May Meeting Spinning Shenanigans

Our May meeting was dedicated to spinning with different and unusual fibres.  

Heather led the meeting and began her session by showing different fibres such as silk, merino, possum, cotton etc. together with different combinations of fibre such as possum and merino explaining that wool was often used to blend fibres such as possum together so that they could be used as yarn.

Heather had used this technique to blend fibre from her Pyrenean Mountain Dog Sheba with wool to produce a lovely soft yarn which she then had knitted into a swatch.   (More about this in a future post)

Having brought along some of the fleece purchased on the guild’s trip to Zwartbles Ireland, Heather spun a little of it in the grease just to see how the fibre took up.  Her Scandinavian style wheel was made several years ago and has a lovely melodious sound to it.

In addition to the bags of fibre and bundles of fleece that Heather brought with her to show, she also brought this beautiful basket full of handspun stash.  All of which was returned at the end of the meeting following a search of members bags 😉

The main items for the Show and Tell this meeting was Gerda’s fabulous rugs.  Woven on a peg loom, a new endeavour for Gerda, the rugs would make a perfect addition to anyone’s home.  The yarn used was spun around a cord core and is super bulky and incredibly textured, Gerda used this to make the bottom rug.  Wanting to see if she could achieve a smoother surface for delicate tootsies, Gerda removed the central cord from the yarn and spun with this instead.  The second rug, pictured on top, would be much softer underfoot.

Our next meeting takes place in June and is our annual dyeing day.