It was pouring with rain on Saturday and pretty cold too, but me and my OH decided to drive out to Buxton in the Peak District. Having spent much of our last two week holiday up hills and down dales, we were drawn again to this fab place, which combines Victorian elegance with a nice smattering of Charity shops and even a Waitrose (the supermarket with the yummy apple and cinnamon yoghurt).
Anyway, there was an antique fair. he went off to have a cup of tea and I had a good browse. Amazed at the prices. I think perhaps I should simply go and buy up all the old embroidered linen tray cloths from out local charity shops for a quid a time and flog them here for £6. Amazing what a good ironing can achieve. Still, I bought a sweet little hankie for 20 p and some tiny mother of pearl buttons for 50p - last of the big spenders. These have now been incorporated into a couple of new cards.
When I was in Yorkshire (visitng the wonderful Wensleydale Cheese Factory) I found a fantastic little wool place and bought a spindle. Okay so I have spent all week trying to work with this, and typically as soon as I had spun something resembling thread, I knitted it up. I have decided that I need to go back to the drawing board with this as it's decidedly ropey. So much for my plan to make hand knitted scarves with home spun wool. But I will continue to practice.
So I am a schizophrenic crafter - one minute tiny stitches, next grappling with chunks of wool and felting, and then of course the textile cards. One day I will find something and stick too it, but now, I will continue to explore. Hearts are a massive motif in shops, stuffed, tin, fabric, knitted, painted, stitched....
3 comments:
Keep practising your spinning, it's such fun. What kind of fleece are you using, and is it carded or not? There are so many different breeds of sheep, with as many different qualities of fleece and some are easier to spin than others.
I am using merino tops which is carded and lovely and soft. But it is quite tricky! I either have yarn that is way too slubby or around 12 inches of perfection!
Merino is gorgeous and soft but clean smooth tops tend to be harder to spin than slightly oily carded wool I find. When I started out I found unwashed but carded fleece was easiest to spin, though now I prefer it reasonably clean. I never got very good with a spindle, and found a wheel easier after a few practice sessions.
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