Sunday 17 September 2017

2017 Retreat at the Elmhirst Resort

Retreat at Elmhirst Resort
Each September we hold a retreat at the Elmhirst Resort near Keene. Our guild members enjoy spinning and a wonderful social time but our focus for the retreat is dyeing. The Elmhirst gives us the use of the Conservatory where we set up all our equipment and we dye cloth, fleece, yarn, locks; anything that  members wish to bring. This year 11 members stayed for the retreat and we were 21 in all on the last day for our September meeting. At the meeting Chris Muir did a demonstration in dyeing with indigo. Chris and Pauline both had samples of Shibori dyeing and Chris showed us how to make the indigo dye vat.
Photos by Jill Purcell





Friday 1 September 2017

Sheep to Shawl Demonstration at Blackstock Fair

Eight members of our guild took part in a Sheep to Shawl demonstration at the Blackstock Fair on August 26. We had a lovely raw fleece from Thistledew Farm which we flick carded and combed and then spun to our weavers specification. The spun yarn was then passed to the weaver. A warp of singles in shades of green, blue and purple was already on the loom ready for weaving. We were well received at the fair and many asked questions and were very interested in the process.