Tag Archives: drop spindle

Rare Breeds Show 2010

I had a lovely day yesterday.  The sun shone, I enhanced my stash a bit and bought two spindles from IST Crafts. 

  

I started spinning using a spindle, an Ashford one that is about the size and weight of a small country by comparison to these!  I made a few spindles myself out of wooden wheel, CDs and bits of dowel and they all worked well enough, but weren’t that well balanced.  When I first got my Ladybug wheel I put the spindles to one side, but these are so pretty and spin forever.  I’ve had a quick go with both of them – I bought some oatmeal BFL/silk blend which I tried out on the drop spindle after a rather nice picnic, then tried a silk hankie on the turkish spindle (after a few hours on one layer I had to admit defeat and go to bed, leaving it for another day).

I did manage a rosette yesterday – my Shetland Fern scarf as awarded sixth place which I am delighted about!  The fancy yarn class was great, and it was a skein of coiled yarn that picked up a first place so I will have to keep in training for next year!

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Summer Flowers

I am much happier with my second attempt at dyeing this weekend.  It’s cheerful and bright – my daughter said it was like summer flowers.  The fibre was what was left from my original purple sock yarn project – around 150g of superwash merino/nylon mix.  I think this will again turn into sock yarn, possibly turning into some socks with a feather and fan pattern. 

A brief thank you to the local Brownie pack – again I was able to spend dyeing as they were keeping me child-free for the day!  It’s a hundred years of Guiding this year, so I get another day to play in a few weeks time when it’s ‘Party in the Park’ – just in time to top up with fibre for the Tour de Fleece.

 

I also dyed a silk hankie – I’m not so sure about how that turned out.  I might have a go at spinning the silk on my drop spindle rather than my Ladybug.  I am eyeing up buying a new drop spindle from IST Crafts (http://thewoodemporium.co.uk/dropspindles.php) who will be at my local Rare Breeds Show next month.  I’ll have some time away from home later in the year, so will be wheel-free and it would be good to keep spinning.  Have I given myself enough excuses to spend money yet? 🙂