Mmmmmm! Leftovers

The question that all spinners face from time to time is what to do with leftover fibres?  Fill cushions? Run it through the trees for birds to use in their nests? What if it is hand dyed and ever so slightly felted?  What if it looks like this!

Well I liked this dye lot and had spun wool that was sold, with these being the leftovers. (Possibly could think of another way to describe them).

I decided to spin the fibres very thinly. I didnt check it wpi because I did want to spin freely but it's pretty much ended up being 4ply.  It was easy TV watching, no pressure, chatty spinning and great fun  Here are the singles still on bobbins and here is the skein.  Lovely, but not very much of it.

So I'm going to use if for a piece of textile artwork, I have a friend who is a screen printer and teacher and we're going to do some experiments and hopefully do some brainstorming and see what we can create.  Easter holidays are hurtling towards us so the college where she teaches will be completely free of students, allowing us time and facilities for our cunning plan.  That is the plan, unless gossip and coffee gets in the way.  I will keep you informed.  About the artwork.  Not the gossip.

The last spinning workshop at Knit-Wise went very well with the next one being on April 16th.  We're hoping to start a spin n chat (?), treadle n talk (?), each Wednesday, with biscuits and coffee and at only £2 per session it's a steal.  Anyone interested can turn up or call Myra at Knit-Wise for more information.

Knit-Wise                01695 580 590
Church Street
Ormskirk
Lancs
L39

Bowland Wool - Yum!!

The last few weeks have consisted of a lovely weekly hospital stay where the daily treatment consisted of free Jeremy Kyle (why, NHS why?), a spinning workshop at Knit-Wise in Ormskirk and a very interesting visit to Bowland Wool.

Our first Knit-Wise workshop was great fun, the ladies went home at the end of a loud day (laughing, not swearing) with a lovely skein of wool which Rennie said she would frame.  We should all frame our first skein, don't you think? And I would have done if my dog hadn't ragged it all over the place.  Although as it was my very first skein, it didn't look much different after she had finished than it did before!

The weather has started to pick up now, although it's still cold, and we made a start on the field!  It's a small miracle but we got our little plough out, which I think could have previously been owned by Noah himself and with the help of the weight of a small child we managed to plough over the field.  And then we found that if the small child drove the mower, the weight of a large man would make all the difference.

So our first beds are in, separated by laminate flooring boards and a bamboo wigwam.  We're ready to go.  Only another eight or so beds to put in and we may have the start of a kitchen and dye plant garden.

Last week's highlight was a visit to Bowland Wool in the forest of Bowland in Lancashire which is the most beautiful area to visit.  The land is owned by the Queen don't you know.  She allowed us access as long as we put our best accents on and promised not to touch.

Bowland Wool is run by Rosemary Johnson, who is championing the wool from Bowland Farmers.  The wool is Bluefaced Leicester, which is a favourite of mine because of the staple, which makes it easy to spin and it is also less irritating to the skin, so people who don't normally like wool on their skin can ofter tolerate BFL.  The palette she has chosen is lovely, muted, classic shades that will knit up beautfully.

She is passionate about keeping all the textile crafts alive and so there are workshops on quilting, knitting, dressmaking, and now spinning, as I will be running a workshop on the 9th of April!  There is also lots going on over the Easter holidays and I will post more nearer the time.  It would be lovely to meet any of you.

I would really recommend a visit to the area if you're looking for somewhere interesting or inspiring for a day out..  The countryside is just so beautiful, the forest of Bowland is famous for it's food.  Of course there is the Inn at Whitewell to visit for a meal, and then to Rosemary at Bowland Wool for your fix of all things textile.  Go on, you know you want to!

Kettledrum,

Root Hill Estate Yard,

Whitewell Road

Dunsop Bridge

BB7 3AY
01200 448005

Spot the Difference

I love playing Spot the Difference and here is this weeks competition between the garden last blog and all the work we've been able to do since then. That's right. Big fat none! That's because it's done nothing but rain all week. We're at the point of developing webbed feet here in the North West (no comments please).



So all I'm able to do is tell you what we would have done. I'm following the cutting garden plan in Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden book for a small garden, even though ours is quite big. I've decided to double up the plan and have one half of the area cutting garden and the other half veg. In Sarah's plan she has four sections of flowers with a sweet pea wigwam. I plan to have a mirror image of veg with a pea and bean wigwam in the middle. And a little extra section with be for the dye plants, although some of them, eg marigolds, cosmos and sunflowers will already be in the other areas. It's an excellent, do-able plan in my head.



On the spinning front, I've finished the alpaca yarn and it was good to have a change. I'm really pleased with the colour of it and the way it has plied and I get a real kick out of spinning from an animal that I've seen and heard the name of. And supporting small suppliers, especially as passionate as Skye House are about their animals is a great thing to do.





My next project is a Bluefaced Leicester/Silk mix which I've dyed myself. I don't know about you but while I'm finishing the last skeins of my previous fibres, I'm extremely impatient to start the new one and this pink pile has been winking at me for a little while. Its really good to get back to my all time favourite BFL too. This is the first bobbin in all it's pink glory.

