Pure Inspiration

6th October 2011

2011-10-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, wow hasnt the weather been changeable. It was a good opportunity to get some lovely Wensleydale fleece washed and dyed though and this is now for sale in the online shop, (link to the right).

I love Wensleydale fibre, I think the sheep have to be one of the most amazing of their kind and it is so sad that the flocks are getting harder to find in the UK. I find the fibre so versatile. A lot of my customers purchase the curls to use for detail in needlefelted projects and others to spin into art yarn, the results of which are quite something to see. Imagine, if you will, a lovely chunky yarn with little ringlets of colour hanging down throughout, a bag or other accessory made from this yarn would be a very unique item, a piece of art in itself.

Aside from these uses the curls can be carded and spun, the long, lustrious fibres make for a gorgeous knitting or weaving yarn, again some texture can be left in if desired.

I have been busy here with hand knitting and trying to bust some of my stash. I have been making lots of pairs of fingerless mittens. I am selling these alongside the discounted knitting yarns I have started to retail at a local car boot sale at Sanders Garden world, near Brent Knoll in Somerset. These car boot sales are held on a Friday morning and are in aid of the Freewheelers Motorcycle charity that transfers blood, x rays and other much needed things between hospitals free of charge. See http://www.freewheelers.org.uk/ for more information.

The discounted yarns are also available in my online shop. If you are UK based then do contact me for prices for postage in the UK and also for pound sterling prices as everything is listed in US dollars as this is a worldwide site that the shop is on.

The next thing that came to mind is does anyone belong to a local knitting group? I would be interested to know how many are out there as not all of them are widely advertised and I do feel that it would be good to perhaps create a list of them available as links on my website. If anyone is interested in setting up a link swap then please do get in touch at lizziemasters@btinternet.com so that I can start to compile a list of various fibre related groups and organisations.

These can be worldwide, they dont have to just be based in the UK. Spinners, weavers and felters would be welcome too also if you do anything unusual with fibre then again I would be very interested to hear from you.

So, thats all for now, I will hope to get some more blogging done again very soon.

Have fibre fun everyone!!

Saturday 3rd September

2011-09-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

The girls have now gone back to school, it was very quiet last Friday with both of them out of the house. Personally I think it was silly for them to have gone back only for one day but I suppose those in charge of education have their reasons?!

With life returning to its usual routine I need to knuckle down and get some more things photographed and put into the Etsy shop in time for the Christmas season which will soon be upon us. Also the end of year accounts need to be prepared and handed over to the accountant. In addition I have dyeing to do, silk rovings need to be dyed for customers in the US.

I have just finished spinning up approximately 120g of hand dyed Corriedale roving which has come out in a double knit thickness and I am hoping to use it to weave a scarf on my knitters loom.

I have finally finished the handwoven cotton tea towels that were the first serious project on my table loom. Below are some photographs of the warp on the loom and the finished towels. They were made with 8/2 cotton that was a bargain last year on ebay. I used some of it to make the cotton scarf on the knitters loom that was shown in my last post.

The following pictures show the warp on the loom, the work in progress and one of the finished towels. Further details of this project can be found on my projects page at http://www.ravelry.com/ where my user name is

Lizziejane. I belong to several groups on Ravelry and find it a great way to meet like minded people and swap information and show off our finished projects.

On the knitting front I am making an aran weight hooded jacket for my daughter's friends baby son for Christmas, using Hayfield Bonus Aran. I shall probably make one similar for my grand daughter in Sirdar click aran.

I purchased a ball of Rico yarn recently, the one that makes the frilly scarves. I got two long scarves and one shorter scarf out of the one ball. I felt this was extremely good value and purchased another ball last week to make some more, again for presents at Christmas.

With the evenings drawing in again it means there are more hours for knitting and spinning and also weaving since the purchase of a daylight lamp, then of course there is that cross stitch picture that needs finishing....................

Wednesday 20th July

2011-07-20T03:51:00.000-07:00

Two posts in a week, must be something in the air.

I wanted to share with you the photographs of the finished cashmere scarf.

the first picture shows the completed fringe, I twisted this using four strands of the warp yarn at a time, it fulled up quite nicely when washed.

The second picture is of the main body of the scarf showing how the Bronson Lace pattern has fulled and is not quite so lacey as when on the loom. I was a little disappointed because I thought it would have been the same but I will be trying this pattern again using a fine silk yarn and see how the pattern reacts after washing. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime the loom is now warped with Sirdar Baby Bamboo yarn and Twilleys Freedom cotton in cream and pale blue to make fabric for a small bag. Pictures to follow in the next post.

Happy weaving!

Monday 18th July

2011-07-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share with you some pictures of my latest two weaving projects using the 12 inch Ashford Knitters Loom. I am quite enjoying going back to basics with this loom and have been also enjoying meeting up with some new faces in two Ravelry groups that I have joined. For those of you not familiar with Ravelry, its an online knitting, weaving and spinning community where like minded fibre enthusiasts can meet to share pictures of their latest projects, swap advice and support each other through those tricky moments. If like me, you are unable to get to a local group for your hobby(ies) then its a wonderful way to meet new friends and gain experience.

I have joined the Ashford Loomies group and also the Rigid Heddle group.

Here is the first project below, showing the loom warped up using some swedish weaving cotton that I purchased earlier this year from ebay. This was originally to make placemats but in the end I decided to use the resulting cloth as a scarf as I didnt want to cut into it, I was so pleased with the result.

The following two pictures are of the Knitters loom warped up with 100 percent Cashmere yarn that I purchased from Devon Fine Fibres a few years ago. It has been mill spun and is very soft. I wish I had made it a little wider but I was not sure I would have enough yarn. I am using a pattern from the May/June 2009 issue of Handwoven and the technique is known as Bronson Lace. This requires the use of a pick up stick to make a third shed.

Rigid Heddle looms are suprisingly versatile and with the availability of different sized reeds and a second heddle kit for any of Ashford's rigid heddle looms now available the possiblities really are endless.

I recently hand dyed some mohair curls and I am now spinning them up into quite a fine yarn on my Kromski Minstrel wheel. The first part bobbin and the curls are shown below.

