Sunday, June 25, 2006
Baylham Rare Breeds Centre
Yesterday I was at the Baylham Rare Breeds Centre (near Ipswich, Suffolk) for a wool day. There were spinners from three local guilds and members of the Coloured Sheep Breeders Association. Lots of fleece for sale including the rare breeds sheep and shetland, ryeland and alpaca.
I spent most of the day demonstrating knitting. I had finished the Gunnister man's pouch and people were very interested in that. I was also using an old yarn caddy (the red thing in the photo below) that hangs from my arm and people were fascinated by that as well!
It was a beautiful sunny day and quite a few visitors came. The children could all have a go at felt making with carded fleece and tops of various colours. They all had a wonderful time and produced some very colourful table mats.
All in all it was a very enjoyable get together.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Gunnister Man's Pouch
I was determined to have a go at the Gunnister man's pouch in the latest Spin Off and had some fine light brown Shetland wool which I had spun that would be perfect for the bulk of the pouch. However, I hadn't got any dark brown wool which was fine enough to use with it and neither had I got any dark brown fleece.
I tried knitting the fairisle part using some finely spun yak fur but it was much too furry and didn't allow the detail of the pattern to show.
I wanted to do it sooner rather than later (as usual) and found a ball of bulky weight black Welsh mountain which I had obviously used for knitting something which hadn't worked out and had frogged at some time or another.
I unplied it on my wheel, and then took out a lot of the twist by spinning it backwards on the wheel. I then respun it, drafting it much more to make it fine enough to use with the fine shetland and it worked!
I will post another pic when the pouch is finished, but I don't think there will be any of the finely spun black Welsh mountain left over, so that's why I've taken a picture of the bulky weight wool together with the finely spun yarn before the pouch is done!
I tried knitting the fairisle part using some finely spun yak fur but it was much too furry and didn't allow the detail of the pattern to show.
I wanted to do it sooner rather than later (as usual) and found a ball of bulky weight black Welsh mountain which I had obviously used for knitting something which hadn't worked out and had frogged at some time or another.
I unplied it on my wheel, and then took out a lot of the twist by spinning it backwards on the wheel. I then respun it, drafting it much more to make it fine enough to use with the fine shetland and it worked!
I will post another pic when the pouch is finished, but I don't think there will be any of the finely spun black Welsh mountain left over, so that's why I've taken a picture of the bulky weight wool together with the finely spun yarn before the pouch is done!
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