Highland Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers

Author: Stephanie Hoyle

  • June 2021 Book Discussion

    June Meeting – Book Recommendations

    This was Susan Godlington’s idea – what a great meeting! The books members chose to recommend included poetry and novels, history, inspiration, books they learned to spin or weave from, and books they go to when planning a project. I’ve put all of the recommendations into a booklist:
    HGWSD June books

    Catherine Freeland had trouble just selecting one or two to talk about, but chose first the book she used when starting to weave: Rachel Brown: “The Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Book”. Very well used as you will see from the pictures! This is excellent for all types of looms. Her next book was “Knitting in America”. The author Melanie Falick travelled all over America, North and South, collecting information and profiling knitters, spinners, weavers and fibre producers. Catherine also spoke of being inspired by the work of Sheila Hicks as it has developed over the years. She mentioned: “Weaving as Metaphor”, which shows Sheila Hicks’ work over a 50-year period. (This is on Amazon at a truly astonishing price!) Catherine sent me details of the above books after the meeting and added the following recommendations from her bookshelf: Anni Albers: “On Weaving”; Peter Collingwood – anything of his; Clara Creager: ”All About Weaving: a comprehensive guide to the craft” (occasionally seen in second-hand shops); Bernat Klein: “Bernat Klein, Textile Designer, Artist, Colourist” – tweed design, colour and texture; Jenny Dean: “Wild Colour”; Jill Goodwin: “A Dyer’s Manual”.

    Hilma read a poem from “Weaving Songs” by Donald S Murray. This little gem of a book has photos of tweed production on the Isle of Lewis interwoven with Donald’s poems. Hilma’s second book was “The Big Book of Weaving”. This has excellent instructions for projects and the practicalities of setting up a loom.

    Ann Johnson used “The Essentials of Handspinning” by Mabel Ross when she first learned to spin. Her second book was “The Shetland Dye Book”, which has basic recipes using native plants, and including their local names (e.g bracken = trowie cairds). It also has a list of plants to include in a dye garden. Ann also recommended: Harriet Tidball: “Woollens and Tweeds”, which looks at the evolution of patterns and includes pattern drafts for some of the estate tweeds. She showed us a well illustrated book on fungi: “The Mushroom Book”, but said even with this it was difficult to distinguish between similar fungi and identify those best for dyeing. Later in the afternoon she added a light note with “Pocket Pompoms”!

    Serena recommended “A Stash of One’s Own”, a collection of essays, edited by Clara Parkes, in which people like us talk about their yarn and fibre stash habit! She also recommended: “The Secret Lives of Colour” by Kassia St Clair, and “Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans” by Jenny Balfour-Paul.

    Denise recommended “The Book of Looms: A History of the Handloom from Ancient Times to the Present” by Eric Broudy. This is quite an old book, but when I looked on the web it seems it’s being re-issued in September this year. “Byways in Handweaving” by Mary Meigs Atwater deals with card weaving and inkle weaving, and includes patterns from Scandinavia and South America. Another old and prized book Denise recommended is “The Colour Cauldron” by Sue Grierson. This scholarly work is about the history of natural dyes and dyeing in Scotland, with notes on the plants, and the process Sue used to extract the dye and the colours she got. It has been out of print for some years. A spinning book Denise particularly values is: “Spin Control” by Amy King – excellent for making you think about what you are trying to produce. For knitters Denise recommended “Kaffe Fassett’s Pattern Library”.

    Aileen said if she could only keep one book it would be: “Traditional Fair Isle Knitting” by Sheila McGregor.

    Fiona Recommended “Colour Works” by Deb Menz. This is an excellent book about colour relationships and helps you think about how colours work together. Her other book was: “Scottish Home Industries” by Alexander Ross, first published on 1895, reprinted in 1975. It includes spinning weaving and dyeing, as well as a range of other crafts. Fiona also showed us a beautiful book about woad: “Le Pastel en pays d’oc” by Sandrine Banessey. It is printed in French and English.

    The book Andi goes to for ideas is: “The Handweaver’s Pattern Book” by Marguerite Davison. This has a complete range of patterns for 4-shaft looms. For 8-shaft she uses “The Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns” by Carol Strickler, which is an excellent basic ideas book. She had bought “Weaving with Echo and Iris” by Marian Stubenitsky, but needed the On-Line Guild course with the author to really understand it. For inspiration she showed us “World Textiles” by John Gillow and Bryan Sentence – lots of colour pictures illustrating a wide variety of textile techniques from around the world.

