Friday 14 August 2015

Phew

Well that's the summer exhibition over. We had a successful event and all of the exhibitors worked hard at keeping their space stocked for the six week stint.  I'm not sure what was my best seller as I sold a bit of everything this year. 

Felt hats are always a hit although I still have the one shown in the second picture.




I had to stop knitting, hooking and weaving at one point because I ran out of wool.  I spent a happy couple of  days carding and spinning.  I enjoy the process and am happy standing at the drum carder which sits on a windowsill in the sun lounge.  We have lovely views taking in quite a few of the northern isles.  The sunsets are stunning



The antics of the sheep and kye in the neighbouring fields can be a source of amusement.  In this photograph the sheep are lying down in a line where the fence used to be (it has since been replaced).


That said I sometimes wonder who is amusing who.  Here the cows are looking in at me looking out at them.


The following sequence of photographs give an overview of the process of blending and spinning a two ply hank of wool from coloured fleece. 

Step 1 - I  pick the colours to be blended. Sometimes this is planned and at other times it's a bit random - sorry experimental.


Step 2 - The colours are blended by running the fleece through the carder . This process produces a rolag.
 
 
Step 3 - The individual colours become less distinct the more often the rolag is split and through the carder.
 
 
 
Step 4 - Light and airy rolags ready for spinning.
 

 
 Step 4 - A rare opportunity to spin outside.  
  

Having blended, spun and plied the colours in the hank were more subtle than the original individual strands shown above.


 
 
It's been a wet, cold summer this with the odd glimpse of how it could be.  That said this week has been stunning.   Pleased to have managed a camping trip with our grandchildren and their parents. 
 
 
I was standing at the kitchen sink one day and happened to look up when looking out of the window and there on one of our chimneys was a curlew.
 

  
In my next post I am going to talk about Punis - until then, cheerio.