New Beginnings 2

Recently, in between my Grandma duties and things, I have been trying to pick up my craft work.

Last month, I went to a Dyeing workshop and had a go at Space Dyeing where we painted dye on to hanks of yarn, wrapped them in plastic and steamed them in a domestic steamer. This resulted in some dyed Ryeland yarn that came from our sheep and also some fleece, which I have now spun.

These are the hanks of Ryeland yarn. This was commercially spun and the blue is a slightly heavier weight than the pink and white. They have been washed a couple of times but the dye was still coming out on the last wash, so they need another one, at least. I don't know what I'll make out of them but I keep thinking the blue would make a good hat.

This is the dyed fleece (which I forgot to photograph) plied with some cream fleece, both Merino, commercial roving. I am quite pleased with the result since the original, dyed roving was rather uninspiring. I am not sure whether to use this for a scarf or cowl, or something, or whether to make a wall-hanging.

I have returned to reading Mary Walker Phillips' book Creative Knitting. A New Art Form. This book was a revelation which I came across via Tom of Holland's feature of it on Facebook. Until I saw this, I hadn't appreciated that anyone knitted wall hangings. I have begun working my way through her Stitches and Patterns chapter, trying out unfamiliar stitches....

These three samplers from the top sampler show:

• Uncrossed Western Western Stitch (green) and Crossed Western Stitch
• Uncrossed Eastern Stitch (green) and Crossed Eastern stitch
• Uncrossed Stitch (combined method) [green] and Crossed Stitch (combined method).

If you haven't come across the idea of Eastern and Western stitches before, this can be confusing and I found it easy to get muddled up to begin with, although as I worked my way through the diagrams I began to see better what was going on. Likewise, if you have paid little attention to which way your stitches face, it is enlightening to be encouraged to do so: in the past I think I have worked instinctively rather than knowledgeably. I now see why Mary Walker Phillips comes down on the side of the Uncrossed combined method as even though my knitting is reasonably neat, this method of construction gives a very neat cast on as can be seen at the bottom of the lowest sampler. 

I achieved this by casting on using the Uncrossed Western stitch: needle into the back of the stitch (instead of the front as is more 'normal'), yarn under and followed this with a purl row constructed by putting the right hand needle into the front of the next stitch but taking the yarn under the needle instead of over it. This feels a bit odd for a start but not for long and it is a whole lot easier than some of the other methods.

My next sampler was constructed using this Uncrossed Western stitch method moving on to two more stitches. 

The elongated stitches are the Fancy Crossed Throw, which is a fiddly stitch until you get used to it but I like the twisted shape it forms. The rows of what look like knots are a derivation of the Throw and combined with it produce rather neater knots and much longer Throw stitches in Mary Walker Phillips' hands with linen thread than mine, here. The knots are also rather fiddly as they are worked with a group of three stitches into which it is necessary to purl, plain, purl before dropping them; this way the number of stitches is preserved.

It has been an interesting exercise and I plan to begin new knitted projects using the Uncrossed Western stitch method, if possible. I have many more stitches to work through in the book, some of which I recognise but suspect they will feel different when constructed using a new knitting method.

Last month, I also attended a workshop about pleated felt, lead by Liz Clay. (www.lizclay.co.uk) This proved to be very interesting but we were trying to fit a 2-day workshop into one day, so some things didn't get finished.

In my first attempt, I wanted to incorporate dyed Wensledale locks but I didn't make the felt nearly long enough for the cuff I had hope to come out of the exercise: this was a problem some of us found - trying to calculate the right size piece of felt to begin with to allow not only for felting but also for the pleating.

The second sampler was rather more successful from the pleating point of view.....

and the final sample did not get completed and remains so, for the time being but does show how the pleating is accomplished...

I hope to turn this into a corsage. The cotton stitching will be drawn up and then the fabric will be felted some more after which, it is rinsed, dried and the stitching taken out: hopefully, this will leave it permanently pleated....

Well, that makes quite a substantial beginning.....but now it is time for tea......

Anthea

New Beginnings 1

Back to my Blog....such a long time since I last posted..

During my walks on the past few days, it has become obvious that, despite the weather Spring seems to be coming......

The Daffodils have quite a long way to go but the Snowdrops are out......

as are the Crocuses and even a lone Primrose.....

....which I was surprised to see, as I was some Hawthorn blossom....

Apart from this, everything seems very stark, for the moment, anyway, with signs of the recent storms....

Today, the sun has shone but the wind was cold, so I don't suppose that'll encourage anything else to appear, for the moment.

The water in the Bourne is high, still, unsurprisingly...

I haven't seen so much water under this bridge before.

The first lambs have appeared in a field down the road but they are quite well-grown...

Part 2, coming soon......

Catching up 1

More pictures of Portmeirion:

This is the view of the Dwyryd Estuary in one direction from our room and this....

was the other way. The Portmeirion hotel is right on the edge of the Estuary.

There is a walk away from the village, which goes along the water's edge towards the sea for some way and then turns inland.

This is an amazingly contorted, old tree at the point where the pathway divides.

 

These two images show stumps of trees studded with coins. Apparently, this practice began in America and I understand there is someone doing a PhD about it.....otherwise, I don't know anything else about these studded stumps...we did find another one elsewhere in North Wales.
 

The view looking back along the path at the curve where the pathway ceases to be paved. Looking towards the Arenig and Rhinog mountains.

This is the point at which the pathway meets the beach. This doesn't seem to have a particular name but the stretch of water is the Afon Crigyll as it reaches the sea. The Crigyll is the main river that occupies the Dwyryd but there are small, somewhat ragged-looking tributaries which feed it.
 

I didn't walk any further than this but it is possible to follow the path back inland, higher up the hillside and see other features that have been established on the Portmeirion estate before returning to the village.
 

 
 

Taking stock.

I knew it was quite some time since I had managed to write anything on here but even so, I am quite surprised to realise that the last post was in June.....that was before holidays and things. In the interim, I have been to Majorca, Yorkshire, Derby, Kent and Have just returned from Shetland and in between, visited Tewkesbury, enjoyed a neighbour's party and made several visits to attend to the important task of being a Grandma... :)

I see that I don't seem to have put any of my pictures of Portmeirion on here either: this I will remedy forthwith..

This is a general view of the central area.

Down at ground level in that part.

A different angle......

Looking out across the Estuary.

This is a small corner with a cafe and courtyard. Everything is very colourful in Portmeirion...and, as well as walking out in the open there are paths that lead though arches....

....which extends the feeling of variety of space and architecture. 

Portmeirion is an extraordinary place and well worth a visit. Have a look at http://www.portmeirion-village.com/ for some more information and meanwhile, next time, I will post more pictures....
 

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....