    Mary Paren recommended “Learning to Weave” by Deborah Chandler. She used this when first learning to weave, and still finds it useful. Her next book was “The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs” by Sarah Anderson. Starting with basic fibre preparation and drafting techniques the book moves on to plying techniques, then to a wide range of yarn designs, with clear photographs to show the desired end results, and worked samples. “The Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook” by Deborah Robson is excellent for information on what a fleece from a particular breed should be like and how it should spin. As the book is American it doesn’t include all of the UK rare breeds. As a beginner spinner Mary found a lot of helpful information in “Learn to Spin” by Ann Field. Later Mary mentioned “This Golden Fleece: a Journey through Britain’s knitted history” by Esther Rutter

    Norah’s first book was “Threads of Life” by Clare Hunter. This books gathers examples of how people from many countries and at different times in history have used stitching to express themselves, and to help them survive in difficult circumstances. “The Art of Tapestry Weaving” by Rebecca Mezoff is an in-depth guide to tapestry weaving. Norah’s third book is Alden Amos’ “Big Book of Handspinning, which she likes because it is irreverent and debunks a lot of received wisdom!

    Sheila Munro, who has done a lot of spindle spinning recommends “Respect the Spindle” by Abby Franquemont. For weaving, in addition to books already mentioned by others: “Doubleweave” by Jennifer Moore. This book shows very clearly how doubleweave works, and has a sampler for 4-shaft, which works through a variety of techniques. It also includes several projects for 4-shaft and 8-shaft looms.

    “Yarn-i-tec-ture” by Jillian Moreno, Liz’s choice, describes itself as a knitter’s guide to spinning, and aims to help you produce the yarn you want for your knitting project. It has information about different fibres and fibre preparations and how to work with them, and lots of samples.

    The book Susan spoke about first is: “Colour: travels through the paintbox” by Victoria Finlay, a social anthropologist. The book is a history of paint colours – when and where they were discovered and how used, starting with ochre and cave paintings – a book to read rather than use for reference. Susan also mentioned “In the Footsteps of Sheep” by Debbie Zawinski. The author walked through Scotland, collecting and spinning fleeced and knitting socks. “The Indigo Girl” by Natasha Boyd is a fictionalised account of the true story of a young woman in South Carolina in the 18th century who learned to produce indigo dye to save her family estates.

    My own suggestions? “Women’s Work: the first 20,000 years” by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. This is a history of textile production from Neolithic times to Classical Greece. The author is an archaeologist and also a weaver, and writes with understanding of the processes involved. It’s a very readable book. Mary has another book by the same author, which I’ve included in the booklist: “The Mummies of Urumchi”. “The Wool Pack” by Cynthia Harnett is a book for young teenagers first published in 1951. It has a lot of historical detail about the wool trade in the late 15th century, this considerably reduces its appeal for youngsters, but makes it an interesting light read for adults interested in textiles.

    Pictures (sorry about the quality, some did not show up well on screen):
    [envira-gallery id=”4558″]

    In the afternoon session first Norah showed us the miniature tapestries her school pupils had worked then she and Hilma showed us the results of their solar dyeing. Hilma had a good green from the wallflowers she started off as a demonstration at last month’s workshop, and lovely results from her layered skeins. Norah had good colour from daffodils, and mixed results from lichen – one jar showed an interesting pink, one a deep blue green, and the other no colour at all! Liz had some great results from indigo dye experiments, and some very chunky arm-knitted rugs. Sheila was spinning a black and red batt. Norah got some helpful tips from Denise on steeking for the Fair Isle pattern she is knitting; she also showed us a box of fibre from different sheep breeds that she’s bought in preparation for Tour de Fleece.

    [envira-gallery id=”4608”]

  • No items for sale at present

  • Dyeing Workshop May 2021

    Normally in a dye workshop the person leading explains the process, shows samples and then participants are able to have a go. First measuring carefully, following rules, then, when they feel confident with the process, letting loose their imagination and having fun. This tine, because we couldn’t meet up, we focussed on explaining and hoped to give enough information to encourage people to try.

