Reading Time: 10 minutesAs I drove up the track, I saw Helen. She waved at me from behind a full-sized skip bag of, what could be, the softest British wool – Ryeland wool. Fifteen Ryeland fleeces in a big sack. We exchanged talk about the journey over, then she said ‘I decided I might as well add in […]
Spinning
Sustainable Life: Everything Has to Come From Somewhere
Reading Time: 9 minutesWhen I see advice on how to live a sustainable life, the words everything has to come from somewhere always come to mind. It’s something I find I keep saying to myself. We can so easily be seduced by a new ‘sustainable’ product, forgetting that it still has to come from somewhere. Perhaps sometimes there […]
Trash Batts: Spinning With Yarn Scraps
Reading Time: 3 minutesI’ve mentioned that my saving of scraps of just about anything (yarn, fabrics, carding waste etc) knows no bounds. Trash batts are my next scrap using experiment. Batts are the rectangle of processed fibre that results from carding using hand-carders or a drum carder. I’ve asked before when are remnants and scraps too small to use? It seems […]
#Swatchalong: Herdwick Swatch
Reading Time: 2 minutesI have some grey Herdwick wool top in my spinning supplies basket which I had started to use as ‘practice fibre’ when getting used to a new spinning wheel. I initially saw it as expendable, should the first efforts at spinning on the wheel result in uneven, badly spun yarn. Why did I think it […]
Fleece and Fibre at the Small Breeds Farm
Reading Time: 3 minutesMy obsession with fleece and fibre is growing. Not only do I now have a basket of some new types of wool top to spin (new to me) to add to a mountain of Ryeland fleece that I already possess, it seems like a good idea to connect the fleece/fibre to the animal. In the week […]
Ashford Traveller Spinning Wheel: Big ‘0’ Birthday Present
Reading Time: 3 minutesI am now the happy owner of an Ashford Traveller spinning wheel. Recently, on the run up to a big ‘0’ birthday, My husband, Andy, asked me ‘Could you think of something that you would like my family to buy for your birthday – they’d like club together to buy you something’. I replied ‘I […]