I hope you enjoy these pictures and that they will give you some inspiration for your projects. If anyone has any questions, please dont hesitate to ask.

Wednesday 13th July 2011

2011-07-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here we are halfway through July and I cant believe that the summer holidays are nearly here. The girls are looking forward to a nice long lazy six weeks and to be honest so am I. Getting up at six every morning to ensure everything gets taken care of before heading off on the school run can be a bit wearing.

First the chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs need feeding, then the dogs and cats and finally us. After breakfast its chivvying sleepy children into doing their hair, teeth and retrieving their shoes from the last place they were thrown when they came home the previous evening. It will be nice to have a slower pace of life for a while.

Finally after getting them into their schools its time to walk the mad dogs on the beach. After that down to work.

I have a three day craft fair to attend in August, it will be the 5th, 6th and 7th of August and takes place at Sanders Garden World at Brent Knoll in Somerset. The proceeds of the fair go to the FreeWheelers charity, which is a group of people who transport blood, x rays and similar free of charge between the local hospitals. It can help to save lives and is constantly needing funds.

I shall be taking my fibre shop, with drop spindle kits, hand dyed fibres and yarns and some of my jewellery.

I have been taking advantage of the hotter weather to get lots of dyeing and washing of fleece done. I now have 5 lovely Jacob fleeces that were purchased in Somerset through a contact from the craft fair I attended in February this year. I have also discovered two Bowmont fleeces lurking in my store cupboard and this is now listed for sale in the online shop. I have assorted hand dyed rovings for sale, last summers stock is currently at half price and the new fibres are being listed as they are dyed and dried. I am waiting on some gorgeous Wensleydale fleece which should be with me by mid August. This will then be dyed and listed in the shop.

I am currently spinning up some hand dyed mohair curls which I have dyed in shades of lilac and purple and these are coming out very fine and I will hopefully be making a shawl out of the resulting yarn.

I have warped up the knitters loom using a 12 dpi reed and am making some place mats using some Swedish weaving cotton that I got as a job lot on ebay.

The weaving bug is still biting and despite selling the beloved floor loom I am strongly considering investing in a small table loom to satisfy my urge to keep weaving. The jewellery making means that I can just weave for pleasure and not for income so the strain on the back wont be so bad.

I should love to hear from anyone regarding their spinning or weaving projects, its always good to talk fibre.

Tuesday 24th May

2011-05-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Loads to talk about this month. I have had a very busy time recently as I made the sad decision to sell my Glimakra Julia floor loom at the end of April. I have been suffering with osteoarthritis for some years and it is present in my upper spine and I had found that sitting at the loom was causing me a lot of discomfort. I regretfully put it up for sale and achieved a very good price for it and it has gone to a good home. I have now only got an Ashford knitters loom, 12 inch with two different sized reeds to make scarves with. This will be enough to satisfy the desire to weave my handspun yarns from time to time.

I shall continue to spin and dye my own yarns and fibres but to replace the weaving I invested the money from the loom in jewellery making items and stock. A total difference from fibre fun, I agree but something I can do sitting down and in comfort. I am hoping to sell the items I make alongside my yarns and fibres. Wish me luck with my new venture.

I shall continue to post here however and keep everyone updated on my spinning and knitting. I am currently spinning up a baby alpaca fleece which is a lovely golden brown and white. I have decided to separate the brown and white and spin into two different yarns rather than ply the two colours together. I was so lucky to be given this fleece along with another baby alpaca fleece in black and an adult fleece in cream which I think is a suri cross.

Knitting is currently fingerless mittens to use up the endless supply of sock yarn I seem to have accumulated. I am making a pair out of Opal Sock Yarn, Harry Potter,"" Tonks which is a pink, red, yellow and grey yarn. I also have a ball of yarn in the same series (not sure if this is the correct word here) in the shade "Ron"

On a lighter note we have adopted three ex battery hens that the girls have named, Florence, Doris and Princess Peach. They have been with us for just over a week and are settling in nicely. Our pet angora rabbit, Rock,y loves them and thinks its wonderful to share their corn. So far we have had four eggs! Very tasty.

Along with our newly planted vegetables we are hoping to be quite self sufficient this year. Bring on the Good Life!!

Happy spinning everyone.

THURSDAY 7TH APRIL

2011-04-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the Stitch and Creative craft show at the Bath and West Showground at Shepton Mallet. It was a good show this year with some lovely stands. There was a stand with the Lucet company. I dont know if you are all familiar with a Lucet but it is a tool that was used in mediavel times to make cords to decorate clothing and to lace up clothing before buttons were used. The man demonstrating the lucet was very fast at making the cord and there were lucets of different sizes there, some large wooden ones that were used to make strong cords out of hemp or thick string. These cords could then be plaited to make thicker ropes for use such as dog leads or tie backs for curtains. You can add beads and different colours. Fascinating.

I also fell foul of some lovely discounted knitting yarn with the Black Sheep and a skein of sock yarn. A good day out and well worth a visit.

TUESDAY 5TH APRIL

2011-04-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hi, the lovely spring weather didnt seem to last long but I am hopeful it will return soon. In the meantime its a good excuse to stay indoors doing the things I love best, spinning, knitting and weaving. I have to confess that the hour change last week made me feel very hung over for a week, does it have this effect on anyone else. I seemed to spend the week chasing my tail!

This week I have on the Julia loom a warp using my handspun yarn. The yarn is a Bluefaced Leicester/Suffolk cross fibre which was handspun with extra twist to make it strong. I have to say I am very pleased with it, no broken threads. I have wound quite a long warp using a four shaft tie up in an M's and O's pattern draft. I am using Gotland yarn for the weft and making cloth to turn into bags for an upcoming craft show.

The weave looks quite open when you look at the first picture, but in the second picture you can see a sample that has been washed and fulled after weaving and there is quite a difference. None of the tension problems here that were experienced beforehand.

I dont have any spinning this week as I have been concentrating on the knitting and weaving. A few more days and the children will be off for their Easter holidays. I am hoping the weather will be good so that I can get some dyeing done, the fleece does smell so lovely when dried in the sunshine.

