In a bit of a spin...

One of the problems, I find, with a blog is that sometimes nothing happens for ages and then a load of things happen at once and you end up with a backlog of things to write about. This has happened since my last post in December so I have decided to try and do things in a chronological order so that it makes sense, to me at least.

A week or two before Christmas we travelled up to Darwen, along Agnieszka's favourite satanic route, the A666, to visit the mid-Lancs Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers. It was there, amid the rustle of polyester and the occasional high-pitched whine of a hearing aid, that we met a very nice group of people (several with Polish conections) who were busying themselves with a variety of crafts: knitting, crochet, tatting, spinning, weaving, rag-rugging and so on. By not limiting themselves to just the spinning, weaving and dying aspects, the group was able to incorporate enough members to keep going. They were a lively crowd, and very friendly, unlike the Knitting Nora's and their cliquey clacking. As well as being called 'young man' and 'flower' I learnt how to properly card my lumpy fleece and spin it onto my spindle. Agnieszka was shown a quick way of tatting and we're both looking forward to going back in January. Until then, I have two fleeces to turn from smelly lumps of wool into yarn ready for plying...

The tools I use, from top: raw fleece from the Shetland sheep I sheared last summer; drop spindle; rolags ready for spinning; carding brushes.