Dyeing in the Churchyard

At the August Guild meeting, we always have Dyeing in the Churchyard. Goodness only knows what we will call it if we ever stop using church halls for our meetings. Anyway, in all the years, I have been with Kennet Valley, we have managed to avoid serious rain. Oh the occasional little shower but yesterday! Fortunately Yvonne Withers (thank you, Yvonne) brought two Gazebos which were placed side by side just by the back door so it was two steps to the back door. The rain was so heavy that you got drenched in that distance. And every now and then one of the gazebos would chuck out its holding of rain and there would be squeaks from some poor unfortunate dyer but no rainwater was allowed into the dyepots!. There was a great deal of laughter and some wonderful dyeing, all natural and including cochineal.

There was quite a lot of indigo around. Note the nice space dyed skeins in yellow, green and blue. Mostly I minded the indigo vat but I did overdye a scarf of mine.

This is much better than the original which had a spaced dyed warp but a white weft.

I spent the first 30 minutes this morning washing all the bowls, basins et cetera from yesterday and then set about acid dyeing some more weft yarn for the small Newbury Coat. It is 0900 hours and I am halfway through my second bath. I only have one shuttle full of weft yarn left and I will get through that in 30 minutes of weaving so more dyeing is urgently needed. I aim to do another two lots this morning. Each 'lot' is 200 gms. I desperately want to get this piece of weaving finished. I cannot do anything else in the studio because of piled up bags of yarn for it.

 All those plastic bags are full of yarn and there is another bagfull in the sittingroom where I am turning balls into skeins ready for dyeing. I want to make a shirt before I set off for France which means finishing the weaving by next Saturday. I can wind a warp meantime but I may do what I have done before in good weather - retire to the patio with it. I will weave to the end of the yarn I have dyed and then do the sums for the next warp.

I have been thinking about journals, as a result of receiving a present from my sister which consists of a book on journals by Gwen Diehn and a shoulder bag all neatly fitted with paper pads and pencils and - - -. The question is, 'Does keeping a blog mean you don't keep a journal?' I think not. A blog is a record (for me at least) of what I have been up to. But only occasionally is there an entry about what I might do or have discarded thinking about and why. In other words, for me, a journal is a working record. I used to keep one but I think I might  go back to keep one, if only because I have three things I intend to do shortly and I think I might get them all onto one warp.

Megado up and running

The new warp for the small Newbury Coat was tied on before I left for Convergence. It is now wound on and tied on.

 Lots of skeins for the weft have been prepared and are ready to be dyed on Sunday. But I am not dyeing all the yarn I have because there is far too much. I will take some to the Guild tomorrow and see if anyone wants to dye them. I will have an indigo vat and am going to try an experiment. I dyed a warp some weeks ago and wove it up with a white weft yarn. The warp was blue/green. Being honest, I do not like the results. Far too much in your face. So I thought I would try overdyeing with indigo, just a little bit to see how it goes.This is a direct result of the Convergence course Rosie and Debbie went onl post teh. I have usually weave up a space dyed warp with a white weft. I have gone off that idea completely  and have become much fussier about the weft.

I have been thinking about the BLURB book on Michael's painting for too long. I cannot remember whether it is one year or two since I abandoned it but certainly a long time. This is due to me not liking how I was laying it out. I eventually decided I had to include some details of his life and wrote to several people to get the facts. This data has all turned up at which point I realised that the book was on my laptop - which was one reason I was unhappy - not a big enough screen. So yesterday I installed BLURB on my desktop and set about changing  the book. I have revamped what I had written and put in a lot more of his paintings. Going well.

I took this through a window and it was raining hard but it does show how well the campsis is doing. There are several clumps of flowers over the climber

Finger Weaving Class

I spent Monday and Tuesday in Carol James's class on Finger Weaving. I saw her on. BBC program demoing Canadian belts years ago and wanted to learn.

Here is one of her belts

And here are my two day's worth of samples! I worked very hard as did every one else in the class. Total silence, no chat at all. And sore backs all round. I also have a belt started. I shall continue working on it on the plane to Sweden and on Anne's Island next week.
The food has been very surprising. Lots of first rate fish and seafood. Tempura with prawns in a Japanese shack, scallops last night. Breakfasts in the hotel are extortionate so we ate in a cafe the first two days but then got to a supermarket and I have just had muesli with strawberries for breakfast. Debbie and Rosie have done their usual stunt. They rushed off at 0730 to get their weaving finished by 0900 when the tutor is going to start them on a major project. They are doing a three day course on colour and have learnt a huge amount.
Now I must go. I promised to try and get some bread this morning. We are making our own sandwiches. Everything opens today, the Vendors Hall, the exhibitions and people will pour in. Tonight is the catwalk show, the start of Convergence proper.

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Sheep Show at Malvern

Every year there is a Sheep Show in the UK and every second year, it is held at Malvern in the Three Counties Showground. It was held yesterday for the day and Linda Scurr arrived at 0800 hours to collect me and  we had arranged her fleeces at 0830 and were eating breakfast in the open in brilliant sunshine.