Last Friday I visited a lovely lady near Weston Super Mare who owns Alpacas and Shetland sheep. She approached me at the craft fair I attended in February and asked if I would be interested in buying some of her fibre this year. It was lovely to meet her animals and she is obviously very passionate about them and very caring. The Shetland sheep have been bred for their fleece as their owner is a handspinner and weaver so understands about the need for good quality. They were very friendly and came up to be hugged and scratched, although I think the large bag of hay might have had something to do with their eagerness to say hello.

The fibre is very fine on both the Alpacas and the sheep and I shall be purchasing some later in the year when shearing takes place. Also we have been promised a phone call when the baby Alpacas or Cria are born so that I can take the girls to see them. I am looking forward to that.

I will ask her permission to take some photographs when we go and post them here for you all to see.

Shearing season is nearly here and I have to admit its one of my favourite times of year. Once again I shall be visiting the fleece tent at the Bath and West and no doubt will have to be dragged out by the children, loudly proclaiming "Mum!! You dont need anymore fleece". But there is always room for just one more?

Happy Spinning.

RE A LITTLE TENSION PROBLEM

2011-03-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

The lovely scarf that I was so proud of crashed and burned off the loom last Thursday when I took it off and realised it had gaps in amongst the weft, sob sob. I have thrown this problem into the UK Weavers group forum on Ravelry and received some very good advice. It would seem that the problem was poor tension. This occurred during warping. Warping alone can be very complicated in that it is difficult to maintain correct tension when winding on and trying to hold the warp in one hand and wind on with the other.

Now I have been advised that to maintain good tension when warping alone I can tie some weights onto the warp and that will maintain the tension whilst I am winding on. Now collecting milk bottles for the next project.

If you are stuck on tips for weaving, the books are good but there is nothing like receiving help from people who have been there and made the same mistakes. Weaving lessons are not an option for me as I dont have the money to spare to pay for them at this time in my life. But free advice is brilliant on this group.

TUESDAY 22ND MARCH 2011

2011-03-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

Feeling rather ashamed here of not having posted for ages. No excuses other than life taking over as usual. I cant believe its nearly a year since I started this blog. The days seem to merge one into another.

I am glad to see Spring is coming to Berrow again, the lovely flowers throughout the village are testimony to that and my beautiful Magnolia tree is out in blossom once again.

I am currently weaving a scarf on the Julia loom, using a four shaft, straight twill threading, with a hand dyed tencel warp and a hand dyed tencel and merino weft. The merino yarn is laceweight and was produced at Coldharbour Mill in Devon although I understand that they no longer have their mill shop on site due to flooding, it is being moved to Lynton on Exmoor, which is a shame as that is rather far for me to drive so hopefully they will post yarn if I wish to purchase any.

The hand dyed tencel came from Yarnstopia on Etsy and is gorgeous. I have to admit that the tencel yarn does tend to wear as a warp yarn, perhaps rayon or silk would have been better. I am using four picks of hand dyed tencel, and four picks of hand dyed merino. It seems to be working quite well and I am fairly pleased with the results so far. Once its off the loom and washed then I can see how successful it has been.

I warped this up at 12 epi using a 12 dent reed.

On the Minstrel wheel is some fairly coarse wool fleece that is a Border Leicester/Suffolk cross and was purchased locally. I do seem to have quite a bit of this lurking in the garage, but I'm not confessing to anyone else about this.

This will be spun up for warp yarn and I am putting some extra twist into this to give it the strength it will need for warp. I shall thread this up at 8epi using an 8 dent reed.

Here is one of the completed hanks.

Then I will spin up some more with less twist for the weft. I hope to hand dye some of the yarn to make cushion covers. I am going to experiment with some drafts found on Handweaving.net and see how these come out. If the wool is successful for warp yarn then I may spin up some more and have another go at doublewidth weaving.

A little while ago I purchased Jennifer Moore's book on doubleweave. Its a fascinating read and I did have one attempt at weaving a doublewidth throw in aran weight yarns. It was amazing to watch the cloth grow and to see it bind together at one side but unfortunatley I did have quite a few skipped threads which meant that it didnt turn out to be very attractive. I think a finer yarn may work better next time.

So thats all for today, and a final thought there are some great groups on Ravelry and some of the members of the UK weavers group have been amazingly patient with some odd questions I have put to them lately so dont be downhearted if your weaving goes astray or even if you just want to ask questions about it, free to join and good company, who could ask for more.

TUESDAY 15TH FEBRUARY

2011-02-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

Its been a hectic time since my last posting. After getting over the 'flu and nursing sick children I decided to re-enter the world of craft fairs.

The girls are getting older now and are much better at staying with a sitter for the weekend whilst Mum takes her shop on the road.

I have just spent the weekend at a local garden centre taking part in a craft fair in aid of FreeWheelers motorbike charity. Free Wheelers carry blood, x rays, breast milk etc for the NHS, free of charge between hospitals in emergency situations. Obviously this takes a lot of money to run and so much fundraising has to be undertaken.

The charity takes its funds from the prices paid for the stall space by the craft workers.

It was well attended and I felt very pleased and surprised that many people were so interested in my items. I took along a selection of my hand dyed fibres, yarns and handwoven and handknitted accessories.

I also made some useful contacts including a wood turner who is going to be producing drop spindles for me so that they can be handpainted and sold in my shop.

The next fair is due to be held in August and I am hoping also to do another one in December this year.

I will post dates and locations nearer the time.

Below is a selection of pictures of items from my online shop, there is a link to the right of the blog.

Have fibery fun people, its almost time for small people to return from school.

Sunday 9th January 2011

2011-01-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

Firstly I would like to wish all fibre fanatics everywhere a very belated Happy New Year. The Christmas season overtook me and the bad weather too has meant very limited time for posting.

As I write I am looking forward to trying out some new weaving patterns this year and have been wandering through my pile of Handwoven magazines for inspiration. I should very much like to add a larger floor loom to my workroom this year, but must first work out the logistics here, especially with number one daughter using the sofa bed when she comes to stay, at present the Julia loom pushes easily aside but another loom may present problems. I love the Julia loom but would like something with more width, currently being limited to 26 inches is a bit fustrating when wanting to weave larger items. Many visits to the Loom Exchange anticipated here.