    Hilma talked about solar dying, showing how this kind of dyeing requires minimal equipment but produces good colours, even in cool spring weather. The process is simple: place the dyestuff in a glass jar, add alum for plant material, citric acid or vinegar for commercial dyes, put in your fleece or yarn, top up with warm water, place in sunlight and leave for a few weeks. Hilma demonstrated, taking a kilner jar and adding wallflowers (picked yesterday and stored in a paper bag), alum, fleece and warm water. By the end of the morning some colour was already showing. Over the last month Hilma had dyed with dried and fresh daffodil heads, red and white onion skins, dried marigold heads, safflower exhaust, logwood exhaust, wallflower, red cabbage and white crottle, and food colour dyes. She had also layered a skein: starting with buckthorn bark / yarn / madder / yarn / liquid indigo / yarn. She recommended: “Wild Dyer” by Abigail Booth, and “Wild colour” by Jenny Dean. The latter includes instructions for making a solar oven. You can download Hilma’s solar dyeing notes

    Isobel has sent a list articles on solar dyeing in Spin Off and The Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers:
    Spin Off Summer 05 “Sun kissed dyeing” and making equipment
    Journal 165 March 1993: For Beginners: Solar Dyeing
    Journal 188 December 1998: Cool Dyeing – The natural Way
    Journal 234 Summer 2010: Solar Dyeing with natural dyes. Helen Melvin
    Journal 245 Spring 2013: Slow colour, community and well-being

    Stephanie talked about using Procion MX dyes, and had made short videos of the process. You can download her workshop notes. Sophie had used the same dyes and showed her colour samples, demonstrating the range of repeatable colours that are possible. There was lively discussion, with people recommending different kinds of dyes and talking about their experiences of solar dyeing. Christine had immersed pieces of copper pipe in a vinegar solution and got a lovely blue liquid.
    Pictures below – the final one is Stephanie’s samples, the rest are Hilma’s.
    [envira-gallery id=”4494″]

    The discussion continued in the afternoon craft and chat session, with people talking about dyeing with avocado and pomegranate skins. Mary showed silk and wool she had dyed with avocado. Sarah had made a felted cushion from fleece dyed with Gaywool Dyes. Ruth was weaving bookmarks on her new 16-shaft computerised loom to try it out – the computer lifts the shafts according to the pattern; the actual weaving is still by hand. Hilma and Norah showed the mini tapestries they had completed. Terry was spinning on her dealgan spindle, and Susan had been using her weaving to make pond “baskets”. Sheila finished plying a skein of beautiful silk which she plans to weave into her challenge scarf. Pictures below.
    [envira-gallery id=”4518″]

  • Flax Workshop April 2021

    Guild member Sophie presented this workshop. There is a long history of flax growing in Friesland in the Netherlands where Sophie lives. As recently as 150 years ago everyone had a small field of flax, which the women spun into linen yarn for shirts, nightwear, children’s clothes, lace etc. The woman who taught Sophie to spin flax was taught by her grandmother.
    [envira-gallery id=”4375″]

    Flax needs a well manured, well tilled sandy clay soil, a growing temperature of 10-26 degrees, full sun and plenty of moisture. The seeds were planted closely (about 2400 per square metre) so that the plants would grow tall and give long fibres – flax is a bast fibre like hemp and ramie: the fibre comes from within the stem. Traditionally the seeds were sown on the 100th day of the year (10 April), hand weeded after 2 weeks, and harvested around 18 July after 100 days of growing. The plants were hand pulled for maximum length, and gathered into stooks to dry in the fields. Then they were rippled to remove the seeds which can be used for linseed oil, medicine and animal feed.

    Once the seeds were removed the flax could be stored, as it was no longer of interest to mice! It was generally stored over winter, then in April the retting process was begun. The flax was tied in bundles and put into ditches and ponds, covered in mud to make it sink and left for about 3 weeks. Retting can be done in salt as well as fresh water, and flax can also be dew retted in the fields. Retting dissolves the pectin in the outer sheath of the stem releasing the fibres. Because of the bacteria involved the smell was very unpleasant and there was damage to water life. Nowadays flax is retted indoors in tanks of hot water with chemicals. The retting is complete when the hard core of the stem can be pulled out.

    After drying the next part of the process is scutching – using a wooden blade to break up and remove the hard outer coating. Then the flax is hackled to separate the fibres and produce fine flax for spinning. The shorter fibres were used for rougher yarn for rope and string.