Linda eating a bacon buttie for breakfast.
Then we inspected every sheep pen. There are frightful modern-bred monstrosities which look like dogs but then there are my favorites too.

A couple of Hampshire Downs.

Most of the sheep breeds had a display of spun yarn though some of it was only good for Brillo pads. The above is Wensleydale which is good. The lady who is usually present on the Leicester Longwool stand (one of my favourites) was not there but those who were took my name and email so I have hopes. I bought some pink and white stuff two years ago which was very greasy but came up magnificently when  washed thoroughly.

One problem I did solve was that of the swift purchase. Hedgehog Equipment were at the show and had a Glimakra swift for sale. It looked exactly like the one which gave me 25 years of usage so I decided that it would probably outlast me and bought one - £48.00. So I have saved £250! Well that is one way of looking at it.

By two, we were hot and tired (it was a very hot day) so we retired to my garden which is a mile away and sat and gossiped till it was time for Linda to go back and collect her fleeces.

Today I must do some gardening but I hope to wind on the Newbury Coat warp. I have lots of plans but must finish this bit of weaving first.

Stockholm

When we took the ferry to the Åland Islands, I was suffering from jet lag. Anne had organised a cabin for us all so I slept most of the time. This time was different. Yes we had a cabin but most of the time was spent. In what they called the nightclub, this being 0900 hours start time! Anyway the place was at the back of the boat and so we could watch us threading our way through the Islands round Stockholm. There were four large car ferries in a line with about a mile between each and the route was so winding that so the next boat would be hidden then suddenly appear passing behind an island. There were loads of pleasure boats under engine and sail, small car ferries of the take four cars at a time sort, dredgers, bigger local ferries and us. The weather was beautiful and there was so much of interest to see. I have loved places like this always. Malvern is no good to me at all, it is far too far from the sea. And anyway only ports are real places. Every where inland is a sham.

So a lovely finish to the holiday. We got into Stockholm at1630 so it was a long trip. Taxi to the airport where we are hanging about until our plane leaves for London. The staff are issued with scootery things on which they buzz along the corridors.

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Last Day in Åland Islands

We have had a good day, a white tailed eagle on our land scowling at the other birds fishing in the shoal, two heron, a flock of grebes on said shoal. A trip to a Russian fortress built in early 1800s was not very interesting but the suggested walk round the fortifications was. A bit up and down vertically!

I took this photo to show how shallow the soil is over the solid ground. The soil and roots have just peeled away from the rock.

And here are clumps of conifers growing in little pockets of soil.

A dressed maypole

Some of the maypole decoration

A smaller maypole. These are shown because Kirsten said they were well-known.

An orchid - not a good photo but you get the idea.

And at last, some Aland sheep, pure white, pure black and mottled.

Tomorrow we leave at 0700 hours to catch the ferry to Stockholm, then a plane to Heathrow. I will sleep at Ruth's house tomorrow night and take a train home Tuesday morning. I have yet to pack but I never spend more than fifteen minutes packing. What is in my room has to be packed or thrown out.

 

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Saturday

Some of the family were revolting today. We (I was one of them) did not see any profit in getting into a hot car and driving to somewhere where the view was not as good as it is here. So we all stayed at home and variously went for walks, rested, admired the view and brought our Convergence notes up to date. As well as keeping an eye open for yachts under sail, fish eagles and shoals of fish. It is Saturday and there is usually at least one yacht to view. At the moment there are two and a noisy motorboat.

We have been arguing about birds today. There are sea birds in plenty and a pair of eagles but previous few land rids, a pair of blackbirds and that is all. Which is very surprising because a lot of the ground cover is blueberries and there are masses. So where are the grouse, the pheasants, the quail? There are not even any corvids although I would expect to see hoodies here (hooded crows to the English). Possibly we are too near the open sea and they are all inland. But there is no birdsong.

Current textile problem which I have been investigating is whether to buy a nice Schacht umbrella swift for £300 or not. Arguments for are it is a Schacht and therefore will work as it says, my old wooden one saw more than twenty years of service before collapsing into an unrepairable state, my new one is a light weight wire thing which cannot handle the handspun skeins I have been loading it with. Against it costs £300.00. And will I last long enough to get my money's worth out of it? I have found a UK supplier and will make my mind up before I get home. I have a lot of skeining and ball winding to do on the Newbury Coat fabric and, if I am going to get one, it would save a lot of trouble to get it now. The problem is that the weft warn is all in balls and I have to make these into skeins to dye them blue. Then I have to wind the skeins off on to shuttles. I use a ski shuttle for handspun fabric like this. I think I have decided to buy one! I will ask for the delivery time.

The other thing I have done is to buy some addons for iweaveit and look up the manual. Now I need to practise with it. I could do with a printed copy of the manual but I will do that at home.

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