My spinning consists of working through my stash of alpaca fibre and then using the yarn in my weaving and knitting. I find that washing the fibre first works best for me as the dust from the unwashed fibre gets into my throat.

I am about to warp up my loom to weave a frilled scarf. By using yarns that react differently to fulling, I am using merino and rayon in alternating stripes in the warp and merino and a small amount of rayon in the weft, when washed the scarf will "frill" up as the merino will full or shrink more than the rayon. I shall try and remember to post photographs here.

I am looking forward to the evenings getting longer and lighter and the days becoming warmer so I can get some fibre dyed up to create some different colourways in my weaving.

Saturday 6th November

2010-11-06T04:29:00.000-07:00

Finally the carpet has been laid in the workroom and the long dreaded clearout is finished. My table, storage unit, sofa and loom have been moved into a better place which gives me more space to work.

I am now able to see, thanks to my new, clear storage boxes, my entire stash of yarns, equipment, books, patterns etc, all those essential items for creating. I am now a very happy fibre bunny as there is even room for my spinning wheel so I can spin in peace away from the mad dogs.

So much of my time over the last two weeks has been taken up with sorting, and putting away my equipment and yarns. Am I alone in the fact that I just didnt realise how much yarn I had?

As Christmas looms ever closer I am spending most of my (limited) spare time in making presents for family and friends but at least it means the stash will go down as I have promised myself that one of my New Year resolutions will be to buy less wool this year - do I hear laughter? How many times do we all say that only to fall in love with the latest addition at the yarn store?

The clock change has meant that those longer, darker evenings are more encouraging to sit by the fire and knit, I dont find the t.v.all that inspiring most of the time.

My latest projects are using up some of my stash in designing some children's knitwear to sell online and as the new Alice Starmore Aran book has just come out I am attempting to knit myself one of the cardigans in there using 5ply Guernsey yarn.

Frangipangi yarns in Cornwall are a great supplier of this type of yarn and I do believe that Wingham wool used to supply it but am not sure if they still do.

I have just completed knitting the men's fingerless gloves from a recent issue of the Knitter magazine which was a very easy project to complete and will make another present.

Do get in touch with pictures of your projects and comments, its good talk fibre!!

TUESDAY 19TH OCTOBER

2010-10-19T01:38:00.000-07:00

The Autumn chill has descended in Berrow and despite the sunny days the wind off the sea has definitely lost its balmy feel.

My thoughts have turned to Christmas this week and the making of gifts for friends and family. I have constructed a list and last weekend I cast on for two pairs of socks and some fingerless mittens as well as knitting the camouflage type hat for my fishing cousin, using the handspun falkland roving that I was spinning up last week. It helped that Film 4 were running a Star Trek weekend so I was able to settle in front the t.v. with an endless supply of yarn, my favourite way to spend a Saturday afternoon in Autumn!

Our thoughts also turn to thick, cozy jumpers and accessories as well this time of year and I am pleased to see that cables are making a comeback in fashion at the moment as well as the colour grey. I do happen to have a large stash of Gotland yarn in double knit thickness and am hoping to use that up with handknits for the online shop.

If, like me, you enjoy getting something for nothing then take a look at http://www.elann.com/ where you will find a whole pile of free knitting patterns in some pretty amazing designs. All you have to do is register your email address and details and the patterns are accessible as pdf downloads. Also this week I came across Patons website, http://www.patonsyarns.com/ where again you can access a whole lot of free knitting patterns and they have some wonderful afghan patterns or throws to knit. You can save these to your "hive" on the site and download or print them when you are ready, saving on ink of course. If anyone else has links to free pattern websites then please feel free to list them here so everyone can benefit. If any of the links above dont work, let me know and I will check the web addresses.

The loom is silent this week as I am concentrating on knitting items for the shop and spinning up some gorgeous Bluefaced Leicester and Tussah silk roving hand dyed in lemons, blues and pinks and mauves that was a purchase on etsy.

Have a good week whatever you are doing and happy knitting.

TUESDAY 12TH OCTOBER

2010-10-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

Forgive the long delay, again, life seems to have overtaken me. My beautiful grand daughter was born on 5th October and all are well so now I can relax and enjoy being a grandmother.

Obviously a lot of my spare time has been taken up over the last months in making clothes for the new baby. I am going to make a few more things for Christmas but now in bigger sizes as my daughter has been given so many clothes there will be no need to buy anything new for a long time to come.

Consequently I have a lot of baby wool left over and began to think how I could use this up and decided to weave up some baby blankets using this. I dont normally consider using acrylic fibres when weaving, I'm not sure if anyone out there does, do let me know. However, I have warped up the loom using a four shaft, six treadle tie up which I found on the All Fiber Arts website, http://www.allfiberarts.com/ for a baby blanket. I am using Sirdar Snuggly baby 4 ply yarn in a soft blue and the weft is a double knit acrylic yarn which graduates in colour throughout the ball. The weaving is quick to grow and fast to warp up. See pictures below.

It has made me realise that I have had rather a blinkered view of weaving todate. I have always used silks, and natural fibres for my items, forgetting the vast range of man made fibres that are available to use. And what if, like my son in law, you are allergic to wool? It makes buying handmade items very difficult. Also there is the question of cost. In our current climate it is difficult to price up garments made from expensive materials. One is caught between the two ends of wanting to make a profit out of ones hard work but at the same time wanting to sell items regularly. So either the profit margin is very narrow or the time spent making the item is not taken into consideration in the final price. So to use cheaper yarns doesnt necessarily mean that the finished item will not be just as lovely as if you had used the finest and most expensive of the natural yarns available.

This week I am spinning up some hand dyed Falkland wool tops from Mandacrafts called Autumn to make a knitted hat for my cousin who is a keen fisherman and wants something to blend in with the background!

I purchased a turkish spindle recently from the Etsy site, it is handmade in beautiful woods and the two cross pieces are similar in colour to the Knitpicks wooden needles, those lovely multi coloured ones. See picture below. It is a dream to spin with and solves the problem of not being able to take my spinning wheel with me when I travel. This is small enough to tuck inside my handbag.

