Woolly Wednesday

So here we are again with a round up of all things fiberey :-) Its been a bit of a busy month so normal blog posts have been a bit hit and miss but I have a few in mind and hopefully by the time you read this ( I'm writing slightly in advance as I have a free hour to play with) there will have been a little more activity.
So, what have I been up to over the last month? well do you remember this?

 well this the progress so far....need to wash some more now

just short of 350gm spun so far, nice easy spin, sort of aran weight

We had the opportunity to attend the Ashfield Guild Hospitality Day with other members of our Guild and the spinnotts team and I almost came away without buying anything but succumbed to 3 balls of blue crochet cotton from the bargain table to use on my inkle loom.

 Pete (aka Wikkidknitter) gave a helping hand and advice to two new spinners.

and Tabs gave us a quick demonstration of how to spin and make it look easy :-)

I sort of fell in love with a couple if wheels which I'm going to blog about separately with plenty of pictures.

Back on the wheel has been some of last years Bond, one full bobbin and hopefully enough left to fill another later this week. I'm supposed to be doing a demo next weekend ( last weekend was a 1940's weekend so I pitched up with my spinning wheel as hubby was playing with the uke orchestra) and have decided that rather than revert to spinning tops I would start to prep the Shetland fleece that has been stashed away for the last few months.

 some vegetation but most should shake out

 nice fleece, well sheared but oh my! look at these tips!!

this is going to be a challenge!

 thankfully looks better after a good wash

So this is now my ongoing challenge for the next month!!

So, what have you all been up to??

Ukeing around

My other half has been very busy, out and about with the Nottingham Ukulele Orchestra recently in spite of the bad weather.

Here they are playing on a very soggy Saturday, the view from their side of the tent was fine....

 not so the view from the audience side !!!

still, it kept the rain off!!!

Here they are at a recent 1940s weekend.

mmmm... I wonder who that is in the bowler hat ?

Flapping around

A different subject....Birds!!

I recently visited a craft fair in West Bridgford to give my support to the Nottingham Ukulele Orchestra who were due to appear there despite the pouring rain when my attention was distracted by these gorgeous creatures.

 



 






Well Done Kilton Raptor rescue centre for looking after these birds.

playing catch up

Hi, its been a while but I'm going to play catch up with the next few posts and there will be a FIBRE heavy post on Woolly Wednesday in a few days time. In the meantime here are some photos from a recent small craft fair that I attended with Wikkidknitter. I did think that I had a photo of each stall but must have got distracted halfway round so big apologises to the ones I've missed out and I will try to put links to your sites at the bottom of this post.

First out of the bag is my friend Libby and I really love her work :-) She blogs under the name LilyBelle likes sewing and her new blog is called The Sewing Box, and introduces her quirky style of embroidery.

Next we have Leanne of Buffer Zone Nails who did a marvellous job of organising the show, these are Leannes hand painted nail sets, just the thing for Christmas.

Unfortunately, not one of my best photos :-( however this is Wikkidknitter with his amazing beaded Jewellery. It's not ofter that I wish that I had both ears pierced for earrings but the drop earrings are gorgeous.

This is Claires stall, Pinky and Boo, pretty crochet flower broaches, sewing baskets pin cushions, aprons and many other delights.

More Jewellery was on Sale made by Emma and I'm pleased to say that she remembered to take photos of the other stalls which can be found here Emma Ruth Jones

So, apologies to Perfidious Jewellery,  
                            To Vintage and Beyond
                            Toyz N the Hood
So sorry that I don't have photos but why not check out their sites?

A likle inkle weaving

I've been playing on the inkle loom again, this time making wrist bands with plastic clips to put on a friend craft table next weekend. A impulse purchase of 30 balls of crochet cotton has meant that I now have a wider colour selection to play with.

On the loom at the moment...

 the collection so far....

the only problem is that I get so far with these then suddenly get the urge to do something far more complicated!!

more from Venezianische Messe 2012

Hi, a few more photos and vids. Although it was early September, the temperature was hitting the eighties and I really felt for some of these guys. They were dressed up all day and spent a lot of time posing for the cameras and wearing the masks they couldn't even grab a drink and they do it all for fun.






the entertainment was vary varied from tradional Italian folk to a Zorb act onvolving a lot of fire !

The detail on some of the costumes was amazing and reflected the hours of work put into them.

 This peacock costume even had peacock shoes !!

So I will leave you with a video, this was advertising as a balance act so I had visions of  a tightrope act or the Chinese style balancing chairs on your head sort of thing. Nothing prepared me for this !!



Again thanks to Bikerted for the film.

Why, Hello there

Seems ages since I've posted here, well a couple of weeks or so, but I've been under the influence of a virus and simply haven't had the energy to come up with the words and pictures.
I think I left promising pictures of Venezianische Messe 2012 which took place in Ludwigsburg in Germany in September, weekend of venetian style carnival, masks and music. Amazing costumes, many of which were homemade and speaking to local people it became apparent that some visitors actually bring a selection of costumes to change into.
The whole event kicked off on the Friday evening with a procession of over a thousand revellers walking through the streets from the train station to the town square.

We had a good vantage point, the local subway bar was empty and in the 1st floor:-) The crowd made its way into the square and after a prouncment by the local speech, the fun started. The first act to get under way was Teatr na Choduljach, a stilt act from Ukraine.

 Thanks to Bikerted for the video.

More photos and vids to follow, have a great weekend.

woolly wednesday

Hi

This post may be a bit disorganised as I didn't know about Woolly Wednesday until a few hours ago! So  this is going to be a monthly round up of things woolly and is you check my side bar you will see a link to spinspiration where hopefully several bloggers will join in to share their projects and adventures. Since this is all going to happen on the first Wednesday of the month I have had to delay my post about Ludwigsburg but this may be a good thing as Bikerted is busy uploading some vids of the festival so I will be able to share the sounds as well as the sights with you.

So, what have I been up to? well I did take some knitting to Germany with us, strapped to the back of the bike with a drop spindle and an ukulele :-) Its a simple stocking stitch shawl that mainly shows off the colours of the yarn. The yarn is hand spun merino dyed by Babylonglegs purchased and spun a year or so ago. It had been sitting in my stash bag waiting for me to decide what to do with it!

An Oxford down fleece mysteriously followed me back from guild last weekend and some has now been washed, carded and is sitting ready for me to get one of the wheels out to have a good spin.

 The inkle loom has a super skinny scarf on it, merino/silk blend which may be dyed once finished.

 and the large bag on top of one if my many sewing machines is merino/baby alpaca dropped off by one of my friends at the weekend, she had promised to grab me something nice and soft and certainly did !!

I think that is possibly about it for now so I will leave you with a photo of spinners hard at work :-)

Although I suspect that, judging by the number without owners, that some of the spinners have sneaked off for a coffee!!

TTFN Guzzisue x