Sheepfest & Radio Fame!

What a turn up for the books!  I was at Sheepfest in Clitheroe, Lancashire on Saturday for a festival in the town which involved all the schools and local businesses decorating (wooden) sheep.  We had our own little lamb advertising Lazykate and Bowland Wool.  I don't have any pics unfortunately of Larry, we didn't want other sheep to feel inadequate.  I do however have one of our stall.  This is about five minutes before the heavens opened for the whole bloomin' day.

I also achieved my five minutes of fame playing a sheepy game on Radio Lancashire.  Fame and fortune beckons as they have asked me back next Thursday 19th May for a slot on the afternoon show, doing some spinning and felting.  Feel excited and absolutely horrified in equal measures.  Don't tell anyone tho!

I've dyed some Blueface Leciester and silk fibres, some to sell and some to spin to go in kits.  It's looking good even though I say so myself and it's great to have everything drying so quickly.

One of our patterns on Knit on the Net is this one which was knitted up in a chunky yarn.  I like it but it might be a little bit sudden for a lot of little girls rooms, so I thought of knitting it up in the pink BFL/silk.  If I spin it as four ply, then the cushion would be smaller but nicer I think.  I'll spin it up first and knit it, and as my knitting speed is slow and stop, if you could keep all this information in mind for the next four months!  It will possibly be ready then.

Well seeing as this post is all a bit pinky/purply here is an example of the felt I'll be making at the felting classes we're going to run at Knit-Wise in Ormskirk. I'll post details of times etc as soon as they are finalised. We thought it would be nice to do classes at the weekend, but also run them for mums/girls/nans through the holidays.  It's always nice to have a bit of bonding.

Speak soon

Please like me

I can't believe time has gone so quickly, but my brain has definitley hit near explosion as I try to get to grips with a new Folksy shop, facebook and stumbleupon.  I'm loving and hating them all in equal measure and spending my days running to check if any more people liked me than five minutes ago.  If I get 25 likes I can do something special, which I haven't worked out yet.

So, if you're passing facebook or folksy, please give my page the once over.  Just think how happy you will make this little sad spinner.  If I can post a link I will.  Just give me a few weeks to work it out.

www.folksy.com/shops/lazykate

www.facebook.com/lazykate8

I'm at Clitheroe castle this weekend, thats the 7th for Sheepfest which sounds like it's good fun.  The town dress up sheep, cardboard ones that is (perhaps real ones too but lets leave that there).

I think this is from one of the local schools.  Bowland Wool will have their own sheep that Rosemary is decorating.  I'll take a photo and post it next time.  It's all very strange.

I'll be selling my handspun wool and also fibres but I also have some lovely knitting needle boxes as well as some kits of my own and also from Bowland Wool.  If theres any room at the table I might even take my wheel so brave people can have a go.

I was interested to see Knit on the Net has been relaunched.  For any who don't know, its on online UK knitting zine which has been published quarterly for a few years now.  Although they are now charging for the patterns they feature, there are archived patterns, which include a few of ours for you to download.

This summer vest is entitled Looby Loo and is knitted from handspun silk.

And this chunky beret, D'arcy Spice is in our Eliza yarn, which is still available now.

www.knitonthenet.com

Hopefully see you at Clitheroe. (There's a fab sausage shop there too, as if you needed more incentives) x

My first image has to be this - my friend Shirley has knitted up this bunting, with the word SPINNING on each flag.  She used my own handspun for each flag and it will be used for a window display at Knit-Wise in Ormskirk.  I'm so pleased with it I can't tell you. She's a bloomin marvel!  This photo was taken pretty quickly while we tried to avoid it being blown off the top of the boat in the wind!

With the arrival of some beautiful weather last week, I got back to the dye pot.  It was lovely to get back to having a washing line full of fibres in fab colours.  I experimented particularly with this one and I wasn't sure whether it would look good once spun.  My original plan was to sell it for spinning fibres but I was too curious to let it go so I've spun it myself.  Can't help it!  As I was spinning the singles, I was a little bit worried that it was going to look good, but I shouldn't have worried, it's come out lovely.

The spun yarn is deeper than the photos give the impression of, more gold and burgundy.  I'm really pleased with it, but I do need to stop wanting to spin everything myself.

I didn't get to Wonderwool Wales as I was teaching and manning the shop at Bowland Wool in the forest of Bowland.  It was such a beautiful day to be in spectacular surroundings.  I had just one student, Debbie who spun Bluefaced Leciester on her first bobbin, but, during the break went home to bring one of her own Alpaca fleeces back to spin.  It was such gorgeous fibre, light and soft, from Ellie the Alpaca.  With the second bobbin full, the fibres were plied to a zebra skein of BFL/Alpaca mix.  It was a lovely day.

Finally, after my last leftovers post, I'll show you what I put the leftover fibres to.  It's by no means anywhere finished as I've run out of the edging fibres but it's on its way. Things will all be a little slower over the easter hols what with children, friends, parties etc but I'll try and get as much done as possible. I know you know how it is!

I'm taking a chance putting this on here as it's my open exhibition entry piece - what if they say no! I'm quite pleased so far, but it's early days and it isn't my opinion that counts.  You have to be brave though and have a go, don't you?

Now, I really do need to go and do some ironing. We're going to be going out in our dressing gowns at this rate!

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