    A dressed distaff is used when spinning flax to keep the long fibres from tangling. Sophie has a distaff that attaches to her wheel, but a distaff can just be a straight stick with a cardboard cone on top. Sophie showed us how she dresses her distaff: take a small portion of the flax strick; take hold of some of the fibres at the end, pull them out and lay them on a table; carry on like this until the whole portion has been opened out, then it roll onto the cone, and tie a ribbon tightly round the top, then loosely crossed down to the bottom (see pictures below).
    [envira-gallery id=”4385″]

    Flax has a natural twist to the left and is spun S (with the wheel turned anti-clockwise). It is best spun damp, so Sophie has a damp sponge in a pot hanging on her wheel. Grip the fibre near the distaff with the left hand, dampen right fingers, pull out fibre and feed onto the wheel. Instead of watching the orifice you watch your fingers. Change hooks often as the yarn loosens as it dries and it is easy to lose and end! For weaving the flax needs to be spun fine with a high twist. The linen yarn is often used as a single (i.e. not plied).
    [envira-gallery id=”4391″]

    The linen skein needs to be boiled in a solution of soap (half the dry weight of the yarn) and sodium carbonate (washing soda). Rinse (can use cold water) and dry. Repeat the process if necessary. The washed skeins used to be taken to a weaving mill to be woven and bleached – moisture, light and air will bleach. Linen has several natural shades depending on the retting process – greyish from mud, slightly bleached from salt etc. It will not dye successfully until it has been bleached completely and only the cellulose remains. The yarn is about 25% thinner after bleaching.

    The afternoon Craft and Chat session was lively. Sheila is following an on-line weaving course from Jane Stafford Textiles, and showed a beautiful woven sample she had done. A number of other people had weaving projects to share; Dave showed us his hand spun and dyed knitted garments and a fleece picker that looks safer than a swing picker; Sarah had been doing some embroidery.
    [envira-gallery id=”4456″]

    Finally Dave demonstrated how to use a nostepinne.
    [envira-gallery id=”4476″]

  • Fleece Workshop March 2021

    Amanda Hannaford ran this workshop, which focussed on fleece – the different properties of fleece from a variety of breeds, how to process and spin them to get the best from them, and what the resulting yarn can be used for. [envira-gallery id=”4426″]

    She started by showing us samples of short, medium and long stapled fleece processed in different ways. First a short lambswool, showing an even, bouncy yarn spun longdraw from hand carded rolags; then three Jacob’s skeins spun: without preparation, longdraw from rolags, combed and worsted spun; Zwarbles fleece she said varies from long and curled (ideally worsted spun) to short and crimpy (ideally woollen spun); Wensleydale she had flick carded and spun with a short, worsted draft to produce a lustrous, smooth yarn. All of this demonstrated the importance of good preparation and an appropriate spinning technique.

    She then went on to talk about some of the fleeces she likes to use and which are available to her locally, and showed us samples:

    Southdown and Dorset Down: short downs fleece with a crisp handle, ideal for carding and woollen spinning. The fleece had been put through a swing picker before carding. Both had produced sock yarn and Aran weight yarn. A very fine Southdown had produced lace weight yarn.
    [envira-gallery id=”4430″]

    Cotswold and Wensleydale: lustre longwool. Amanda had produced enough 5 ply gansey wool for an adult gansey from Cotswold fleece, which would knit up at 7-9 stitches per inch. She told us she always counts the wraps per inch of her singles – the singles for the gansey yarn were 60 wpi. The Cotswold also produced an excellent curled loop boucle. The Wensleydale had been dyed and most had been combed and worsted spun: a few skeins had been tail-spun. This had been knitted into a shawl, with the tail spun yarn as an accent.
    [envira-gallery id=”4434″]

    Romney: medium fleece with slight lustre; quite long, so best combed
    [envira-gallery id=”4439″]

    Portland: rare breed; fine creamy fleece with slight lustre; can be combed or carded

    Exmoorino: Exmoor Horn crossed with Merino; very fine; comb
    [envira-gallery id=”4440″]

    North Ronaldsay is a breed more local to us. It is double coated, with a very fine undercoat, which will spin up to a thickish laceweight, and a longer hairy outer coat.
    [envira-gallery id=”4441″]

