New Drum Carder and Old Spinning Chair

Two rather exciting new pieces of kit to show you! Firstly I have decided to invest in a brand new Drum Carder. I have been considering purchasing one for a long time and finally took the plunge and bought an Ashford carder which I'm thrilled with. It will speed up my fleece preparation as I have been using hand carders for this task up til now and  I often found I needed to "card" little and often to keep up with my spinning,  I will now be able to prepare plenty of rolags in advance  to keep my wheel turning.
I also want to experiment with yarn blending and colour blending so my new drum carder will be put to good use.
I have attached my drum carder to a small table so as it is always ready to use and can be easily handled while sitting at my chair.

The second item to show you is my sweet spinning chair. I went to an antique and collectors fair at the weekend and spotted this lovely chair. Made of  solid wood with three chunky legs and a simple styled back rest. I have been looking for one for ages so am thrilled to find such a good one. I really liked it's simplicity. It is practical, functional and looks good and best of all it is extremely comfortable to sit on and spin a yarn.














































I will make a smaller cushion for it when I get time, something handspun and handwoven will look nice.

Space to Create

 I have reorganised my work room and have had a really good tidy up. There is now more space to create!
 A great thing about doing a good sort through is that you find yarns you have put to the back of the shelf and forgotten about.
I am enjoying hand knitting this handspun blues and cream mix (I'm not quite sure what the wool is) the finished piece will be for me, I'm knitting a neck warmer/cowl and plan to finish it with these lovely ceramic buttons made by Jude Allman   http://www.etsy.com/shop/judeallman 














I now have space to store my spinning wheel as well as my loom and I will be able to work with them in situ rather than having to use the kitchen table.















I  store my wool stash on high shelves that go all the way around the room like a colour wheel This always inspires me and helps me to select colour themes and allows me to choose different yarn types easily. My handspun yarns are stored in baskets.














As you can see my work room has a nautical flavour, the mediterranean blues, whites, the wood and ropes, the photos of our boats and simple woven baskets, these all uplift me and make me think of sunny sailing days.
















It will soon be time to get the boats ready for the sailing season, but while the weather is grey and cold I settle in and reach for my lovely yarns and get creating, feeling refreshed and energised in my creative space.

Waiting for the next opportunity to hang my "Gone Sailing" sign on the door.

A Day To Spin

It's been a funny old January what with the weather so cold, we even had snow on the Island (which doesn't happen very often!). No good for doing any winter work on any of our boats. We have been giving the house a bit of TLC instead and doing a spot of painting and decorating indoors, so I haven't had a chance to do much spinning, knitting or weaving. On Saturday however it was the first meeting for IW SWD Guild so I oiled my neglected wheel and took along various rolags and tops to work on and had a super day spinning. First photo shows some mixed fibres which I plied with the blue merino -the happy result is the yarn you see at the end of this post!

A Basket of Jacob Rolags
 


A Bobbin of Merino Blue
 

The jacob rolags being spun on the wheel, I shall ply two of these bobbins together to make up the yarn.














Here is the yarn I managed to finish on the day. Merino blue with mixed fibres.
Sharing a day at the Guild and seeing and chatting about what everyone is working on certainly does me good and has fired up my creative juices!  After the decorating I shall be re organising my work room  this week and get stuck into some lovely new projects.

Our Guild has just set up a website if you want to find out more here's the link
http://www.iowwsd.org/

Winter Warmers- Accessories

Finally started writing on my blog this year! a bit later than planned as "Blogger" has been having a issue with loading photos, hopefully this worked. Happy 2013 to you all.
Well I wanted to show you some woolly accessories I've been working on. Firstly some leg warmers a custom order which I delivered last week. They are hand knitted in Aran works wool on a circular needle and I used various wools from my stash to knit the rib cuffs. they were really fun to do. Great to wear for Yoga class or just snuggling in at home.
When I create a new design I have a note book at hand and write the details as I knit along, later I write the pattern instructions up in full, sometimes I get a bit behind in doing this; as making is much more fun than paper work! so photos are a brilliant reference point. A new year means new intentions and trying to keep the work room tidy, I wonder how long that will last...