And the alpaca, in the wrong order, but believe me, it's too difficult to start again!

Finally, here is a photo of our dog Brodie, taken by my daughter whose dream it is to be a photographer.  Who says dogs can't laugh?

See you soon x

 

 

 

 

 

Wellies anyone?

This week I've been preparing knitting kits using handspun wool. I think that some people are a little bit afraid of handspun so I've been putting together small amounts of handspun to go with our flower pattern which is available for free through lazyate on Ravelry or if you would like it, send me a message and I will send it to you for free.

I've also been spinning this beautiful alpaca fibre which after spinning Bluefaced Leicester for so long was so different. The staple is much shorter and I found that if I turned the fibre round in my hand it would spin in a much more even way. Any change of fibre takes a little while to get used to but it's usually worth it.

I'm sure you'll agree that the colour of the fibre is just beautiful, those honey shades are melt in the mouth and it spins up to a very evenly coloured fibre. My alpaca was available from Skye House Alpacas which is run from the wilds of Cumbria. They have a small herd of about 35 of these beautiful gentle and timid creatures and I would definately recommend having a go if you haven't spun alpaca before.

I don't know if the camera has picked up the light blue and green shades here in this skein, look carefully, squint a bit and you can see it. This skein would sell for about £8 which for 100g is a fair price, in case you fancy knitting without the spinning palaver.

Also, this weekend we intend to begin work on our land. This is the state of the area now which we hope will be completely transformed by the summer when we will have a mixture of cutting garden, vegetables and dye plants. As you can see from the top photo, we definatley have our work cut out.

I'm hoping that by posting this picture I will be shamed into getting my wellies on and my fingernails filthy and get something done! I'm hoping to be able to do some dyeing classes, both natural and acid dyeing outside in the field along with lunch on the barge. But there's going to have to be some hard graft up until then. Watch this slightly apprehensive space

On the blog again

Its been a full year since I planned to start blogging again, and as is blatantly obvious, I didn't continue. I had been working as a textile teacher in a City Learning Centre in Liverpool and I absolutely loved it, I know there are no excuses but Lazykate took a back seat for a little while.

Then, in July last year, due to government cut backs, the centre was closed and we, like many were made redundant. Which left me more time to devote to the spinning and dyeing and I fell in love with it all over again.

Dyeing yarn and spinning is verging on a magical experience, and to quote Forrest Gump - you never know what you're gonna get. I'm running spinning courses once a month, starting on 19th February 2011 at Knit-Wise knitting shop in Ormskirk which is a lovely friendly place, with tea, coffee and buscuits and I might even persuade my daughter to provide us with cupcakes! If you're interested, you can call me on 07929048856 or call the shop directly on 01695 580 590 and speak to Myra. Ill give more information nearer the time.

I also have handspun yarn on sale and a free pattern to go with it for anyone who is a little bit afraid of giving handspun a go. Here's a few pictures just to give an idea of what we have on offer. If you would like the patterns for these items, let me know and I will send one over.

Speak soon. x

New Year New Start

It is unbelievably cold in England at the moment and particularly cold in the North West. We are frozen into the canal and can't get down to fill up with water so Himself spends most of his time up and down the garden to the house at the top with a water barrel filling it up. I have to admit my hair may be crawling off my head to wash itself if I don't get a move on. Luckily we have a key to the local showers and I can nip down there later.

The move onto the barge was much more stressful than we thought it would be, with flu and conjunctivitus among two of our afflictions, but we had a lot of support and slowly we are getting things resembling a normal household. (Curtains in the bedroom rather than bin liners will be a bonus!)

Anyway, at the book launch of A Stitch in Time I had a really nice chat with Jane Waller who was very insistent that 4ply is the way forward. You need less so it is economical, which lets face it we could all do with and it is nice to spin with the view of wearing something a least a little bit fitted and feminine rather than waddling round like some kind of michelin man in our chunky chunky knits! So, this is what I am spinning at the moment.

Jinny has a new pattern up her sleeve. It has turned into a little bit of a labour of love and been undone and re-knitted plenty but it seems like she has it beaten into submission. We just need the pattern to be checked and we should be ready to go with it.

So, we're all enthusiastic for new patterns, new fibres etc, lets hope we can avoid freezing to death so we can accomplish some of it! Keep warm!

We have lift off!!

Well I didn't think that this day would come, it's been over two years since we decided to sell up and move onto a widebeam barge. Ophir, our new home was delivered last Wednesday, we all held our breath as the crane lifted it into the marina and then we sailed(possibly not the right word) down the canal to our new mooring where we are fitting it out inside.

Since then obviously, Britain has turned into Antartica, our daughter has flu, we have colds, no curtains, they say that moving house is one of the most stressful things.... they weren't kidding! We have until the 10th of December and then we have to leave our rented house. Gin and tonic anyone?

Anyway, here are a few pics of the launch, it is such a beautiful boat and our mooring is so peaceful, we fed swans from Jessamy's window, these are the things that are making it all worthwhile at the moment.




On the textile front, we have amended the error on the D'arcy Spice Beret and apologise once again, Jinny and I hope you enjoy knitting it, lets face it , we could all do with a knitted hat at the moment!