    Soay, a primitive breed, sheds its coat naturally. The fleece needs to be gathered in bits and varies in quality from fine to coarse and in colour from blond to chocolate.
    [envira-gallery id=”4442″]

    Dealing with raw fleece: unroll and spread out on a sheet out of doors; skirt: remove lower part of each leg, edges of belly and dirty fleece from the britch area; soak overnight just in cold water, then leave to drain; then put into hot water (more than hand hot, but not boiling) with a good squirt of cheap washing up liquid; leave for about 20 minutes, then rinse in gradually cooler water till the rinsing water is clean, and leave to dry. N.B. You can wash fleece a section at a time, you don’t need to do the whole fleece at once.

    Amanda finished by demonstrating combing and the use of a diz to draw off the combed fibre into a sliver, and showed her hand carding video: Hand carding wool – YouTube. This is one of a number of handspinning related videos. Amada’s YouTube channel is ADHUK.
    [envira-gallery id=”4396″]

    Pictures from the afternoon craft and chat session are below.
    [envira-gallery id=”4443″]

  • Silk Spinning February 2021

    Jaine Mahon of (Skye Silks) gave us a wonderful workshop on silk spinning via Zoom on the morning of 13 February. She started by taking us on a tour of her studio, showing us some of her lovely handwoven silk scarves, and other handwoven and hand dyed items, then on to spinning. She had made up boxes, beautifully packaged, containing a range of types of silk, which participants were able to buy beforehand. Jaine worked through these, talking about the production process, and showing us the most effective way to spin them. The pace was relaxed, with time for us to have a go at spinning each type of silk as it was introduced, and plenty of time for questions.

    I took a lot of screen shots, so have divided the photos into sections. The first includes shots of the studio, then Jaine holding up some of the items in the pack: a cocoon; tussah silk which ranges in colour from light to dark honey’ eri silk – dark and woolly; carrier rods which are waste from the reeling process – these can be used for silk papermaking.

    [envira-gallery id=”4315″]

    Cultivated silk comes from the cocoons of bombix mori moths, which are fed on mulberry leaves. The grubs inside the cocoons are stifled with steam so that the silk can be reeled off as one continuous filament. For spinners this silk is often sold as a top folded into a brick shape (a silk brick). To spin open up the brick, divide off a section and pre-draft it. Jaine recommended spinning from the fold (i.e. with a section folded over the finger) to give more control. She recommended this method also for tussah which also often comes as a top. Recycled sari silk (the blue top in the pictures below) gives a textured yarn, and can be spun from the fold or straight from the top.

    [envira-gallery id=”4325″]

    Degummed cocoons need to be opened out then held gently in the hand while drawing out into a long triangle to spin as the fibre is very long. It can be spun very fine. Mawata caps and hankies consist of layers of degummed cocoons stretched over a shape. To spin separate off a layer, make a hole in the middle with your fingers and carefully (silk is strong and can cut!) widen the hole, pulling the cap or hankie into a large circle until the circle breaks; keep drafting to the thickness you want, then add twist.

    [envira-gallery id=”4335″]

    The first three photos below show Jaine spinning noil, which gives a textured yarn. It varies in quality – some can be very short – and Jaine recommended getting a sample before buying a quantity. Floss is the final bits from the centre of the cocoon, and comes as a carded mass. It may need to be opened up on fine hand carders before spinning. To dye it needs to be separated into layers or the dye will not penetrate. Throwsters waste is a by product of the commercial spinning process. It produces a very textured yarn.

    [envira-gallery id=”4345″]

    In the afternoon we had our usual craft, chat show and tell session. Anne and Isobel held up some textured silk spinning, Isobel a woven silk scarf, Hilma a collapse weave scarf in silk and wool, Sheila was putting the finishing touches to her woven blanket, Alison had one of her little woven baskets, Norah was spinning flax, and Sarah showed us a notebook with a lovely felted cover which she uses to record her projects. Both sessions were attended by around 30 people.

    [envira-gallery id=”4302″]

  • January gathering

    The morning Crafters’ Question Time, attended by 18 or 19 people brought an interesting range of questions and answers and ended on a light note with “What is the most extravagant craft item you’ve bought and has it improved your crafting, which everyone had the chance to answer!

