Ancient and Modern

Blue Woven Cloth

I have been busy weaving some cloth on my Saori Loom, enjoying the process, using my blues, purples and grey hued yarn to blend together in the warp and weft to make a soft subtle colourway. Adding handspun and hand dyed slubs as I weave to create texture and interest making my cloth unique.

My weaving has a modern twist, but the method of weaving cloth is an ancient craft.

My loom is a modern style, designed by  Misao Jo, but there are hundreds of different ways to weave and many different looms that have been made.

http://www.saorinomori.com/eng/index.html  

On a recent visit to Cardiff we spent an enjoyable morning looking around St Fagans Museum of Rural Life. It is a work in progress and well worth a visit, unfortunately the weaving mill wasn't open for our visit which was disappointing, but here is a loom set up in a Round House setting.

https://museum.wales/stfagans/

We were pleased to find while staying in the area the (forest and rivers) far Open Studios was on. So of course we had a little tour of galleries and studios, chatting to the artists and makers and being inspired by the work produced, particularly enjoyed spending some time with two lovely weavers.

Here are the links to their websites. Really beautiful work and it is so wonderful to see the energy, skill and enthusiasm of these talented young women. 

https://www.rhianwymandesign.co.uk/

  

https://www.gabydevitt.co.uk/

 Weaving from the Ancient to the Modern is an absorbing craft, the more I learn the more I want to learn, to improve and develop my skills. Hand weaving to make slow cloth - many hours, carefully made by hand and with thought and love.   

With the weather being so glorious Skipper and I just had to get on the River Wye again.
We hired a canoe for the day, took a picnic and made our way gently down the river around 14 miles of meandering bends and sparkling shallow shingle banks, watching the fish jump, herons sleep, swans and geese glide and seeing the hundreds of damselflies in countless colours dance above the water's surface.

Thank You

It was another great week at Quarr Abbey, thank you to all. Christmas is nearly upon us and the end of the year approaches.
  It's been a busy 2016, there has been so much I didn't get around to blogging about! Rather than some festive photos I thought I would share these three pictures with you:
Picture one - some Black Welsh Mountain sheep under a huge tree at Woodchester Park near Stroud. A super place to visit for a good walk there's a lovely flock of Jacob sheep in the grounds too.
Beautiful wool and wood.
 

 Picture two- looking forward to "some more views like these", at the helm sailing in Greece

Picture three- exploring the Greek Isles.

Thank you for reading my blog.


I will be Casting On and Casting Off  in  2017 
Hope you will pop back to read more of my woolly tales in spinning, weaving, knitting, natural dyes and salty sea tales of sailing days.


Merry Christmas and very Happy and Peaceful New Year.
Sending Good Wishes to you all,
love Sue


 

Casting Off- Sailing The Saronic Islands and Argolic Gulf

 We are just back from another sailing holiday in Greece. We explored the Saronic area this time and it was absolutely wonderful! Beautiful sea and coastline, plenty of good sailing winds and perfect little harbours and hideaways. In the top photo see if you can spot our yacht- it's the one with our little yellow MMA burgee flying happily in the hot sunshine.

 We were on a little voyage as we started in Navplion and finished in Palaia Epidavros
We called in at Astrous, Plaka, Tiros, Ermioni, Hydra, Poros, Methana, Perkika, Angistri and Vathi

 The sea was lumpy and bumpy some days with little wavelets and rolling swell but most of the time it was perfect for easy comfortable sailing with a steady breeze so as we could get 4- 6 knots of speed making our Beneteau 331 a joy to handle for the two of us. When all was calm I tried to capture the colours of the Med with the camera, so amazing all the shades of blue and lavender.
 

 So it was days of planning our route, a course to steer, some days were longer journey days giving us plenty of sailing time. Other days were shorter hops so great for finding a little bay to anchor up for a refreshing swim on route.

 Making our way...

... anchoring for a spot of lunch and a swim, here you can see the anchor chain at the bow of the boat.

 Here a photo taken from the deck looking into the cockpit with the bimini up for a little shade.

From Sunrise to Sunset  

Another Day, Another Bay

Casting On For 2016

 I'm Casting On A new year and new adventures!

I want to show you some "tools of my trade" my wheel, my loom, my needles and wool.

SWH Spinning, Weaving and Handknitting.

I Spin, my spinning wheel is oiled and ready for some work, some raw fleece and some textural coloured batts awaits.

I Weave, my Saori loom is dressed and ready to weave, I am taking photos of the process and look forward to showing you in more detail of my current project in my blog posts over the next few weeks.

I Knit, all my knitted work is hand knitted, some of my knitting needles are vintage as they belonged to  my Grandmother.  I  love to use them, they feel more special and remain just as functional- made to last in those days. I have been keeping the needles clicking over the Christmas break so have things to talk about and show you on knitting too.  

Here is some wool I recently brought to the front of my stock shelves!

 Over the festive period I rearranged my workroom as it was needed as guest room for family to stay. This means I have to have a big tidy up! things I had forgotten about,  put in boxes or stacked in coloured piles of woolly loveliness all have to be sorted through. It is a really good exercise and gives me a fresh look at my wool stock and a new rush of excitement and inspiration takes over, plus my workroom gets a good spring clean to start the year. 

Of course Skipper and I will also be Casting Off  on new sailing adventures too!

More about all of the above to come.

 Just to let you know I will be restocking my online shops soon so do please  pop over to view (click on my links in the right hand column)  hope you enjoy.

Mountains and Lakes of Austria

 

St Wolfgang Austria.

What a most beautiful place to take a little holiday! This view of the "Lion Mountain" taken from our room balcony. There was a sailing regatta taking place upon our arrival, so we felt quite at home watching the little yachts trying to chase the breeze on a very warm calm day.

Skipper and I hadn't even unpacked before we were down to the lake and rowing the dinghy provided by the hotel.

Bliss, such a wonderful place to be. Skipper gently rowing our little boat across the Lake, the Sun on our faces and scenery to marvel at.

I suppose we must have spent a busy week, as we went up the mountain on the train, walked around the lake, swam in the lake, travelled and explored all the towns and villages on each ferry stop. Each day was filled with plenty to see and do. But it didn't feel tiring, just rejuvenating.

One of my favourite days was the Sunday when we took a snack, our books and some water colour paints cast off the dinghy and went across the lake to little shingle beach.  We pulled our boat ashore and took a swim, painted, read, dozed, daydreamed and breathed in the clear mountain air. So relaxing, I'm no painter-but it's good fun trying and it really made me look more deeply at my surroundings and opened my mind to all the many colours. 

How do you capture the colours and hues, the light of the sun dancing reflections of silver and gold on the water?

Just magical.

 

So back creating something with wool instead of paint. I pick up my knitting needles and balls of yarn. Sit by the lake, what inspiration! 

We had a lovely stay at http://www.wolfgangsee.com/