Why Jacob?

 I mentioned in my previous fibre based post that I was currently spinning Jacob Fleece, so why Jacob?

It's easy to spin

I can divide up the colours and blend more natural shades for my knitting

You can spin a decent gradient yarn as well.

As I will be spinning in public a lot over the next few weeks, it makes sense to concentrate on one breed as its easier to answer the questions et.

I can easily over dye the yarn ( especially the white)

Its good for hats, mitts etc

I now have around 6/700gm combed pedigree Jacob which I will blend and bag up in 60gm bags ( I like my skeins to be a minimum of 100 gm and always seem to end up discarding small bits as I spin.) and 4 skeins ready to knit.

There is a definite difference between the skeins spun from the pedigree Jacob compared to the washed fleece picked up at the guild, the pedigree fleece is softer.

I also ordered a fleece from Doreen in Aberdeen, I love her fleeces as they are always well skirted, clean and come packed in their own cotton bag.

The latest is now on the line , taking advantage of a windy sunny day even if it is a little cool.

I will pack my e-spinner bag with a book on spinning wheels to show where you could prick your finger on the great wheel etc, a picture of a Jacob sheep and probably my British Breeds T-towel.

edited 

First two skeins from the Jacob from Aberdeen.

I now have possibly enough fibre to spin and yarn to knit on my travels.

The painted town

 A quick trip out to check out some charity shops whilst Ian was off work led us to Beeston, just a few miles from home. It was a bitter day and not terribly successful on the buying front but more colourful than last time I visited.

Somebody has definitely been busy with a paint brush !!

Anyway, back to my spinning etc as another fleece has just been deliverd and I'm doing a bobbin lace demo tomorrow and need to find the practise pillows. Have a great week everybody :-)

All the fluff

 Back in January I realised that I was getting very low on white fleece, bad time of the year to buy and wash/dry it myself so when I saw a small wool mill advertising that they could sell wash and dried fleece I was understandably curious.

I contacted them asking if is was suitable for spinning and they assured me that they had spinners regularly buying the washed fleece. So I ordered some, a mule fleece and a Ryeland , in fact it was a huge Ryeland that filled three pillowcases.

                                                                       mule fleece

My favourite way to process a fleece is to use my wool combs, this gives a really easy to spin fibre but is time consuming. Unfortunately both of the fleeces have proved to be difficult to work with, both are sticky and I feel that a box picker would be a very welcome addition to my equipment at this point.

I persevered and have spun a skein from each and today I have re washed some of the mule fleece to see if it makes a difference.

                                                            mule fleece rewashed

                                               

                                             original and rewashed for comparison

I persevered and have spun a skein from each and today I have re washed some of the mule fleece to see if it makes a difference.

                                                             mule fleece spun and dyed

                                             Ryeland fleece spun and dyed

My plan had been to spin a kilo plus and then dye the skeins but I think the jury is out at the moment.

I still need spinable fibre as we have a longish road trip planned and I will be taking the e-spinner along so I bought a kilo of raw Jacob from a pedigree flock. Beautiful fleece, washed up well but lost maybe 40% or weight on washing, more on prepping but it was lovely to spin so may have ordered some more.

Then I snagged a large bag of Jacob at the last guild meeting so hopefully I will have 500/600gm prepped to pack in the van.

I also have a small bag of washed alpaca. I tried spinning alpaca maybe 10 years ago and didn't enjoy it but I'm thinking that maybe I'll try it again as it may be nice to blend with some Shetland so I'll keep you posted on that one.

I've been knitting as usual as I have a target of 10 of each (hats, mitts and headbands) and I'm nearly there in spite of keeping two hats back for myself and selling a hat and two pairs of mitts just before Christmas.

                                                            plus a couple of kilo of yarn

As usual, I've been stitching on a couple of stitch a long challenges ( one is more up to date than the other) and I will pack these in the van along with my knitting.

As I'm writing, the Met office have just issued snow warnings which probably won't impact us here but may possibly put a spanner in the works for my upcoming visit to the Buxton wool gathering. I am crossing just about everything at the moment 😀

First run out of the year.

 The plan was to go to Poolsbrook Park campsite, I checked the availability, no problems, went in to book and someone swiped the Saturday night pitch from under me ! So back to the drawing board. Eventually we decided to stay close to home and found a site near Retford, £21 per night plus electric.

This is the first time that we have had a prepayment meter on the pitch so opted to pop £20 on (we knew that we would be refunded any remaining credit) as we needed to charge leisure our batteries from empty and we would be using our small fan heater in the evenings.

The nearest bus stop was just up the road and the current national bus fare of £2 made it easy to travel into Retford for the day.

As usual, we trolled round the charity shops ( a few dvds were purchased) and shopped for some bits and bobs that have been running low in the van. We were very impressed by the wall painting relating to the historic sheep fairs., painted in 2018 by Retford Art Society painters it makes an eye stopping addition to the town.

We wondered down the the canal to have a look at the lock.

As we turned to leave the canal, I noticed another painted building hiding behind a rather large motorhome and car.