I am also using my Ashford Knitters loom to make some handwoven scarves and bag lengths for Christmas stock in my online shop. Keep a look out for these as they will be fairly reasonably priced and I am hoping they wont be around for too long.

So lots going on here and I hope you all have a very good week whatever you are doing.

Friday 10th September

2010-09-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hello I hope everyone has had a good week. Its been a hectic one here as it was the first full week back at school, its been hard work getting used to the new routine but now we are settled and looking forward to the weekend.

Its been a busy week on the fibre front as well. I have started to organise the winter weaving and knitting for the online shop and had a dye run in the week as well. Aside from dyeing up samples for a customer in the US of silk roving there are new hand dyed wool rovings for sale in the Etsy shop, do have a look, I am going to have a hard time letting these go!

On the loom this week is the lambswool and silk scarf I mentioned in last week's posting, pictures below,

This shows the work in progress, the ten outer threads on each side are just lambswool and the rest of the dents are threaded with one lambswool and one gold silk thread.

Here is a closeup of the pattern showing the "ridges" running the length of the scarf, these are made by threading 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4,4, so a double half twill.

This shows a closeup of the warp threads so you can see the gold silk thread alongside the lambswool.

Also I am spinning up some Shetland Rovings that were purchased from Jamieson and Smith on the Shetland Isles. I bought 500g of Black (which is actually dark brown), 500g of fawn and 500g of white. Once these are spun up I am hoping to make a double weave shetland throw in a tartan style pattern and also knit some fairisle cushion covers. Hopefully these will go into the online shop. Unless they are snaffled by older daughters for their homes!!

Here is the first of the white being spun up and below

is the second hank of black before it was washed to set the twist.

So a busy week allround and I am looking forward to a little R and R this weekend. Eldest daughter has come to stay so lots of fibery chat.

Have fun with your fibre, whatever you are doing and it would be lovely to hear from anyone with pictures of their projects and favourite looms/wheels.

Friday 3rd September 2010

2010-09-03T02:06:00.000-07:00

Well, the summer holidays are over and the children are settled back into school. Apologies for not having posted anything since the beginning of July but it has been an incredibly busy time.

During the break I have been busy sorting out my yarn stash, I am sure it keeps growing behind my back, I really dont remember buying some of it!! Anyone else have that problem?

I shall be having a carpet fitted in my workroom soon so have got to get down to a major clearout of fibres and yarns, I may just have a sale on my etsy shop and clear some of it out the way for good.

I shall be dyeing up lots more fibre and roving soon and putting that up for sale in my online shop so keep checking back for progress.

Spinning up at the moment is 500g of brown wensleydale roving and hand dyed silk roving which together look very nice. This is being spun very fine using the higher ratio smaller whorl on the Minstrel wheel.

I have a warp of lambswool and gold thread waiting to be put on the Glimakra julia loom and shall be threading up a four shaft pattern from the latest edition of Handwoven magazine.

My older daughter is now eight months pregnant and we are excitedly waiting for the arrival of baby and lots of knitting is still being done plus a floor quilt that I am making. Hoping desperately to get it all finished in time.

I would always be interested to hear from anyone who has any questions about spinning or weaving or just wants to chat fibre in general.

Signing off for now fibre fans, more soon.

Friday 2nd July

2010-07-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

Personally I am glad the heat of the sun has abated a little. I was beginning to feel like a roast chicken, I dont think I have ever had such a good tan just from being outside in the garden, sorting fleece and walking the mad dogs on the beach.

I have managed to find a little time this week to progress with the weaving, a silk and merino scarf is almost finished on the Glimakra Julia loom, with a fine gold coloured silk warp and a hand dyed gold laceweight merino weft. Done in a geometric pattern, its looking quite good.

The summer holidays are looming, if you will pardon the pun, and I am trying hard to get as much fibre sorted and dyed and in the shop before they start. Not that the girls are too much trouble but I really do like to choose my own colours for dyeing, my eight year old's idea of colour is not quite the same as mine!!

Colour plays a big part in my life as I am sure it does in yours,especially with regard to the atmosphere in our homes. The colours we choose to decorate our rooms for instance, have a big effect on whether a room is relaxing or energising. Blue is cool and dreamy, red or orange vibrant and energetic. So too with the clothes we wear so next time you are choosing some fibre for spinning or felting or some yarn for knitting or weaving or simply designing a project, give consideration to the colours you will be using and how this will affect your moods when wearing the finished article or if it is to be soft furnishings, where in the house it will be placed. If you choose a lovely calming blue or green then will those gloves or mittens or even socks be a warm choice for the winter months or would you rather wrap your fingers and toes in some warm colours, deep browns, reds, oranges.

Again if you are making a shawl, will this be a lightweight shawl for the summer evenings and need to be a calming colour, pastel shades perhaps to go with the balmy mood of a summers night or if it is a winter shawl and to be in thicker yarn, then some deeper shades will be better.

There is such a lot to consider and if you manage to get all these things into place at the time of design then the finished article will give you so much more pleasure.

Right, more later fibre fans, the mad dogs are now demanding their daily exercise.

Tuesday 22nd June

2010-06-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Fibre Fans, it is another lovely day here in Berrow and the perfect weather for dyeing. Thus said the garden was filled with brightly coloured fleece yesterday, all drying in record time. There are two new colourways now in the Etsy shop, see link on right, pictures below.

Jade Colourway

Spring Colourway

I am currently spinning up some of the lovely Border Leicester/Suffolk cross fleece that I have hand dyed for myself, in peach, mauve and blue colourway, blended on the hand carders

I shall use the resulting yarn to weave a blanket for the impending grandchild.

My weaving has taken a bit of a back seat lately with everything else that has been happening, apart from losing my dad, I have also had to change my car as it became quite poorly and would have cost more to put right than it was worth so that has now been sold and a new one acquired, a much smaller and more economical car all round.

Currently I am knitting a shrug for my daughter's birthday next month. I am using Gotland yarn which I purchased a couple of years ago now from a farm in Devon. Gotland sheep are quite rare,although Sue Blacker of the Natural Fibre Company has a flock and she will sell fleeces from these if you contact her. Gotland is a mixture of shades of grey and the fleece is very curly, but very soft and easy to spin. It requires little carding. It can be dyed and produces lovely muted shades.

