Once a month, members of the Kingston Handloom Spinning and Weaving Guild get together for a day of spinning and a potluck lunch. I'm a new member, but I already love these days of relaxed companionship and learning. Today I missed the morning and the lunch because I stayed home to say hello to an out-of-town visitor, but I still managed to squeeze in a couple of hours in the afternoon. We met at Nancy Carr's farm, the home of
Silver Cloud Alpacas. Shortly after I arrived, we all took a walk outside to visit the sixty-odd animals.
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| The girls. |
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| Aren't they pretty? | | |
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| A couple of the boys. |
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Naturally, we were happy to purchase dyed and carded fleece from Nancy. She showed how the fleeces are graded from one through four based on the micron size. With grade one, you can barely distinguish individual strands.
The Guild's
annual sale begins this weekend at the old Portsmouth Town Hall across from the Olympic Harbour (where you can park). If you live in the Kingston area, it's worth dropping by to see the goodies.
What else am I working on? In the area of spinning, I'm having fun with this madder-dyed roving from Rhinebeck. It's from
here.
The soft red is so beautiful! Did you know that this was the original dye used for British army uniforms? The yarn bowl wasn't purchased at Rhinebeck, but rather at a gallery in nearby Westport. It's new, and I love it.
The second iteration of the Shelridge lace swatch is done,
and I'm happy to announce that the gauge is PERFECT. The end result is going to be soft and drapey. This is a superwash yarn I can really love!