    The afternoon session, again attended by 19 people, was filled with friendly chat and exchange of information. Ruth had just bought a tape loom, which many of us hadn’t heard of – it will enable the production of inkle type bands without the length restriction of an inkle loom. Scandinavian band looms were also mentioned – something to look up!

    The pictures below mostly relate to the show and tell. There were three Fair Isle patterned hats; two sea-themed pictures; Terry was wearing her handspun jumper, Denise was finishing hers; Alison had made a patchwork fabric from hexagons woven on a pin loom, and showed a picture of the bag she plans to make; Sheila had used her handwoven fabric for the base of her patchwork bag. Alison showed how her inkle loom is set up with supplementary heddles for the pattern she is weaving.

    [envira-gallery id=”4261”]

  • December pm gathering

    Following the Teneriffe Lace workshop in the morning several people proudly shared their completed medallions, while some continued to work on theirs, or spin, or just join in the general chat. There was some interesting headgear which we all admired, plus the usual visits from pets! Later we had a show and tell – easy to do as we’re all at home and have things to hand. Photos below:

    [envira-gallery id=”4227″]

  • Teneriffe Lace December 2020

    Teneriffe lace medallions are worked on a circular loom (cardboard and pins!), a bit like Dorset buttons. They can be quite simple or more complex as the pictures show, and were used for collars table cloths etc. They would also make snowflakes for your Christmas tree. Mary has provided instructions for making a card loom:
    Teneriffe Lace on card
    Mary used this YouTube video to help demonstrate the stitches:
    video on working Teneriffe Lace

    Here are some photos from the workshop, plus Mary’s samples. There are more pictures in the gallery for the afternoon gathering as people shared what they had completed.
    [envira-gallery id=”4104″]

    If you want to follow up on the technique there is a book on the technique which is a free download: The Technique of Teneriffe Lace.

  • Tapestry and Quiz Day 14 November 2020

    [envira-gallery id=”4126″] Our morning Zoom session focussed on tapestry weaving, with a total of 16 members taking part. We had a show and tell, and were able to admire a range of tapestry weaving styles. Sadie Paige showed some of the samples she has created for the Certificate of Achievement. She didn’t want those to be on show yet, so has sent a picture of another tapestry and its inspiration – the last two pictures in the gallery. Many of us had been influenced by Joan Baxter, who has done a number of workshops for the Guild. Halfway through the morning we watched a video called Threads of the Deep in which Joan talks about her work and what inspires her.

    In the afternoon we had a very challenging fibre related quiz devised by Serena, with 16 participants, plus Serena herself as quizmaster. Great fun – made us all realise how much we don’t know about sheep, yarn, fibre etc! Afterwards we relaxed with chat and a bit of spinning.

    We are beginning to get used to the technology and its challenges, and though it can’t take the place of meeting up in person, it’s good to be able to interact in this way. One huge advantage is that our members in Germany and the Netherlands are able to join us.

    The pictures are mostly from the morning session but ending with 2 from the afternoon.

  • Art Yarn


    This is Sue Varley’s idea: spin a yarn inspired by a piece or art work. Sue has started us off with a yarn inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night.

  • Britspin 2020

    BritSpin – The British Wool Spinning Marathon – Team Highland Guild report by Team Captain – Liz Armstrong

    For those that don’t know, BritSpin is a 4-day spinning event where teams of 10 spinners compete in a spinning marathon and some optional additional events. The event raises money for charity and this year’s charity was the RNLI (chosen by last year’s winning team).

    This was my 3rd year, but the first year our Guild took part. Our team of 10 was myself (first time Captain), Mary Paren (Deputy), Jane Kitchener, Bryony Silcott, Denise Carroll, Aileen Wilby, Caroline Mayson, Norah Shann, Serena Mason and Michelle Stirling. A total of 12 teams took part and our nearest competitors were a team in Dumfries. Our team sponsor was Doulton Border Leicester Yarns and we received over 1kg of lovely Border Leicester tops to divide amongst the team and spin. Some of the team dyed their fibre before the event.