The knitting for the Etsy shop is a lace scarf knitted from hand dyed alpaca and silk yarn purchased from BlueFaced Leicester.com or I think the web address is http://www.bluefaced.com/ if that doesnt work let me know and I will check out the proper address. Amazing prices on their undyed sock yarns.

Also a pair of fingerless mittens knitted from a handspun hand dyed Shetland wool top that I fell over on Etsy, dyed in rainbow colours.

So, a busy week so far and if the good weather continues, many more colours of fibre going in the shop.

Have a good week.

Friday 11th June

2010-06-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since my last posting but sadly my father passed away suddenly on 27th May and it was two weeks before a funeral could take place due to bank holidays and vicars holidays! Now all has been dealt with and life can settle down again, albeit without the presence of my lovely dad.

Our trip to the Bath and West show was very nice, especially as the sun was shining down on us for the first time in three years. The only fibre purchase I made this year was 100g of Llama fibre which I have never tried before. It spins very well and goes a very long way. I am spinning it unwashed but find that it has much less dust than alpaca fibre. I shall post pictures of the finished yarn later.

I have also just finished spinning up the rainbow dyed shetland tops that I purchased a couple of weeks ago but the weaving has taken a back seat over the last two weeks so I shall have to take that up again next week. The online shop has been stocked with lots of new hand dyed fibres so do take a look.

More later, have a good week everyone.

Wednesday 19th May

2010-05-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

Time is creeping up on me again, can you believe its almost halfway through the year? Another week and the girls will be on half terms hols. We are planning a visit to the Royal Bath and West Show although it has been mentioned that I will not be allowed to visit the sheep tent this year. I usually end up talking to farmers and buying fleeces despite the stack I already have - does anyone else have this problem?

This week I am spinning up some Falkland tops, hand dyed by Mandacrafts on Etsy. These are called "Berry Berry Nice" and hopefully will make some fingerless mitts for someones Christmas present.

Just off the Glimakra Julia loom are two scarves woven on a multicoloured hand dyed tencel warp, one scarf is woven with a wool and silk weft, again this is hand dyed and comes from Yarntopia on Etsy and the other scarf has a baby alpaca and silk weft which I have hand dyed in soft blue shades. These are now for sale in my Etsy shop, see the link to the right.

This is the tencel and wool/silk scarf and showing a close up of the scarf above.

This is the tencel and baby alpaca/silk scarf, also with close up of the weave structure above.

These were woven on a four shaft threading for a diamond twill, the same pattern as the jade scarf made last month.

The rugs are now finished, although I am not sure I was very pleased with the results, I think that a lighter cotton warp would be better in future but for now I have to concentrate on producing some more items for the gallery. I am now warping up the loom with a light green silk warp to make a scarf using a hand dyed laceweight merino weft. The laceweight merino was purchased from Cold Harbour mill through their new company FibreHarvest.

The warmer weather is a great time for washing fleece and I do have quite a lot sitting in my garage that really need to be sorted out over the summer, it would be good to be able to get them washed, carded and spun up, so lots of excuses for sitting outside in the garden.

Have a good week.

Tuesday 4th May

2010-05-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

So, the loom tie up is completed and yes, it works, I have achieved a larger shed and with the non elastic warp that I am using for the rugs that is essential. The first rug of the warp run is now completed and I shall take a picture tomorrow and post it. I am very proud of my first rug!!

The weather here today has been lovely and we are looking forward to a few more days of sun before the next weekend which is supposed to be wet. So much for weeding out the garden!

The mad dogs are both confined to quarters with very itchy parts of their bodies and are both having to wear their plastic hoods to stop them chewing their back ends. I dont know what causes this but every spring we get the same thing, they are sprayed with flea spray, bathed regularly and still they end up chewing themselves raw for a while. So out with the antiseptic cream and on with the collars, one on loan from a good friend and one I had to go and buy today from the vets. Fingers crossed this soon clears up as I dont think a large vets bill is a good start to any month!!

The cats freaked out at the sight of the dogs in their hoods and as the two youngest only have short tails due to a birth defect, they tend to look as though they are sporting bottle brushes on their bottoms when they are scared.

Off for food shopping tomorrow, groan and then round to number two daughter's for coffee and cakes, well you've got to have some consolation for fighting your way round the supermarket!

Monday 3rd May

2010-05-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

GETTING A GOOD SHED ON MY JULIA AND OTHER THINGS

I hope everyone has had a good weekend, it seems such a short time since the Easter bank holiday and another looms at the end of the month.

This week I have warped up my Julia loom with some rug warp to make lightweight rugs for my kitchen and hall floors. I am using up some wool from my stash to make these. I have to admit to still wrestling with the countermarche tye up. I now understand the theory but the practise is a little more tricky. I have found a good article to download at http://www.weaverschool.com/ an American website full of good information. This article explains how to tie up the loom and get a much bigger shed or space between the threads. This is achieved by tying up the upper lamms so that the end of them, the end not joined onto the rod, is only about 2 and a half inches away from the bottom of the shafts. The warp should pass through the centre of the eye of the heddles on the shafts to give you some idea of height of shafts. Now, dont do what I did for the next step, as the picture in the article shows the loom from the back and I was tying up from the front!

The next step is to tie up the treadles and ensure that they are all at slightly different heights. You have to start with treadle one on the left and make this the HIGHEST treadle and then tie up the rest so that each treadle is slightly lower than the next. I did this the other way around and made the first treadle the lowest so of course with the eighth treadle being the highest the upper lamms were hitting the bottom of the shafts and the shed was not opening properly.

I now have to go back into the workroom tomorrow and re tie the treadles so that they are in the correct position, I just couldnt face it this afternoon and besides with two smallies home from school its not really fair to be shut away in my workroom all day. Life is just too short for that.

So think of me tomorrow, I expect the cats will learn a few new words and I shall let you know the outcome. If this doesnt work to give a good shed then it is back to the drawing board, suggestions anyone.