 

I knit and weave lots of different styles of winter warmers. This is a snap shot of some stock delivered to Madeontheisleofwight shop. Please click on link on right side of blog for more details.

 

Hand warmers, Socks and Scarves are always fun to make I love to use different combinations of colour and yarn types to produce unique items, so although they are knitted or woven to my written pattern each garment is special and individual.

More stock will be arriving in my online shop at folksy soon, so do pop over there when you can. 

I think I will knit up some more leg warmers too to add to the collection.

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Travels- The Silk Mill

 When the boats are safely tucked up in winter storage it's time to go exploring on land. So we jumped in the car and took a ferry across the Solent  and spent a few days pottering around the Southern Counties. On my list of places I wanted to visit was The Silk Mill at Whitchurch.

http://whitchurchsilkmill.org.uk/mill/index.php

 I really enjoy going to somewhere out of season; when they aren't so crowded with holiday makers you can take your time and really absorb the atmoshere, look closely at things and feel inspired.

  The first photos shows a tray of coloured silk bobbins, the next shows the hanks of silk being wound onto the bobbins- this is powered by a water wheel. Even more exciting for me there was a floor loom warped up and ready to "have a go"

 I was in my element! I proceeded to weave and dream that I could have a loom just like this one in my work room. Skipper had to prise me away from the loom (as we had the place to ourselves there was no queue waiting so I managed to add a bit of length to the cloth).

 Here is the main weaving room with all the looms producing various cloth. Do pop over to their website for more information.

Outside the water which powers the wheel was icy cold and you can see the branches dipping in the flow of the river covered with icicles.

Hand Spun, Painted, Knitted and Woven

 In last month's blog I showed you some of my hand spun and hand painted yarn, well here is a mini Christmas stocking knitted up with this unique yarn! It is to be a little gift for someone very special.

 My end of year event -"Christmas Crafts at Quarr Abbey" was again a very enjoyable and busy time. Thank you to all my customers who bought my hand spun, hand knitted or hand woven goods.

 A basket full of my hand spun skeins.

A box full of my hand woven rugs.

I have plenty of projects to cast on and keep me busy over the winter months.
My order book has hand knitted items to work on and I have some fleeces ready to spin. Also I'm thinking about a new range of hand woven pieces to bring out next year, as they say "Watch this space"...

Do pop over to my shop at Folksy ( just click on the link or badge opposite) to view and buy current items in stock.
 

Ashore

 Lifting Out day and Winter Lay up of our little yacht went very well. Skipper and I motored her up to Newport harbour  and rather than mooring up overnight by the harbour wall and wait for the next tide, the crane was ready to lift us out there and then which was brilliant!  She is all scrubbed down and emptied of fittings, sails rolled and stored and is now all tucked up for her winter snooze.

 So now Skipper and I are on "shore leave" until Spring we like to get out and about and explore not just "our Island- the beautiful Isle of Wight but also the "North Shore" which is what the Islanders affectionately called England and Great Britian. We took the ferry across the Solent and stayed in Somerset for a few days. This gorgeous carpet of cyclemen and autumnal leaves makes a wonderful display on our woodland walk. 

Inspiring me to have another go at hand painting some hand spun yarn. Here's a photo of it drying.

It is very nearly time for  "Christmas Crafts at Quarr Abbey"
we open Thursday 22nd Nov- Tues 27th Nov, 10.30-4.30 each day.

A group of local artists offer you a wonderful collection of unique, quality handmade work which will be available to purchase from textiles; hand knitted and handwoven to pottery and glass; handthrown and handcrafted.

This will be my third year at the Abbey where I have been part of our "Christmas Crafts" and have held my "Open Studio" events. I love being there for the week, hope you can pop along too.

http://www.quarrabbey.co.uk/