Fibre East - 28th July 2013

First post for a few months. Yesterday a group of us hired a coach and went to Fibre East at Ampthill, Beds. A lovely day out in the sunshine.

Knitting on an overcast May morning

May's morning session just finished. What an antidote to the weather! Seven ladies came, including one new local lady, Coral, plus Brenda from Terrington, who first came last month. Lovely time, lots of chat, coffee and laughter. Nik agreed to come and do a demo of her spinning one month. We shall look forward to that! We also discussed charity knitting. Coral told us about a project called "Fish and Chip Babies" These are baby clothes sent to Africa for babies whose families are so poor they are sent home from hospital wrapped in paper. Mary already knits for the Lifeline 4 Chernobyl project. There's also the preemie baby blanket project. We hope to get these off the ground now.

                                                                                       

 

Brenda & Coral our 2 newest knitters

'Myrtle' is assembled

Hi Everyone

Welcome to the next instalment of my adventure into the world of spinning. Having arrived home full of enthusiasm for spinning the next task was to assemble the wheel itself but firstly all the parts needed oiling/sealing. The Ashford guide recommended oil rather than varnish and after a bit of googling we decided on Danish Oil, having used it once before for our dog cart. The main problem with Danish Oil is that once cloths have been used to oil the wood they need to be kept damp as when they dry out there is a risk that they may spontaneously ignite!

The parts were all laid out in the garage and the first coat applied. This went really well but with 6 hours betwen coats it took a couple of days followed by a further 48 hours to go 'off'.

Oiling the wheel

Finally, we were ready to assemble the wheel. This was quite hard work and I think that had I not been on my course I would not have fully understood some of the instructions. My hubby's fishing skills also came in handy when tying off what appeared to be fishing line. In spite of the wheel's 24 year sojourn in the loft, all parts seem fully functioning and even the rubber components haven't perished.

Our canine girls with 'Myrtle'

The wheel is now fully assembled and apart from a few squeaks appears ready for spinning. Yikes! 'She' also has a name - 'Myrtle' - apparently wheels name themselves and this was a name that suggested itself to myself and a friend independently, so Myrtle she is.
My first Alpaca fleece from 'Pippa' has now arrived so I'll blog again about my first spinning attempts - wish me luck!

Spinning adventures in Lincolnshire

The Spinning Wheel

'Lazy Kate'

'Wool'!

 Hi All, Fengirl has asked me to blog about my adventures into the world of spinning. This all began with a friend's Alpacas and an unused spinning wheel found in a relative's loft. I jokingly said I would learn how to knit then learn how to spin. That was about 18 months ago and since then I've joined St Edmund's Knit and Crochet Group and last weekend I went on my first spinning course.
It was a fab day spent with a great teacher (Kim) in a rather upmarket log cabin in the wilds of Lincolnshire (www.alpacathingz.co.uk). It was tipping down outside but the woodburner inside kept us warm and cosy and so my adventure began.
We were spinning with Alpaca fleece which unlike Sheep fleece contains no lanolin and so can be a little more difficult to spin but first it had to be prepared. We were using fleece from 'Leo' a cream Alpaca and I was amazed that there was no odour with the fleece. Leo had been sheared last summer and his fleece had been kept in an old pillowcase under the stairs ever since. Unlike sheep fleece you don't have to wash Alpaca fleece before spinning, just make sure that it is kept dry and away from moths in either paper bags or cotton pillowcases.
To begin the fleece has to be 'carded' where small amounts of the sheared fleece are placed onto carding paddles (they look like large slicker brushes to those of you familiar with dog grooming). The idea is that you comb through the fleece so that all the fibres lie in one direction and become light and airy. Hand carding takes a long time especially when you consider how much fleece has to be carded before you get on to the process of spinning. Fortunately, my teacher had a drum carder which allows you to card a significant amount of fleece at any one time with minimum effort. We probably spent around 2 hours carding the fleece!
Finally, the time for spinning had arrived - I must go back to read my fairytales again as there was no needle on the spinning wheel, so no fear of falling asleep!
If you can pat your head with one hand whilst rubbing circles on your tummy with the other you can probably spin. The main idea is to treadle with your feet (propel the wheel) whilst feeding in the fleece onto the spindle. This takes a bit of getting used to as you have to be able to stop/start the wheel with your feet, and feed and separate the fleece with your hands at the same time, whilst making sure the wheel only spins clockwise. After what seemed like forever I finally managed to get the hang of it and ended up with a bobbin of what looked like a cross between rope and gardener's string. I was chuffed to bits and reliably informed that my 'wool' looked like most first timer's. Thinking that that was that, I then got to spin some of 'Alfie's' fleece, a brown Alpaca. Having finally ended up with two bobbins of 'wool' these were then fixed to a 'lazy kate' and spun together on the wheel counter clockwise to produce a two tone 2ply 'wool'. Wow! I was hooked. It was so amazing to think that the small ball of wool I was left with had started out as 'raw' fleece earlier that day.
My day was great and I'm definitely hooked. All I have to do now is put my spinning wheel together and try again. To be continued .......................