On other fronts, I am spinning up a very nice cream shetland fleece, a good swapsie from my friend Yarnspider, see yarnspider.blogspot.com, thanks friend. This is spinning up into a very fine thread.

I am still knitting up a garter stitch shawl in Noro sock yarn, pictures to follow and that will go into the shop later on.

Next week I am heading down to Cold Harbour mill in Devon to collect some very nice finespun merino yarn which will be perfect for weaving in the weft. Some serious hand dying will be following this. For anyone interested in seeing Cold Harbour, it is a working spinning mill and they sell lots of yummy alpaca yarn which is spun in the mill and dyed and also some lovely machine woven throws and other accessories. Well worth a visit and very reasonable to go in. A lovely cafe on site as well.

Have a good week.

Monday 26th April

2010-04-26T02:58:00.000-07:00

The weather here has been so lovely over the past week, and walks on the beach with the two mad dogs are very enjoyable. Last Friday, my eldest daughter Vix and I went to the Stitch and Creative craft show at Shepton Mallet. A very enjoyable few hours out and for the first time in three years it wasnt raining!

After acquiring some bits and pieces, mainly fabric to make number two daughter's impending baby a cot quilt and some very nice hand dyed sock yarn that couldnt be resisted I am ashamed to say, although no doubt fellow fibre enthusiasts will understand fully that no matter how large the stash there is ALWAYS ROOM FOR JUST ONE MORE SKEIN!!

The Glimakra loom is working out very well and after the initial troubles the missing parts have now arrived and I am now weaving madly to catch up with my Etsy shop and also some more items for the Somerset Arts week at the Gallery later in the year.

I have now sold the Louet Kombo loom as there simply isnt room for two looms in my workroom at the moment. I am hoping to get the smallest back room decorated this summer and then the sofa bed can be moved into there so that when daughter comes to stay it can be used as a guest room only. Then there will be more room in my workroom for those much needed shelves to be put up. So at least I can get rid of the table that does take up too much room and even the old wall unit. Still, one thing at a time, for now I have to concentrate on getting wallpaper off the walls when I get a spare five minutes!

I am currently spinning up some Angora rabbit fibre from my lovely English White Angora rabbit called Rocky and am blending it with some lovely hand dyed silk fibres in shades of blue to make a singles slubby yarn for weaving. Pictures to follow.

On the loom at the moment another tencel and alpaca and silk scarf this time in shades of blue and pink. Pictures to follow when I get a moment.

Whatever you are doing, have a good week.

Tuesday 20th April

2010-04-20T03:55:00.000-07:00

An update on the Glimakra Julia loom with the pictures of the first warp now mounted on the loom and about halfway completed. This is a tencel/rayon hand dyed warp in shades of peacock green and jade and a hand dyed baby alpaca/silk yarn in laceweight, hand dyed in Malachite green.

The half completed scarf. The threading is for a diamond twill pattern and is set at two threads per dent in a 12 dent reed, that is a 24 ends per inch.

The tie up is shafts 1 and 4, 3 and 4, 2 and 3 and 1 and 2.

Close up of the colour detail in the scarf.

More soon, in the meantime why not have a look at the newly listed items in my Etsy shop, link is on the right.

Saturday 17th April

2010-04-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, another week gone by and my Glimakra Julia loom arrived last Thursday. I was expecting it to be in all natural wood but ended up with the lovely bright red sides which will no doubt brighten up my workroom. On opening the boxes, my ten year old daughter Meggie and I set to with a will to get it up and running asap.

These pictures show the opened boxes and various parts of the loom as they were sent prior to construction.

Note the feet were not included!

This is the beater cradle, the reed will go between the two thicker pieces of wood.

The instructions that were included with the loom kit were, I have to say rather limited. They were basic diagrams but I have found one or two of the pieces would have been better added earlier rather than later. I had assumed a dvd was to be included to show how the loom should be constructed and tied up but I was told by Glimakra that this is only usually distributed with looms in the US, however they have kindly said they will send me one and include it with the missing treadle spacers, that is the little wooden discs that are threaded onto the rod between the treadles. One point to bear in mind here if you are considering buying one of these looms, do place the treadles onto the metal rod on piece A as per your instructions first before the whole loom frame is constructed as it is near impossible to do so afterwards, my fingers narrowly avoided being broken by a springing metal rod!

Sorry, just realised this shot is at an angle, but if you turn it sideways it shows the back of the loom, first side piece and the part A, the natural wood piece with the three metal rings and the treadle rod I mentioned above, this is when I think the treadles should be added.

A close up of this piece.

The loom constructed and on its side before being raised up, note the black metal rod is not needed in the eight shaft countermarch make up as I found out this morning when the jacks would not sit up against the beater cradle with it in place, I loosened off the loom to remove it but again this is not mentioned in the instructions so do be warned.

A close up of the inside of the loom before the cloth beams are added

The top of the loom, showing one of the beater cradles, there are several different positions here so that instead of advancing the warp you can move the beater back.

The cloth beams are now in place and I have hung the beater here to show it in proportion to the front beam.

A shot of the loom before the shafts, jacks(shaft controllers) treadles and lamms are added. All the tie up cords do come ready cut tos size and colour coded with different colour plastic ties which correspond to the tie up diagram.

The treadles and lamms are now added. There are two sets of lamms, upper and lower and eight treadles, so I suppose in theory you could do a direct tie up, one treadle to one shaft if you wished. I have to say that the tie up diagram for the horizontal countermarch was a little confusing. I have not used a countermarch loom before and found a very good tie up diagram on the All Fiber arts website, link here

http://www.allfiberarts.com/ and then search for countermarche tie up, the one I used is type B tie up.

This is for the horizontal countermarche tie up and they give an alternative for another style of countermarche

loom.

A close up of the first warp to go on the loom, a 92 inch warp in tencel and rayon hand dyed by Yarntopia Treasures from Etsy. Wonderful colours, also has a website http://www.yarnstopiatreasures.com/

This will be for a scarf on a four shaft threading with a small diamond pattern, the weft is hand dyed laceweight baby alpaca and silk in a light green colour. The photo doesnt show the colours of the warp yarn too clearly but they are in shades of jade.

Pictures to follow when the loom is warped and ready to go.

For now happy weaving!!

