On Our Mooring

 It's has been great to be back out on the boats finally! We've been having cold, wet and  windy weather just lately so this was the first opportunity to take our Mirror dinghy out on the water this Season. We were meeting up in the afternoon for some informal "racing around the buoys" with our fellow dinghy sailors, so Skipper and I got out there early to do some fine tuning and have a bit of practise! I say "informal" but racing sailors are always competitive!!
We sailed over to our Swing Mooring where our little Sunstar18 is kept and tied up alongside. Whenever we are aboard we always fly our club burgee and of course our Ensign flag. They flutter brightly in a breezy NE wind.

    

 The tide is still low as we have our lunch which includes a nice hot mug of tomato soup. It is lovely to see the sunshine and blue sky but the breeze is rather cool. I love spending time on our mooring just watching the river. I sit at the bow and watch the river bubbling and rolling in, happy and gurgling, slapping and sploshing on our mooring chain. The sunlight dances on the tops of the wavelets. We watch the shore as the other dinghies get rigged and launched ready for the racing,

And so we climb back on board our dinghy and  join the little red sails of the other Mirrors and have a great afternoon chasing around the course followed by the customary drink and banter in the pub at the end of the day. 

Hand Painted Yarn

At the IW Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Guild we had a "Fun Day" of Hand Painting Yarn with Dyes. It was an opportunity to mess about with lots of colour and experiment with painting techniques. First we soaked our yarn samples in warm soapy water so as they would absorb the colours more easily.














Then laying the yarn on some cling film it was time to get all creative. I love colour and although it was so tempting to dip my paint brush in all the dye pots! I tried very hard to take it slow and carefully consider the colour blending





Once painted the yarn was wrapped up in the cling film and placed in a steamer for around ten minutes to fix the coloured dye.

At home I was able to wash the yarn samples in clear water and dry in the garden.

 These are my little skeins of colour, 4x 25grms of kid angora and 50grms of hand spun wool and silk.  

Doesn't it look yummy? I'm not sure what I will do with these blasts of colour yet, I think I will certainly enjoy knitting or weaving them in one of my projects though.

 I love the process of my craft from thinking up an idea to developing it into a piece of knitted work. Whether it's spinning the wool, weaving the cloth; it's very satisfying making something unique. I shall ponder on this yarn and see what it wants to be...