    In the ‘Team Marathon’ we came 6th, spinning 21,880 BritSpin Metres (13.6 miles!). A fantastic result for our first year. But the event encourages you to not just spin a lot over the 4 days, but also you can take part in some optional additional events. These events help boost your points towards the overall result:
    ‘Bingo Card’ – 17 tasks such as Spin Outdoors, Spin Blindfolded, Spin using a DIY tool! 7 of the team achieved a full house on their Bingo card and there was a lot of laughter discussing our attempts at some of the tasks and me trying to capture a screenshot of Denise whilst she was spinning blind folded in gloves via Zoom!
    ‘Learn a new skill’ – between 6 of us we earned 11 new skill badges. These included spinning gradients, fractals, making and spinning punis and Norah learned how to use her Dealgan spindle.
    ‘Breedathon’ – spin at least 50g of as many different breeds of sheep. We hadn’t really co-ordinated ourselves so much on this event, but despite that we managed to spin 10 different breeds and came 7th. (The winning team spun 73 breeds!!!).
    ‘Photo Competition’ – this year’s theme was ‘Joy of BritSpin’. Uploaded images were ‘voted on’ by others liking the image. The image with the most likes by the event deadline won. I am thrilled to say that it was one of Mary Paren’s images that won this competition. A photo of her showing Leia what she does with her fleece (whilst also ticking off the Bingo tasks of spin outdoors and spin wearing gloves!) One of Norah’s images almost achieved 3rd place, another photo showing joy and ticking off the spin outdoors and spin in PJs Bingo boxes. All the images our team submitted were great though.
    ‘BritSpin Sprint’ – spin, ply and measure as long a length as you can within 1 hour. Only two of us entered this event and my own attempt was without doubt the worst spinning I have ever produced.

    We came in 5th place. This was an outstanding result for our first year entering a team and far exceeded my expectations. A big thank you to all the ladies who took part in the event and I hope that next year we may have enough interest to enter more than one team. The feedback from the team was positive and Bryony said her spinning over the event improved significantly.

    For more information about the event see the BritSpin website, this has links to the Ravelry pages and you’ll be able to find more information and see other photos.

    [envira-gallery id=”4087″]

  • Zoom meetings 10 October 2020

    At the pre-AGM meeting in September we decided to start a programme of Zoom meetings for members, held on our usual Guild days – the second Saturday of the month. This was the first, and it worked extremely well. In the morning we had show and tell, and a fair bit of general chat. It was good to catch up and be inspired by what people had been creating. In the afternoon, with a slightly different group we had a spinning session, again with plenty of chat, advice asked for and given etc. There were 11 at the morning session, 10 in the afternoon, including Ann who joined us briefly at the end of the afternoon. There’ll be another session next month – hope to see you there! I took screen shots to give a flavour of the meetings.

    [envira-gallery id=”4016″]

  • Colours of Highland

    To start off this gallery Alison M has sent a picture of a tapestry weaving inspired by late sun on the hills. She used a variety of yarns, including Harris yarns and wool left over from the Scottish tapestry panel she was involved in stitching. She sent two pictures and I’m including both as I’m intrigued by the difference the background makes. I’ve just added some lovely pictures from Alison R of her weaving. The inspiration for each (shown in the photos attached to the cloth) is as follows: Fingal’s Cave on Staffa; the view from Fortrose towards Fort George; 2 views of Loch Ness from the great Glen Way; 2 views of Bettyhill; sunrise and sunset over the Beauly Firth; North Kessock woods. Denise spun and knitted her cardigan during lockdown. The fibre is BFL and Shetland.

    [envira-gallery id=”4022″]

  • Sea and Shore

    As it is difficult to meet up at the moment, we have decided to celebrate our crafts in a couple of on-line exhibitions. This is the first and will run to mid October. I will be adding pictures as they are sent in. To start off we have my Krokbragd weavings, following on from the March workshop, and Mary’s dyed tops in sea colours; then Hilma’s skein in summery sea colours. Two pictures from Terry next: of the first, white fleece, Terry says: a fleecy view that makes me think of swaying weed among the sea foam (Scots Blackface); and the second: the tide rushing on to seaweedy shoreline rocks (Blue Texel). I’ve just added Isobel’s tapestry to the gallery, although it’s been there in a comment for a while. And from Liz some of her dyed fibre and one of the felted lampshades she makes. Jane has sent some skeins created by combining several bobbin ends in similar colours which reflect the theme, plus a photo of the real thing from one of her walks.

    Note: because I’m building the gallery as the photos come in they are in reverse order.
    [envira-gallery id=”3990″]