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.

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!!

 

 

Tuesday 17th July 2012

The last four months have been absolutely manic.  I am now the proud grandmother of a new baby boy as my daughter gave birth by c section on 5th July.  Reuban Bai has joined our ever growing family and we are so pleased to welcome him.  My daughter reports that he is very boring and just sleeps between feeds.  I am sure that wont last long!!!

On the fibre front its been an interesting time, I have been doing a lot of hand dyeing and the results are in the online shop, see link to the right.  I am also busy spinning up lots of west country fleece which has been hand dyed in different colours to start making some small rugs to be put up for sale.  I am also weaving silk scarves to use up my stash of silk yarn. 

Knitting is currently small baby jackets and we are taking a holiday next week so that will be going along for the evenings. 

The girls finish for the summer holidays on Friday and then we have six weeks of fun, I'm looking forward to relaxing and taking things a bit easier on the work front.

Thursday 15th March 2012

Well, the inspiration didnt get to come out for very long thanks to small children who have insisted on sharing their germs with mum!  I am currently staggering around trying to shake off a horrible cold and sore throat that requires superhuman effort just to get from one point in the house to the next.  The mad dogs are giving me reproachful looks because I am not taking them out for their daily charge along the beach but to be honest I dont think I could summon up the energy at the moment.  I am managing to drive children to school, of course they are fully recovered through having endless tlc when they were poorly but something that us single parents have to do without when the dreaded lurgy strikes. 

I keep looking longingly at my weaving loom where sits 4 skeins of hand dyed wool to create a scarf in graduated colours and sighing and just shuffling back to the sofa or the computer.  Lets hope that this time next week the germs will have taken the hint and left to infect the next unsuspecting person. 

I am managing to do about seven rows of knitting of an evening before the urge to become horizontal takes over and I depart to bed with my hotwater bottle and book.

I hope everyone else is having more luck with their knitting, spinning and weaving and will try and post more next week when hopefully I shall have that warp on the loom!!!!

Tuesday 6th March 2012

The warmer weather is inspiring me to create.  It must be something to do with the fact that everything is bursting into life after the winter months.  The light is definitely more intense this time of year.  Even the mad dogs are livlier, if that is possible.  I shall be dyeing up lots more fibre to put into the online shop so keep checking back for new listings. 

My daughter, who is already mum to one adorable 17 month old daughter is expecting her second baby in early July so I shall soon be busy knitting and weaving for the impending arrival.  I am currently knitting a small fairisle jacket for my grand daughter.  The pattern featured in Simply Knitting a couple of months ago and is pefect for the summer months.  This is the back up to the armhole shaping

.  The recommended yarn is Rowan but I am using a 4 ply yarn instead.  I am very pleased at how the pattern is working out.  It is different in that you have to join the shoulder seams using a three needle cast off and then pick up the stitches across the shoulder seam and knit downwards to create the sleeves.  Less sewing up which is fine by me.  Anyone else out there hate sewing?

The spinning is currently alpaca fibre in shades of brown, I'm just randomly pulling it out of the bag and spinning so not sure what effect I am going to achieve when its plied.  Then I am intending to weave some scarves and wraps with it to sell.  I have several good drafts lined up that I want to experiment with.

Thats it for now so happy spinning.

Wednesday 15th February 2012

Finally the days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer.  The hens are laying again and arent huddled in cold, soggy groups around the garden.  I have been very busy over the last couple of weeks getting ready for the craft fair mentioned in the previous posting. I had a great time, meeting the other crafters and seeing both regular and new customers.  I took along my spinning wheel so that I could demonstrate and recieved a great deal of interest from children and adults alike.  Here are two photographs, one of my stall and one of me spinning.




lizziejane2, on Flickr">

There are also some photographs on http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/ of the fayre. 

Its half term here at Pure Inspiration so the dyes have been put away out of reach of helpful fingers and my working is limited to a little weaving and spinning to fit around visits from friends and outings to the cinema.  I am hoping to begin some experimental gradient dyeing soon so watch this space.  I am also looking forward to the warmer days so the house isnt full of damp fibre!!

Wishing you all lots of fibery fun.

Tuesday 31st January 2012

Firstly a very very belated Happy New Year to everyone.  I was just looking at my last post only to realise it was at the start of October last year!  That will give you some idea of just how busy I have been here.

On  10th, 11th and 12th of February next, there will be a craft fair at Sanders Garden World at Brent Knoll in Somerset, five minutes from Junction 22 M5 motorway.  This will once again be in aid of Freewheelers motorcycle charity.

I have been and still am hard at making items to take and hopefully sell at this event.  I have so far made an assortment of jewellery and hand knitted and hand woven items which will be on sale over that weekend.  I shall be there on the Saturday and Sunday only as I am unable to make the Friday.  Come and grab yourselves an unique gift for that someone special on valentines day.  There will be lots of colourful stalls selling home made jams and pickles, cakes, cards, jewllery, pottery, artwork and woodwork as well as my own stall with drop spindle kits, fibres, yarns and jewellery alongside the handmade accessories.

I am glad that the days are lengthening a little and I think our hens are too, the egg laying has increased again.  We have two new hens here now, a Black Rhode and a Cou Cou Moran.  the Black Rhode has just come into lay and proudly informs us each time she has produced an egg with a session of loud clucking. 

You can tell the weather is turning colder at the moment by the fact that our cats have migrated indoors and are not venturing out very much

and you know its really cold when the cats and dogs start cuddling up together!!

I am currently spinning up some hand dyed wensleydale roving that I fell over on Etsy the other day.  I really should be getting on with spinning up some hand dyed alpaca that I want to weave a shawl with but I just couldnt resist the gorgeous colours in this one

I am just hoping that when I ply the finished bobbins the colours will line up quite well.  I think socks might be the end result for this yarn!!

I am weaving some more tea towels to put on the stall at the craft fair.  I was very pleased with how the last ones came out and have been quite pleased so far with these.  The draft comes from Top Ten Towels on Four Shafts which is an e-book that I downloaded from Interweave press.  Its called the Rosepath draft and I like the effect of the yellow and red plaid that looks like rows of little flowers.

In the online shop are a lovely selection of hand dyed fibres and wool rovings together with an assortment of jewellery.  Have a look using the link to the right of this posting.

One of my new years resolutions is to spend a little more time sharing on my blog, so hopefully this will happen.

Happy spinning!!