Monday 30 September 2013

My New Wheel and Other Things

My spinning wheel arrived last Tuesday afternoon, to be honest I think I nearly ripped the delivery driver's hand off when he passed over my parcel.  Im not sure the sight of a 51 year old woman jumping up and down in the hallway with excitement was what he really needed to see at that point in his life but heyho!

Wheel assembled and tested thoroughly and its goes like a dream.

 
Of course the dogs and cats had to join in whilst I was assembling the wheel and it was more by luck that no tails or whiskers were harmed in the making of this wheel.
 
Thus far I have spun up a hank of Gotland yarn
 
And am now spinning up some beautifully soft, hand dyed in shades of pale blue, Alpaca fibre.  I am hoping this will be used to knit up a lace shawl.
 
I am busy knitting fingerless gloves and headwarmers to go on the Wits End Fibres page and am happy to take orders for Christmas if there is something you would like, any colour and most yarns can be used.
 
Don't forget I also have drop spindles and knitting needles for sale on my page these would make good Christmas presents too.
 
So whatever fibery fun you are up to today, enjoy and I am now off to my workroom to catch up on my day job which is the jewellery making.

Friday 20 September 2013

The Excitement is Mounting

Well, its been a long while since I last posted on this blog regarding my fibre.  For the last year I have been without a spinning wheel as my beloved Kromski Minstrel was sold to help fund my now 14 year old daughter on a school trip to Germany last November.  She thoroughly enjoyed the visit and obviously it was a great asset for her to travel to another country.  I have, however, really missed my wheel and despite being lucky enough to have several gorgeous drop spindles its not quite the same.  So today I have contacted the lovely Anne of Spinwise at www.spinwise.co.uk and I shall be sending payment on Monday morning for a brand new Kromski Prelude wheel.  The customer service I have received from this lady was excellent.  I will definitely be using her shop again.  Okay so there is no online ordering but to be able to phone and talk to someone about the wheels, and to have the time taken to listen and answer your questions is a rarity these days, well in the UK it seems to be and I haven't found this with another Kromski stockist. 

So, all being well my new wheel will be with me on Tuesday, Wheeeeeeee!!!  I shall be posting pictures.  In the meantime here is a photograph of the carding I have been doing this afternoon, piles of gorgeous soft and fluffy Gotland fibre.
 
So I can see that I am going to be busy on Tuesday, building my wheel and then spinning.  I don't think I shall be getting much jewellery making done for a while. 
 
Of course I don't know if you will recall that I am no longer selling spinning fibres and have switched over to selling my handmade jewellery instead.  It is doing very well and you can see my items for sale at https://www.facebook.com/Englishjewels
 
So, spinning, weaving and knitting have now become my hobby.  I still have a good fibre stash and am going to slowly work my way through it.
In order to fund this hobby I am also selling handknitted items and handwovens at my other page on facebook https://www.facebook.com/Wendfibres better known as Wits End Fibres and why Wits End you may ask, well because Im often there folks!!