Fibre arts weekend

After posting about the (perfect for cat lovers!) giveaway last week, I’ve been incredibly busy and haven’t had time to indulge in any fibre arts…until this weekend!

My busy-ness has included having some friends around for dinner, during which we polished off the biggest sausage and apple pie I’ve ever made and was probably intended for dinner for the rest of the week (!!) and spending several hours sitting in walk-in centres trying to figure out why I am still unable to register at my local GP surgery, despite being back in London for two months already.

Fibre Arts Weekend

The weekend started with a message from Craft Boss from Shooting Roots asking if she could stay with me. I hadn’t seen her for ages, and we pigged out on wine, chips ‘n’ dip and pizza, and generally chilled. It was very pleasant – and best of all came the request “can you teach me to use your spinning wheel”?

I had singles on the wheel that have been there for literally months, so it was a good excuse to ply them, which I happily did. I ended up with 410 metres / 369 yards of yarn. Not too shabby! This is roughly 20 wpi, although there is huuuuge variation in it as some of the singles were spun in January when my skills were substantially less well developed.

2013 in handspun.
2013 in handspun.

There was a brief interlude at this point where I went to visit my Great Aunt – who gave me a huge stack of “Simply Knitting“, none of which I have as they were all published before I realised that knitting magazines were a thing. Hurrah! I also spent about an hour and a half looking through her cross-stitch, some of which was *incredible* and made me want to come home, put down the knitting and pick up the needlework project I’ve had on the go for months.

A stack of magazines to get my hands on.
A stack of magazines to get my hands on.

Needless to say, I didn’t do that when I got home – and instead, taught Craft Boss how to spin. I am very jealous to say she took to it like a duck to water, and her first ever handspun (on the wheel) is amazing. She made 86 metres / 77 yards in a few hours, at 13 wpi or a 4/5 ply yarn.

And here Craft Boss has a go at spinning for the first time.
And here Craft Boss has a go at spinning for the first time.
Action shot of the bobbin & flyer during spinning.
Action shot of the bobbin & flyer during spinning.
Craft Boss about to try her hand at winding into a ball.
Craft Boss about to try her hand at winding into a ball.
Proud Craft Boss - and rightly so!
Proud Craft Boss – and rightly so!
Amazing first ever handspun - I am well jel.
Amazing first ever handspun – I am well jel.

I started a new knitting project as well, which I will show you next week, and made a bit of progress on the Brazil Socks. All in all, a good weekend, which has also included the observation that within a few hours of hoovering my room, a little army of fibre starts to creep in at the door so that it looks like the carpet is speckled with bits of various coloured wool.

How are you doing? It’s now lunchtime on Sunday and I intend to spend the rest f the afternoon knitting. Pleasant!

Much love,

Corrie xx

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2 Responses to Fibre arts weekend

  1. Alicia says:

    Wow, that’s some really great first yarn on a wheel!

    • Corrie Berry says:

      It’s amazing, isn’t it?! The weird thing is the early stuff was better – but the orange is merino which was much more slippery than the green so she struggled with it a bit more.

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