Common Ragwort

One of things that I love about crafting is the people that you meet. I went yesterday to collect a Southdown Fleece from Marion in Farnborough. She was absolutely lovely and full of enthusiasm for spinning and knitting. She has invited me to go back in April to do some spinning when she takes part in 'Open Gardens', which would be absolutely lovely. In the meantime though I am going to teach her and her daughter Anna to spin, so they can spin their own lovely fleeces.

The Cotswold fleece is now all dyed and the white is carded. You can get a feel for the lovely colours that have come out. I hope to get spinning next week while camping in Kent. Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine.

I have started dying the white Jacob fleece. While walking the dog, I found lots of Common Ragwort, so I picked a big bunch and simmered the flowers.......

...... which have produced a lovely yellow colour. Very satisfying to find dyestuff and find it actually works! All for free. I am feeling quite inspired and will no doubt be picking all sorts of stuff to chop up and try and extract the colour.

courgettes everywhere!

Courgette's seem to be dominating our lives at the moment! They are growing with vigour on the allotment and I have been trying out crafty ways of using them up. Courgettes in tomato sauce, stuffed courgettes, courgette cake and courgette muffins. Today it will be the turn of courgette chocolate cake. This kids have not been totally convinced by my courgette offerings, so my brother went home with three courgettes as a leaving present yesterday.

With the first jacob fleece nearly finished (here is 3/4 of it, done!) I have turned my attention to the cotswold fleece. The first test spinning has been soft and lustrious, so I thought I would see how it took dye.




I now have some white and other various colours, so will try and create some rainbow yarn. Either nice and chunky single ply, with plenty of slubs or maybe some three ply smoother yarn. We will see!

come on England!!

...well football fever is well and truly here, and I write this just before kick off for that all important final first round match. Now, those of you that know me, may find it odd that I have got excited about all this chasing a ball around a field business, but I have discovered that it is a brilliant excuse to sit down in front of the telly with my spinning wheel for a couple of hours!!

'Piece of kit' of the week: - goes to ........the drum carder. It has come out from winter hibernation (under the bed) and complete with new drive band it has been working hard. The fleece has all been washed and is now going through the carding process. I have also bought a Cotswold fleece from the Cotswold Farm park and it has washed up nicely. Has a nice shine and luster to it, so I am looking forward to see what it will spin up like.

Well the football is about to kick off, and my spinning wheel is calling.

Keep on crafting and I hope to see you at PubCraft on Monday 5th July. (7.30 at the Red Lion)

P.S: Photos added after Football match finished. Clearly England appreciated the spinning that took place. Two whole skeins to show for this afternoon's work!

Blogging on the move.

Not that you will be able to tell, but I am blogging from my favourite cafe in Brackley: the Courtyard Coffee House. There will also be no photos this time as my computer is at the computer doctor's and our network at home seems not to be working. So I have taken myself off to the coffee shop, for some internet access with the added bonus of coffee and cake on hand!


June's PubCraft night went down a storm, much chatting was done and fun was had. I brought the 'Joy'! for it's first outing to a public house - I am sure it won't be the last.

I am however aching from head to foot - not because of the PubCraft night, but due to sheep shearing in Haslemere on Sunday. Weather was lovely, which was nice, but I am really not fit enough to shear. Next year I will definately need to go into training before hand. We had the help of a great ( and very patient shearer Susie) and it went much more smoothly than last year. I now have 4 fleeces to wash, card and spin, so will definately be keeping out of trouble. New Hammervale wool should be for sale soon!

Well battery on work laptop running dangerously low, so I will sign off for now.

keep on crafting. Polly x

Joy oh joy

Meet my latest toy:

Spins like a dream and I am unreasonably excited. So I spun up the last of the dyed roving and the rest of the silk.

I also felt the need to paint my toe-nails in preparation for a grown up girly weekend away with my mum and sister. Ofcourse my knitting will coming too, two full hours of uninterupted each way on the train. :-)

and so to PubCraft night

Lots of lovely people came to join us in the Red Lion Pub in Brackley on Monday night. I enjoyed a G&T and a chat about spinning, knitting and lace making. Sue brought her lace making cushion along and got Trish started. Utterly facinating.

And then it hailed...

The Pin Money Craft Co-operative took our new gazebo up to Hatton Locks near Warwick on bank holiday Monday to take part in Mayday fun! There was Bob with his wooden chairs and mushroom and roumours of live music.

We set up and I even managed some spinning in the sun (lovely) and then...... it started raining and blowing a gale and then... HAIL!!!

We huddled for a while and got random strangers to help hold down the gazebo, but we were fighting a lost battle, so packed up and headed for home.

Rachael and I were in need of a pint by the canal, and went in search of 'The Cape of Good Hope' pub. It turns out that it is a very difficult pub to find, infact we ended up abandoning the car and walking along the canal. Still a well deserved pint was enjoyed in the sunshine in the end.