Wiltshire Guild

Yesterday I went down to Bradford-on-Avon (the South side of Bath) to see the Wiltshire Guild Annual Show - and to see Jackie Prohnert. The Show was held in the West Barn right beside the famous Tithe Barn. The West Barn would count as quite large except when seen next to the Tithe Barn which is enormous. The photos show the exterior and interior of the West Barn and some rather nice dyed silk which I bought. There was plenty to see, a lot of silk scarves, and woollen rugs all woven to a high standard. A lot of handspun mostly knitted up in cardigans, jumpers, hats, mitts et cetera. There is a sales table packed with small items like teddy bears, felted brooches, braids, skeins of handspun. With 70 members in the Guild, I find it difficult to see how they can keep this up year after year!! And I was told that they don't like items to be submitted two years running. They like everything for sale to be done in the last 12 months.

All very interesting and I guess a lot of work. There were at least four members of the Guild present when I was there and there must have been one or two upstairs teaching spinning. The Show is on from Tuesday to Saturday.

After that, it was time for lunch in a cafe at the Tithe Barn which was good and conversation with Jackie which was better. We had a discussion on guilt which I have been thinking about. I always thought this was my Church of Scotland in the 50s upbringing but not so. I now wonder if it is women who worked and are of a certain age group. Really I should have stayed at home and looked after husband, home and children - in that order. Now the habit of guilt is ingrained.  Michael goes to the Hospice on alternate Fridays. What happens if I am away and he wants to come home early? Shouldn't I be at home to receive him just in case? And in any case, what right have I to enjoy myself when he is so ill?  You can get in a real intellectual mess quite quickly.

I suspect that the one thing that keeps me sane is textiles. I can think about them without leaving the house. And do them of course. The indigo dyed warp is a real treat and will be threaded and sleyed today. 

The other thing that has kept me busy this week is becoming editor of The Shuttle which is the Newsletter of Kennet Valley Guild. The major problems are to do with me not being good at WORD. We always use FrameMaker here which is a much superior package for publishing and I can deal with that in my sleep. I could translate everything into that format and just do it in FrameMaker.  But a problem will arise  when someone takes over from me because FrameMaker is an expensive package with a steep learning curve. So I have gritted my teeth, allowed myself to swear, and done it in WORD.   So far so good albeit with a lot of swearing at midnight.