Wednesday 7th April

2010-04-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

Its amazing how fast the time seems to pass me by. I have spent the afternoon dyeing up some hanks of yarn that I purchased for weaving. Five 100g hanks of silk and alpaca in laceweight and five 100g hanks of laceweight bluefaced leicester yarn are now dyed and drying out. Photographs to follow when dry. These will be used in future projects.

On the spinning front, some hand dyed merino rovings in a burgundy colour are being spun up on the Kromski Minstrel at present and the hand knitted scarflette in Jade mohair and silk is almost finished. The Easter holidays are here at the moment and the girls are home from school so its not so easy to concentrate on more complicated projects when my bottom hardly seems to touch the sofa for more than five minutes at a time!

The first bobbin of merino roving spun up

Showing as slightly lighter than the original colour, the merino roving waiting to be spun.

I have just purchased a polystyrene bust to display my handmade items on for photographs. I felt this would look better than the dining chair! This has been christened Doris!

On the loom this week is a plain weave scarf using a silk and wool warp hand dyed in multiple colours and the weft is a fine two ply lambswool yarn, undyed from Texere yarns. The lambswool is very soft and I wanted something neutral to show off the colours in the warp yarn. Plain weave is very easy, just being a straight four shaft draft, one thread in each shaft, one to four repeated across all the threads. I used 96 ends and with plain weave you dont need to set up selvedges. For those of you who are not familiar with weaving selvedges are the edge threads that form the neat side of the weaving. There are several ways to do this but mostly I use two threads threaded in each of the first two heddles, so four threads on each end in all.

Close up of the plain weave scarf with multicoloured hand dyed silk and wool warp and two ply lambswool warp. I like the way the colours are showing up through the lambswool.

This picture shows the warp and the fine lambswool weft on the shuttle.

More soon, have a good week.

FRIDAY 2ND APRIL 2010

2010-04-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a very wet and windy start to Good Friday here in Berrow but at long last the rain has stopped and the sun has come out. We are off to our local riding stables for their annual easter egg hunt. I have a grown up daughter who is a riding instructor there so we usually take part. I have packed spare clothes for the younger girls as after an hour of rummaging in the mud and wet fields they will probably need hosing down before returning home.

I have just finished the tencel and mohair wrap that was on the louet loom and I will be adding pictures later. It has been fulled and is waiting now to be photographed and put into my etsy shop - Purely Inspired. Pictures below.

The tencel and mohair wrap on my eight shaft louet loom. The warp is hand dyed tencel from Yarnstopia on etsy and the weft is some mohair yarn that I have had in my stash for a long time however it was bought without labels so I cant identify the mohair content or the producer.

This view shows the colour and weave pattern more closely, the draft or pattern is a twill variation, and is threaded over four shafts.

This is a close up of the pattern of the wrap showing the twill points, it almost gives a 3D effect.

I am very excited as I have just ordered a Glimakra Julia loom from Fibrecrafts. They are very helpful there by the way, if anyone is interested in weaving and wants to have a chat about it as I know from experience it can be rather daunting when you start off. Susan Litton who works there is a very knowledgable weaver and has been so helpful to me. If you are able to travel to their shop then you will be able to try out the looms and wheels before you make a purchase. Google maps do a very good set of directions.

Anyhow back to the Julia loom, its a floor loom but only measures about 28 inches wide, the weaving width is 26 and a half inches. It can be purchased as either a counterbalance loom (two corresponding shafts have to be raised at the same time) or countermarche which means that only one shaft has to be raised at a time, although in practise multiple shafts are normally lifted. You start with two shafts, it comes with those as standard and then add on kits are available to purchase with an extra two shafts, floor pedals or treadles and the lamms and the tie up cords included. You can according to Glimakra put up to eight shafts and treadles on the countermarche style loom and up to six shafts and treadles on the counterbalance style loom. Have a look at the Glimakra website to see pictures.

Whilst on the subject of suppliers, Wingham wool work are very helpful regarding advice and their fibres are lovely. I recently purchased a Kromski Minstrel spinning wheel and got a £25 voucher for fibre and purchased 600g of their dyed merino and silk blend. 300g of Jade colours and 300g of Purples. The Jades are being spun at the moment and two hanks have been knitted up into another scarflette using a pattern by Evelyn Clarke from Fiber Trends. That too will be in the etsy shop soon.

Well, whatever you are doing this holiday weekend, I hope you have a good one and apparently its going to be sunny on Sunday!

Sunday 28th March 2010

2010-03-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hi, good to meet you if you are reading this. My name is Liz and I am 47 years of age and an avid fibre fan.

I have been spinning and weaving for approximately six years now. I run a small business selling hand dyed fibres, handwoven and handknitted accessories. The name of my business is Pure Inspiration and you can find my website and link to my etsy shop at http://www.pure-inspiration.com/

I am currently selling some of my handwoven items at Air Gallery in High Street, Well, Somerset. Its been open for about four months now, so fingers crossed for the owners it works out well in these difficult times.

The rest of my items are for sale at my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/fiberaddicts

The latest batch of hand dyed fibres will be available to view at the end of May.

To tell you a little about myself and our family. I am a widow and have four daughters, two of whom still live at home with me, the other two are grown and flown and one is married and expecting her first baby in September so I am very excited about becoming a granny. Obviously little one will benefit from lots of hand knitted goodies.

We live very close to the sea in Somerset and share our home with two dogs, Jazz and Max, five cats, Splodge, Topaz, Amythest, Periodt, and Rupert, four birds, Bill, Ted, Snowy and Lily, two guinea pigs, Rose and Bramble, an angora rabbit called Rocky and two african snails, Daisy and Onslow, a hamster called biscuit and two gerbils whose names escape me at present, they do seem to change on a regular basis! Finally, there are also two spinning wheels, an Ashford Traditional, a Kromski Minstrel, a Louet Kombo eight shaft table loom and endless supplies of dye, fibre and yarn. How everything fits into our little two bed house is a miracle to me! I am sure one day everything is going to burst out and land in the road.

Life is very hectic, chaotic and generally disorganized but we muddle through, so I hope you will enjoy following some of my thoughts, my projects and my days.