We did the Tour of Britain Ladies' Race in June - I say 'we' but in fact I just cheered from the sidelines, despite good intentions to spin rare breeds on the days they went near Stoneleigh.
Then it was Woolfest, to which I took 3 of my sheep for the British Coloured Sheep Breeders' Association stand. First time ever doing anything like that; great fun. And the fleeces from the two two well-coloured sheep (Mr Pie and Gissy) sold within the first couple of hours, along with Wincey's very black, lustrous Wensleydale fleece, to a buyer from Japan! #feelingvalued
Then it's Tour de Fleece, and I have been managing to spin at least a little every day. I'm aiming to stash-bust my Indie-dyed fibre, with a view to experimenting with using my own handspun for weaving. I'm really wanting to get into my stock of Freyalyn's Fibres, but as I hadn't spun much for a while, I've started with some other braids until I think my spinning can do Freyalyn's fibres justice.
First was the Romney my pals bought me back from EYF, which I thoroughly enjoyed spinning and which I think I've done well enough to make a good warp. I've got some predominantly pinky singles I think will go beautifully with it for the weft.
I'll need more than just the Romney for all those singles, though, so started on some dyed-on-grey Shetland. Beautiful to spin, and I love the colours - but it's coming up darker than I want, so although I'm very happy with it for a warp, I think I'll not use it with the Romney. I wasn't sure about how a fabric might behave that had some warp ends Romney and some Shetland anyway. Still haven't decided what to use alongside the Romney...
Next, when I've finished this Shetland, I think I'm ready for some Freyalyn. Not sure whether to spin up the Kingfisher on BFL/silk first, which I'm planning on sampling chain-plied and 1-to-1 before spinning up the whole 200 grams. I'm thinking weft, but might come to another conclusion once I've got done samples to play with. Or, I may decide to spin Vivien on Wensleydale next, which I want to spin fine high twist, and chain ply for blocky colours, probably for knitting socks (hence the high twist).
It was Wool on the Wall on Sunday, so that took the weekend up. The fleece sale was great, a good variety of good British fleeces, including some rarities. I resisted buying - somehow! - but did order a Lleyn from a local farmer.
And, in between and alongside all of that, I've been progressing with using the DK cotton warp I have on my rigid heddle, which was for learning but which I haven't been so motivated to do since I got the 8-shaft
. Plus, I love wool, and am less drawn to cotton. Having said which, my buddy and I bought delicious cottons at Woolfest for making tea towels - they will be the most expensive tea towels
ever, but the colours are
beautiful, and we'll have a lot of fun doing them.
And I've pretty much always got some Fair Isle on the go - it's the second Otter Beret at the mo; the first was for BH in his choice of colours - and some socks.
Will add some pics when I've worked out how to make them smaller on the iPad.