Life is full of surprizes

Never thought that instead of just visiting FibreEast on Sunday I would be involved in a Back to Back Challenge......

Instead of helping out on the Woolsack stall which was hosting a cushion stuffing event for the Olympics (which aims to give every competitor in the Olympics and Paralympics a cushion made from and stuffed with British Wool) - I ended up knitting a sleeve for the challenge. In 3 hours and 49 minutes a team of spinners and knitters produced a childs jumper from fleeece shorn from a Suffolk down cross called Sally.

I did get a chance to look round the stalls after which was great and had a long chat with the women from the Guild of Long Draw Spinners (GOLDS) who were demonstrating the long draw technique on a Great Wheel (just need to convince Mr S that making one of these isn't beyond his capabilities) and Sarah from the Spinning Weal.

There were a lot of the usual stalls, but I did get to examine some lovely superwash merino sock and lace yarns which may form the base of my range in the future. So all in all a very good day and I certainly need to master the art of Art Yarn (excuse the pun) - couldn't believe the price!! also got some ideas for the Spindyeweaver's demonstrations.................

Old Proverbs and Graduation

I have been busy making a new bag for my MiniSpinner and power unit. As always I have adhered closely to the old saying measure twice, cut once..............which I did carefully, while failing miserably to check my original figures carefully - hence instead of making a bag that is 16" in length and 9" wide I made a bag 5" long and 9" wide - oophs!

What is sad is that throughout the whole process it wasn't until I came to sew the bottom of the first bag that I realised that no way was the spinner going to fit let alone the power unit and all the cables - feel a right dumbo

No prizes for guessing which is the wrong one!

On a more positive note - Mr S has produced his first hardwood spindle (sycamore on the right)and soft wood one with a mahogany veneer (left) - he is really getting into spindles -

- particularly now he has graduated and has so much time on his hands.............................

You're never to old.....

....to learn new skills - as the last week and a bit has shown. Last Sunday I was introduced to the secrets of screen printing by Sarah at the Spinning Weal. She felt that the SpinDyeWeavers could do with a with a new image and suggested that we screen print aprons................. Well having seen her logo I was keen to have a go and what fun we had - first we printed some calico that could be used on bags etc......................




Then on Tuesday we had a group print and produced 12 aprons, how we managed not to get paint everywhere I don't know (Ms S wishes he had recorded the whole event) but he didn't and we didn't and the results are stunning



This will certainly get us noticed when we are out and about spinning - which is exactly what we wanted..............

On the spinning front - it is the Tour de Fleece challenge again (doesn't seem 12 months since the last one) and of course the Tour de France cycle race. I have set myself the challenge of filling one bobbin with polworth from the fleece. The Hansen Mini Spinner Bobbins are huge - they hold around 8ozs (200+grams) so it is a real challenge and I am only just over half way despite spinning for at least two hours every day of the race so far. One of the challenges was to spin with a pet or pets on your lap! I thought that I had no chance of getting Molly to sit on my lap - but how wrong could I be. On the first day I was spinning outside the caravan and I put her on my lap and she stayed there...............................



................well there is a first time for everything!

That was the week that was...

Back home after a super week in 'Mr Bond' near Chertsey Weir. The weather, except for Tuesday when we had a thunder storm was great.......

Picture this scenario - on returning to our caravan with the thunder still rumbling around I carefully hold the door open for Mr S and he goes up the ramp to open the door, noticing as he went several gallons of rain water on the roof of the awning - remember I am at the doorway to the awning at the foot of the ramp - he very carefully raised the roof and..........................................

Unfortunately I wasn't in the mood for pictures!

Wednesday - Wimbledon, Court One and the qualifier Tomic against Djokovic, the Nadal match after was predictable, but then we went out to Court 18 to watch the British pair in the mixed doubles (Watson and Hutchins)- a perfect day.....

Friday at Wimbledon I was caught on camera by the BBC talking to Peter Norfolk......see also at http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b012fxtn/?t=1h37m21s

Saturday was the start of the Tour de France and therefore the start of the Tour De Fleece Challenge - so here's me on my MiniSpinner with a very helpful assistant...