Colours and Patterns and Tools....oh my!!

Frozen Canal

I'm back from my holidays earlier than expected. Although my hols was shorter than planned, it felt like longer....Long saga about frozen treacherous roads, frozen water pipes, no working toilets/showers, empty water reservoirs, cabin fever, tummy bugs, etc... There was a break in the weather, and I made a run for it. I am glad to be home, be clean, and have another Christmas over with. Well, I'm actually glad to have 2009 over with it was a very extreme year for me. Not just for me but for the country of Ireland in general. We've had all the weather and scandals a nation can handle in one year. But, this isn't a moany blog, its a textile blog, so here's some Colour and Patterns and Tools...Oh My!! (I had to watch the Wizard of Oz at 9 am this morning...)

COLOURS

The best part of Christmas is of course Fairy lights. I love fairy lights, so much so I went a bit bananas one evening with the camera, trying to take a nice photo of my lights. Here's the results....

PATTERNS

When you go on your holidays, normally you wait till you're on the road before taking pictures. But when I went to pack the car, there was the most amazing patterns over the whole thing. I had to pull the camera out and start taking pictures.

and TOOLS....OH MY!

This is really the oh my bit. You might have thought I was jammy enough to buy one beautiful working spinning wheel for cheap. (And she is a real beauty, you can see here here). but how about buying a 2nd spinning wheel, another real beauty, and almost in working condition!! I found this baby on gumtree.ie. The ad was a few months old, and I presumed it would be gone, but rang anyway. To my great surprise, not only was the wheel not gone, but no-one else had even called about it. It took me a few months to get down and actually see it, as I had to drive to Cork, but I had decided to buy it whether it work or not. It is a.. oh..beautiful old, old, Saxony wheel. Almost in working condition, just needs a bit of love here and there.

The lady I bought it off turned out to be a carbon copy of myself, a dabbler in all things textile and we had a great chat. You should have heard her stories keeping angora bunnies.... She was a bit sad to part with the wheel, but knew she wouldn't be using it. And since I kept gushing about how beautiful it was, knew it was going to a loving home. I have never seen a wheel like this up close. It has a double thingy, and the thingy is adjustable for tension. God, I need to learn more new spinning wheel words...

She also gave me a pile of books, including everything from felting to rug weaving. In it is a beautiful book called The Wool Book by Margaret Dixon. It has a big picture of a Saxony wheel, and I will, over the next week, learn all the proper terms for my new restoration project.

I am really looking forward to 2010. There are so many exciting events on the horizon, and you will just have to wait until the New Year to hear about them....


Best Wishes to All, and for god's sakes take care on the roads.....

Making a Spindle

I've finally gotten it together to have a go at making a spindle. This method was shown to me by the lovely C. at the Electric Picnic. I haven't quite mastered the use of it yet. Spinning is on the list of crafts yet to be mastered...

See what a few humble sticks can be made into!!

Wrapping the spun wool around the sticks is like making a God's Eye. And when you have plenty of wool spun, you simply just take the spindle apart, pull out the sticks, and hey, presto, a ball of hand-spun wool!!

The Wool-Winder from Heaven

I have a pet hate of balls of wool. I know that sounds silly for someone immersed in wooliness but I really hate having to tug the wool, while I'm working. Then the ball rolls under the couch and picks up bits of Toddler and Cat. Not to mention Toddler running off with it and pulling out stitches, or Cat playing with it, and yes, pulling out stitches. I find it interrupts the rhythm of what ever I am making at the time. Even working off a cone, drives me nuts..

I used to have a wool winder, but it got lost between my various moves, and I've missed it so much. So, instead of moaning all the time, a new(ish) wool winder arrived, courtesy of EBay yesterday. And I am in wool winder heaven. How can such a small mechanical device give such pleasure? (Don't answer that, it could sound ruder than its supposed to be). Not only did it arrive, but it was lovingly wrapped in soft white fleece to protect it from its journey. Thank you credit card, thank you EBay, I am finally getting to use all those super thin cones of wool I rescued from the charity shop. Beautiful wool, but so thin, it would be impossible to make anything from them. I tried winding by hand, but that was just masochistic.

And no more Toddler and Cat bits to pick out. The winded ball, with two flat sides sits by my side and doesn't roll, tangle or knot, it just pulls smoothly from the centre, to create a smooth relaxing flow of wool. And my sanity is saved.