Filling the gaps...

Having decided to keep I Blog, I fondly believed that I would be writing it frequently but, what with one thing and another, this just hasn't come about. I have even been mis-remembering what I've been up to this month, partly, I suspect, because I didn,t finish writing about out visit to North Wales. This, I must remedy, even though the visit was over a month ago.

This is a picture I took of Snowdon from the Caernarfon end of Lake Padarn: it was a beautiful evening and everything was so clear.

 
This photograph was taken from the Lake Padarn railway looking towards the Dinorwig Slate Quarries, now an underground hydro-electic power station http://www.electricmountain.co.uk/ We went on the tour of this phenomenon and it was a truely unique experience.

Another memorable day was spent on the Welsh Highland Railway http://www.whr.co.uk/ travelling between Caernarfon and Porthmadoc...

This was taken at one of the stops enroute. It all seems a long time ago now. I managed to make a video of the train journey; if only I could work out how to do something with it other than watching it on the camcorder...ah well, eventually..

Obviously, we saw loads of sheep....

.....of which this is one spotted as we were leaving the Snowdonia area.

May Bank holiday was spent enjoying my Grandma role - some of the time, anyway because The Archaeologist had entered and trained for the Bristol 10k run. I felt he deserved the support he had worked so hard for, so I took off the Grandma hat and put the Support Party one on instead. 

He managed it in a very creditable 61mins; very good for his first attempt at this kind of an event, especially when he only began running in earnest in August 2012.

On 8 May, I attended my first meeting as a member of the Knitting and Crochet Guild Board of Directors. http://www.kcguild.org.uk/ I have been given the task of developing an education strategy and also, pick up any other jobs I am able to do as there is just too much that requires attention for any of us to stick to one area. I am a very devoted knitter - I have been knitting since I was five years old and I taught myself to crochet at some stage, although I can't remember when: I am keen to see the Guild prosper.

The 9 May saw me in Salisbury at the shop/studio, Born to Knit, but I have already written about this.

I know I've alread written a bit about my trip to Cheshire as well but didn't get as far as uploading any pictures of Fiona's garden: here they are, taken when the sun disappeared, unfortunately. It is a lovely garden and comes complete with ducks...

However, it had rained so much everything became a little boggy...not that the ducks minded.....and finally...

.....the studio, where we spent our time.

Finally, the last week of the month and I was a-Grandma-ing again, this time at our home with both granddaughter and daughter staying for four whole days. Poor little granddaughter was suffering a bit with 'teeth' and a cold/cough but it didn't stop her doing much and it was very special to have them both with me on my birthday.

Time has caught up with me again, so more another day....

 

Another busy day.....

Most of today has been taken up with learning how to card fleece properly for the wool spinning process. It makes a huge difference to the outcome when you are working with a correctly-prepared rolag. The rest of the time was spent trying to get a smoothly-spun wool yarn and, in my case trying to get to get used to my Lace Flyer.......

.....it turns so much faster than the standard one and it took a lot of setting up as well. I will now be able to spin lace-weight yarn (in theory) but in practice, it's going to mean an lots of time spent trying to get the technique right....

Tomorrow will be devoted to worsted preparation and spinning, sorting the rest of my fleeces and being shown how to warp up my Handknitter's Loom.

 

Addenda

I can't seem to get this right; now I have two images of the canal and no church again.......

Try this again....
 

End of day one

Have spent an interesting and productive day with Fiona Nesbit (http://shropshireweavers.co.uk/) and another student, Dawn. We examined a couple of my fleeces and learned about the mechanics and care of our spinning wheels and did some worsted spinning and some plying, as well as getting in a bit of practice with drop spindles. After Dawn left, Fiona and I sorted my Teeswater fleece but decided the Balwen was too felted to be any use, so that'll end up on her compost heap.

When I got back to Audlem, I walked a short way along the canal to the supermarket.

This board was displayed at the side of the towpath:

It was raining heavily, so I didn't hang around........

My photo of Audlem church failed to materialise in my last post, so Iam trying again.......

 
 

 

On the road again...

This week, I am in Cheshire, staying in a town called Audlem but spending my days about 5 miles away at the studio of a textile person where I hope to improve my hand spinning by learning some more about the preparation of fleeces and better hand spinning techniques: I expect to work very hard for the next three days.....

I managed to get all of my important equipment, including 2 spinning wheels (one is folding for travelling about, the other better staying in one place) into my car, with difficulty. I have brought 5 large bags of fleece and one very large and I can't say for sure how many fleeces they contain but it has to be at least 10. Sorting them out will give me lots of practice under supervision and then I might finally be on the road to better outcomes. Hand spinning yarn is not easy or quick in any way, although once you have the knack, it does become easier and that's when you begin to realise that the end result lacks polish: that's where I am at. My ambition is to make most of my own yarns but I am quite a way off that yet, especially in terms of quality and reliability of what comes off the wheel.

I hope to be able to write about my week as it goes along but, as usual, access to the Net is at best unreliable, so I may not manage too much unless I go and have my tea in the same pub as I went to tonight (the ...............), where they have free WiFi and don't ask for all your information in return.

Audlem has a very striking church. It is on a mound in the centre of the town placed in such a way that I feel someone made a mistake and really meant to make it a castle; even the architecture is rather majestic. The Shropshire Union canal runs through the town but I haven't managed to find a way of accessing it by car: I am hoping to do so sometime but it will depend upon the weather because as much as I enjoy walking tow paths, I don't relish getting soaked.

Today is my first day of spinning and as the sun is out for the moment, I am looking forward to the trip to Fiona's studio. I will try and post more later if I can get the facilities to do so.

Some knitting

On Thursday, I went to Salisbury to visit a person in her wool shop. The idea was to get a few bits of information that I felt my knitting might benefit from.

The person is Heather Drage and her shop, Born to Knit (http://www.borntoknit.co.uk/) is in Fisherton Mill, a craft centre near the middle of the city. It is a bijou establishment, filled with lots of colourful yarns and patterns. Heather runs workshops as well as helping people out with their knitting problems. We looked at one or two things I wasn't sure about and then got on with Entrelec, a pattern of stitches that looks like basket work. I didn't get too many rows done but it was enough to begin to get the hang of the way it worked....

It's a kind of hybrid knitting, not exactly modular but not totally constructed in one piece, either. The outcome is interesting and pleasing, I think. 

In order to get a bit of practice in, I investigated my yarn store and came up with some thick Shetland yarn and some mohair, used double; both a creamy colour, so there is a lot,of texture set against a very plain colour.

I think I have enough yarn to make a scarf. The only drawback is that it represents yet another knitting project on the go. However, I am beginning to realise that having more than one piece of knitting to work on does mean that if I don't feel like doing one, I will pick up another and it is always worth having something simple on the go to socialise with.

Bits left out.......

Having looked at my published entry, I find an image missing. I am beginning to think that the App I am using struggles when it has a number of images. I will have to publish more frequently to, presumably, counteract this. I had noticed that the typing became sluggish when several images were uploaded.

Herewith, the 'missing' image.....