shopped some beautiful shops , found furniture we loved but couldn't afford in Nash.
Stopping for tea in the afternoon in Lee Rosy's, I decided that it was time for my friend to learn to knit in spite of him saying that he couldn't do it!
What do you think? didn't he do well!!!!
A tiny cafe tucked away just out of the main throng of shops. Due to the small size I would not take the usual fluffy bits , just use it as somewhere to sit and enjoy coffee with friends. I love the flowery china and accessories, sort of reminds me of Sunday teas at my Grans when I was small.
We settled for coffee followed by breakfast and a good gossip.
What did we do for the rest of the day? we window shopped some beautiful shops , found furniture we loved but couldn't afford in Nash.
Stopping for tea in the afternoon in Lee Rosy's, I decided that it was time for my friend to learn to knit in spite of him saying that he couldn't do it!
What do you think? didn't he do well!!!!
Sunday, 26 June 2011
spindle spun singles update
Quick update on the dyeing experiments mentioned in this post. Remember the dyed spindle cops? well I knitted the calais shawl from them :-)
this prompted me to try a different colour scheme
progress so far ...
I'm loving the randomness of the colours and plan to try this with a 2 ply next, when I have chance to spin one :-)
this prompted me to try a different colour scheme
progress so far ...
I'm loving the randomness of the colours and plan to try this with a 2 ply next, when I have chance to spin one :-)
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Friday, 24 June 2011
Keep Calm and Carry Yarn
This year spinnotts are finding ourselves at organised events almost as often as the ones we gatecrash and we are slowly getting organised with signs and contact information for ourselves, we even have an e-mail address now.
Spinnotts on tour, although packing the car can be a work of art!!
Recently we attended Keep Calm and Carry Yarn at the HUB in Sleaford, lincolnshire. This was an event organised to highlight Knit2gether Lincs which is a collaborative knitting project which captures the inclusivity and celebration of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.
They are aiming to knit a running track and are holding knitting events around the Lincoln area. They also seem to be quite proficient at yarn bombing!
As for spinnotts, we kept up the tradition of gossip,coffee and cakes and abandoned spinning wheels.
although the navajo spindle created some interest, enough to put the coffee cups down :-)
What did I do? well a young couple came down asking for help with their wheel, apparently it had some damage in spite of them being told that it was fully working. I got to their shop to find that the flyer was lying in two pieces so improvised with some blue tape, popped the drive band onto the correct whorls and hey presto, a lovely wheel that seems to be a replica of an ashford with pencil measurement marks still very much in evidence.
After a quick lesson, the owner already spins on a spindle, all was well. A proper repair will be made soon.
Spinnotts on tour, although packing the car can be a work of art!!
Recently we attended Keep Calm and Carry Yarn at the HUB in Sleaford, lincolnshire. This was an event organised to highlight Knit2gether Lincs which is a collaborative knitting project which captures the inclusivity and celebration of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.
They are aiming to knit a running track and are holding knitting events around the Lincoln area. They also seem to be quite proficient at yarn bombing!
As for spinnotts, we kept up the tradition of gossip,coffee and cakes and abandoned spinning wheels.
although the navajo spindle created some interest, enough to put the coffee cups down :-)
What did I do? well a young couple came down asking for help with their wheel, apparently it had some damage in spite of them being told that it was fully working. I got to their shop to find that the flyer was lying in two pieces so improvised with some blue tape, popped the drive band onto the correct whorls and hey presto, a lovely wheel that seems to be a replica of an ashford with pencil measurement marks still very much in evidence.
After a quick lesson, the owner already spins on a spindle, all was well. A proper repair will be made soon.
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Nottingham in Bloom
...............................strange things have been growing in Nottingham...............
.............they are appearing all over the city
...............................apparently there are eight of them................
.....................I only found 3 of them today, may find more tomorrow...........( was distracted by coffee)
.............they are appearing all over the city
...............................apparently there are eight of them................
.....................I only found 3 of them today, may find more tomorrow...........( was distracted by coffee)
Motoguzzi lovers.
HI, just a short note to say hi to anyone wandering over from the guzzi forum where the chat has been about hand knitted jumpers :-) I'm not on the forum as haven't belonged to the guzzi club for around 14 years but we still have the Cali, much loved and used for mainly holidays and long distance rallies.
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
bad, bad, blogger (me)
nearly a month since I blogged here!!!! so sorry, been busy, been a bit under the weather. Enough of excuses! I'm back and hopefully will have a few posts up over the next few days. I will try and keep them short:-)
The weekend after the bike rally in Cornwall was a meeting of the Nottingham and District Weavers, Spinners and Dyers with the subject being Dyeing. The meeting was very much a show and tell covering some natural dyeing, acid dyes and kool aid dyeing and prompted two of us to have another get together to play with some dyes the following weekend.
( the polar bear at the back of the meeting is not a member although several comments were passed about spinning his fur)
These days we have a very active guild with a good cross section of ages and ability. Spinnotts members now act almost as an outreach group, taking our wheels and spindles out into the community as well as helping teach newcomers at guild meetings.
Sue bought in a selection of spindles made by her husband and Pete unearthed a swift from the guild cupboards which helped make short work of balling up his handspun welsh mountain wool.
Dye samples were examined and the carder pressed into service by a young member who spindle spins from fleece, each meeting becomes a major carding session for her :-)
One lovely lady bought in an American spindle that was a present, she was having a few problems using it and wondered if the spindle was at fault. Very pretty spindle with an unusual hook which kept the yarn firmly in the right place. I played, it worked, did offer to adopt it but was turned down!
I finished the day by quietly spinning at one of Nottingham's bars, such a waste when you take your wheel out to a guild meeting and don't use it!
The weekend after the bike rally in Cornwall was a meeting of the Nottingham and District Weavers, Spinners and Dyers with the subject being Dyeing. The meeting was very much a show and tell covering some natural dyeing, acid dyes and kool aid dyeing and prompted two of us to have another get together to play with some dyes the following weekend.
( the polar bear at the back of the meeting is not a member although several comments were passed about spinning his fur)
These days we have a very active guild with a good cross section of ages and ability. Spinnotts members now act almost as an outreach group, taking our wheels and spindles out into the community as well as helping teach newcomers at guild meetings.
Sue bought in a selection of spindles made by her husband and Pete unearthed a swift from the guild cupboards which helped make short work of balling up his handspun welsh mountain wool.
Dye samples were examined and the carder pressed into service by a young member who spindle spins from fleece, each meeting becomes a major carding session for her :-)
One lovely lady bought in an American spindle that was a present, she was having a few problems using it and wondered if the spindle was at fault. Very pretty spindle with an unusual hook which kept the yarn firmly in the right place. I played, it worked, did offer to adopt it but was turned down!
I finished the day by quietly spinning at one of Nottingham's bars, such a waste when you take your wheel out to a guild meeting and don't use it!
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