All in all we were pleasantly surprised by Retford especially as we had never visited before, in spite of it being so close to home.

A quick two night stay but I would imagine that we will return to this pleasant quiet campsite, and the electricity cost for the weekend was just a smudge under £5  😀

That's about it for now, crafty update next week ( I may have made a fleecy purchase or two ) 

Speak soon x

charity shop haul and a bit of crafting as promised

 Last post I made a comment about charity shops, well I was very successful over the east coast break :-) I collected some books, bobbins and even a lace making pillow.

As you can see, a few knitting needles were added to the mix at £1 per set. The bobbins and pillow were £3 and the lace related books just 50p each.

I've used the bobbins to make up a kit for a new beginner, I have so much stuff that I'm now in a position to pass things on as a complete kit to those who are interested.

I also snagged a couple of cross stitch kits to add to my rainy day collection.

Talking of cross stitch, I'm going to be doing a drop in workshop for anyone wanting to learn cross stitch and make a mothers day card at my local cafe. I've come up with a couple of easy designs, one for the total beginner on 11 count and one on 14 count that is a little more complicated.

As for my own cross stitch, I'm up to date with the tiles SAl and have just passed the halfway mark.

and like an idiot, I signed up for the Fox and Rabbit Royal Garden sal which has monthly parts. I signed up half way through Jan so I'm rather behind at the moment.

As usual I've been knitting and spinning, four pairs of mitts and 3 skeins of yarn but it was all washed and packed before I realised that I hadn't taken a photo ! still, I'm sure you know what it looks like :-)

I managed to attend a bobbin lace drop in day and introduced a friend to the local Guild of weavers, spinners and dyers.

That's about it for now, we are busy booking campsites and the odd festival ready for the warmer weather and I've also booked a small fibre festival next month.

Speak soon

xx

First trip of the year (warning, long post)

 We have just got back from our first trip of 2023, cheated a little by taking the car and staying in a Premier hotel but looking at the figures using the van wouldn't have been much cheaper especially taking bus/taxi fares into account.

We were once again based in Bridlington and another reason for having the car meant that we could have a look round the surrounding area more easily.

We finally reached the coast  on Thursday after popping into the motorhome dealership to book a service and some other bits and bobs and the bike shop to book a service after which we were hoping that we would have some money left! 

The bay windows on the older houses always remind me of the ones in Cromer.

The post box had a trio of sailors on it, I'm not sure who is responsible but I had heard that there are one or two knitting groups around.

We had a good trawl around the charity shops, picked up one or two bargains which I will share in the next crafty post.

We stopped off at the pavilion to admire the wrought iron work, grab a bite to eat and watch the sun set.

The street lights were on by the time we left making the sky much more dramatic.

The next day, after stuffing ourselves with breakfast, we headed out to Hornsea which is famous for the pottery produced there until 2000 although it is probably best remembered from the 50s-70s. The museum was closed but we will return to visit sometime.

I found a lovely little craft shop called Dizzy Birds ( the owner was lovely) and I suspect that I will be going back again at some point.

We also found one of the many puffins scattered around the coast, I think they are around until the end of March. The local charity shop may have made a few bob out of me as we staggered back to the car with a couple of bags of goodies !

Our next stop was Withernsea which unfortunately seems to be suffering like a lot of towns from lack of funding, closed shops and looking a bit shabby. I know its winter but after Hornsea it was quite noticeable. Also very obvious was the lack of the pier, there was one once but it was very short lived and after several boats hit it, it was torn down leaving just the stone towers at the entrance.

See Withernsea in pictures for details of the history and plans to redevelop the little that remains into pleasant seating and viewing area.

The lighthouse still remains as a museum and you can climb the stairs to the top, apparently there are 144 of them !

We returned to Bridlington for another attempt to capture a sunset.

Saturday saw us traveling North to Filey, past the sheepy roundabout ( I'd forgotten about this) and managing to park on the sea front.

Ronald Falck was well known as a sculptor.  One of his most recognized works is  'The Dotterel Shepherd Dog & Sheep' located on the A165 Scarborough to Bridlington Reighton roundabout.

At the end of the front was a scale model of an aircraft to commemorate the flight of the Blackburn Mercury Mk1/2 from Filey to Scarborough in 1911 along with a model Edwardian beach hut.

After a quick visit to the local craft/wood/ model kits shop we travelled back down to flamborough just outside Bridlington to see their lighthouse. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the old lightthouse but I'm sure we will be back as there is a cafe at the end of the road :-)

BTW, if any of my old biker mates see this, there is hardstanding free parking for bikes behind the toilets in the car park.

Back in Brid the frost hadn't thawed at all so it was time for a cuppa in the Spa and watch the boats head in on the tide.

All in all it was a wonderful break inspite of the temperatures hovering around zero for most of it, the drive back was like a winter wonderland with a heavy frost but sadly my camera picked up only a little of it as we travelled.

Thats all for now, sorry its been a long travel post, more of the usual crafty nonsense next time xx