Playing again

have a good weekend :-)

post carnival chill out

After the carnival we needed to chill with a large cup of coffee and sat enjoying the early evening sun, watching the world go by.



people were still playing on the beach



enjoying the rides



and the water from the fountains sparkled in the sun





Not a bad way to pass the time :-)

Caribbean Colour

Hi, on Sunday Nottingham hosted the annual Caribbean Carnival which I usually manage to miss due to bike club activities but the year I headed down with my camera and after a much needed cup of coffee I started snapping :-)







The costumes were amazing, the music loud and the little ones were adorable especially when you caught sight of a small group busy practising their dance routines.






The parade meanders around the city centre then makes its was to the Forest site where food stalls and a stage were set out. Each group in the parade also performed a dance at the end with awards for the best one.



The dance teams will also take part in other carnivals around the country.

Riverside Festival Day three, Rain Dance

The weather was iffy on Sunday with heavy rain at times but we decided to take a chance on it, picked up our wheels and headed back to the music. We had coffee and biscuits, purchased lager and cider and settled down for the afternoon.



The music was provided by dance workshops and a brass band, two of our party did not need any excuse to stop spinning and knitting and dance instead.



but the heavens opened, enableing Sue to show off the dance of the blue groundsheet whilst Wikkidknitter decided to simply hide.



but soon recovered enough to show off the latest way to wear a wheelie big bin liner and carry on dancing.



We had a great time in spite of the rain, met some interesting people and confiscated a football ( long story)

Riverside Festival Day Two

The highlight of Saturday at the Festival was watching the Nottingham Ukulele group of with Biker Ted is a member. This group has been together since September last year and have a lot of fun playing and singing together.





This was followed by a walk to the pub where we watched an amazing double rainbow form.



A walk back along by the canal



to watch some of the boat parade.



These photos were taken with my bigger camera and the difference is getting very pronounced. Thanks for the camera suggestions, I will be taking time in my local camera shops to have a play with the various makes.

Wash Day

What do you do when you have a couple of hours to spare between housework and going out? have a cup of coffee? play on Facebook?

No, you head off to your mates house to play with fleece that's in need of washing. 

First up was the Shetland cross which was duly inspected by the cat who has never come across raw fleece before, suspect he didn't like it!!

Then the blue texel better known as bear....hope to show these again once spun up.

Riverside Festival Day One

We have an annual Riverside Festival in Nottingham down by the River Trent, a mixture of music, fairground and street performers. We went down to the first evening of entertainment to see our favourite local band, Seven Little Sisters play.

As we crossed the bridge we noticed that the boats were gathering reading for the boat parade on Saturday night.

 The band had one of the best sound mixs that we have heard from them in a long time.

The stalls stayed open into the night

and the rides looked amazing all lit up.

The Festival continues all weekend and we will be having a picnic there later.

( with the wheels of course)

Nottingham by the Sea

On the way to the Guild meeting, I sneaked up on the beach and caught it still fast asleep!

Also I spotted some of Nottingham's police horses on their way to the annual Pride festival, all dressed up and shiny.

These photos have also made me realise that my camera is beginning to get a bit tired so I'm going to start to shop around for a new one, looking at a Canon at the moment, any recommendations would be welcomed.

Evicted!

At the last guild meeting we found ourselves evicted from our usual room due to the floor being waxed so we decamped outside to enjoy some rare sunshine. This proved to be an intriguing sight for users of the nearby park :-)

 As usual we were chatting, swapping fibres and drinking tea. I found myself fixing a spinning wheel which is fast becoming part of my job description. Amongst the fibres being spun was cat fur, Now I have a problem with spinning cat and dog fur, just don't like it!! more because of what it is than how it feels/spins up. However Wikkidknitter had a go and said it was fine so maybe I'm being unnecessarily squeamish?

We had a rummage through a couple of fleeces which we will hopefully wash  this weekend, one of them being this beautiful Shetland cross belonging to my mate, hard to resist pinching some of it for myself!

You may remember that I have been testing some prototype spindles for a local spindle maker. They tend to be a bit heavy for me, mostly 30gm plus but look amazing and spin for ever. I have one of the originals that I stripped down of all the metal extras ( and some of the wood) and I have used is at demos etc for the last few months, no matter what I do to it, its still spins like a dream so I have no hesitation in them being stocked in our shop.

I use one with the small holes in the whorl, this latest batch have been made without the metal collars (the bit I removed) and they have straight shafts for sliding your finished cop off.

Steve is also starting to make some spindle jewellery,  just to test the waters.

and a very interesting version on a tensioned lazy kate for spindles which I haven't tried yet.

If you want to know more about the Nottingham branch of the Weavers Spinners and Dyers you can read our newsletters on line here.