Wet and soggy.....

Hi,
Last Saturday we went over to East Bridgford Village show to provide a spinning demo for a friend who has a nearby farm and always shows a few animals for the children.

The weather forecast was bad and the ground already soggy from days of rain. The fire engine drove onto the showground and promptly sank into the mud even before the rain had started. Fortunately this being a village show  meant there was a display section labelled tractors and the owners were more than willing to see which one was capable of pulling a fire engine. In the end it took three of them to pull it out.

We started off sat on a rug in front of the sheep pen. The gate opened at  11 on the dot as did the skies and we beat a hasty retreat under a large canopy.

This set the theme for the day, dark skies and very heavy showers.

The animals proved to be a big draw as usual, the sheep greeted most visitors except when it was raining. This prompted questions.. why don't you put the sheep under cover. ..look at that brown one ! 'That brown one' was actually a miniature Shetland pony and actually smaller than a sheep and in a separate enclosure. Although this wasn't helped by a certain person trying to convince people that she was a rare breed sheep.

We were kept very busy as the local primary school had just reached the part of the syllabus that deals with textiles..spinning, weaving with cotton and wool.
So the day was spent explaining the workings of the wheel, showing how the fibre twists together with how to use a drop spindle. All the young people went away with a sample of hand spun and some tried out the drop spindle. Parents took photos of the wheels and spinners for their children to take into school.

In spite of the weather,  we all had a good time, ate tea and cake and amazing cheese and leek pasties. Hopefully we will be at the next show at Lowdham.

TDF......It's that time of year again........

So the wheels of the bikes are turning around France as the Tour de France enters its 3rd day, which means that spinners around the world are following and taking part in their own challenge ,the Tour de Fleece. This is really a personal challenge, learn a new technique, spin everyday, learn to use a drop spindle etc. The spinners teams are based on Ravelry and the entrants post their progress daily. I use this as a chance to spin a little each day, work on my techniques and use up some of the fleece that I have stashed away.
The big event started on Saturday, most spinners watch the racing as they spin but not me, no TV in the household so I just spin where ever I am. So the start of the race saw me at East Bridgford show, a Small village show outside Nottingham with my friend Nina and her family and her sheep.

Yep, that's my place, surrounded by fleece, yarn and sheep!! BBC TV had shown a programme about shepherding in Peru the previous night which became the main topic of conversation for the day. Apart from the lady who told her grandchildren that I was knitting ! most people sort of knew what I was doing but said that they had never seen anyone do it in real life.

We occasional breaks to wander round and we popped into the produce tent where Nina's husband had won first prize for his eggs.

The last photo is from the categories for floating flower heads in water? The flowers were beautiful and many of the displays very original.

AS it was also Armed Forces Day we were lucky enough to see a selection of planes fly past. I missed the large formation on its way back from flying over the celebrations in Nottingham, wasn't expecting to see It so didn't have the camera handy, but I did catch a couple of others later.

So for anyone following the TDF for spinners....day one spinning

Romney fleece on the wheel :-)