Guild members have demonstrated spinning and weaving at farm shows around our area. Here are some photos:
Sutherland Show 20th July:
[envira-gallery id=”3481″]Nairn Show 27th July:
[envira-gallery id=”3490″]Black Isle Show 1st August:
[envira-gallery id=”3501″]Our tutor for the May 2019 workshop was Louise Martin, a very skilled and experienced tapestry weaver. She had brought looms ready warped for us to use, and had sent instructions for those who wished to bring their own looms. Louise started us off with basic weaving, then moved on to weaving ridges, adding “worms” and fringes, and working with supplementary warps. She allowed everyone to work at her own pace, demonstrating new techniques as people were ready for them. She had infinite patience, and didn’t seem to mind demonstrating something several times. I’ve arranged the photos so that you can see how each piece developed.
[envira-gallery id=”3454″]We ran an open day in parallel with this workshop. This was attended by about a dozen people, and seems to have been very successful. It was held in the main hall, and attracted visitors from the art sale and exhibition which was being held in the other room.
[envira-gallery id=”3453″]Four Guild members from the Nairn Spinning Group demonstrated at the Forres Theme Day on 5th May. This is always a nice friendly event, though the weather can be anything from hot and sunny like last year to really cold like this year! My photos make it look as if the interest in our stand was from one man and his dog, but in fact we had quite a lot of visitors, and I took the photos towards the end of the day, when things were tailing off. Our visitors included a couple of people asking advice about wheels they have inherited, someone asking about dyeing fleece with onion skins in school, and a little girl whose father held, and finally ate, her ice cream while she had a go at weaving.
[envira-gallery id=”3407″]‘Daft Batts’, a workshop tutored by Anne Artis. (pictures below)
Anne Artis, an ever popular tutor from Callander, was joined by twenty-one Highland Guild members for her workshop entitled ‘Daft Batts’. We were invited to come prepared with a variety of fibre preparation tools but, in fact, only needed access to a drum carder after an initial session with hand carders.
Anne set out her aim for the day: “This workshop is a serious exploration of the interplay of fibres, texture and colour. By the end of the day you will remember the difference between woollen and worsted yarn, understand why we make rolags, and why batts offer interesting byways from our usual yarns.”
Our first activity was to make mini batts for woollen spinning, using hand carders, which we then rolled sideways onto cardboard tubes (another great use for kitchen and toilet roll holders). At this point we were informed the day would focus on taking batts home to be spun later as there would be no time for spinning. How right that proved to be.
Although encouraged to use all the fibre and incorporate plenty of air, we were reminded about RIRO – ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ and the impossibility of making a silk purse from sow’s ear. Anne emphasised the use of clean fleece with double cuts, weak fibres and skin-end regrowth removed.
Next, we progressed to working in pairs (with one trio), with a drum carder for each pair. Noting Mabel Ross advice, we only fed small amounts of fleece in at a time. During the morning, we used a base fibre of Beltex fleece: on its own, kid silk mohair, white alpaca, brown alpaca, black alpaca, mulberry silk and silk noil. There was even time to make a batt with a variety of these fibres.
After lunch, we settled to a change of focus – the use of colour: “analogous, contrast, bright, subtle? Think about what will make you happy. If you are brave, select the opposite.” Anne encouraged us to choose a colour we didn’t like, for the base fibre. It was eye-opening to see how many people chose yellow from the range of bright colours.
The piles of batts grew ever-taller as we combined colours and comparisons with sunsets and sweets were made. This activity could have gone on for hours but the addition of silk noil and throwsters waste beckoned, to say nothing of wool neps. By half-past three it was time to begin clearing up, but not before Anne had demonstrated a non-tool batt. This she did with the use of two large knitting needles (one won’t do): tops were arranged as if for felting and then rolled onto the needles, as if making a puni. I am sure, with practise, this could be a quick and easy way of making rolags in a confined space using minimal equipment.
Anne’s suggestions for using our ‘not so daft batts included spinning them and using the results for knitting or weaving cushion covers samples, perhaps alternating the rows with plain yarn. This workshop revealed the tip of an iceberg – there was potential for so much more even another full day may not have been enough to enable us to explore colour and texture thoroughly.
Our grateful thanks go to Anne for such an enjoyable day and giving us an insight into the production of such a variety of ‘daft batts’. People’s pleasure was evident throughout the day and, at times, there were periods of total calm and concentration. Let’s hope this is a springboard to future blending workshops.
Jane Kitchener
Alison Munro-White.
This was a promotional day for the Red Cross, with a lot of very good quality craft stands. Stallholders had been asked to demonstrate their crafts as well, so there was plenty to interest visitors. We had a display of our work and quite a number of Guild members attended to demonstrate spinning and weaving. Serena brought her amazing little electric spinner, which sat in her lap, running off a mobile phone battery charger, while Henriette wove a lovely pattern on her 8-shaft loom, and Denise wove on an inkle loom. The rest of us were spinning. We had a lot of interest from the public, with quite a number stopping to have a go.
[envira-gallery id=”3349″]We will be demonstrating at the Red Cross event at Dingwall Academy on Saturday 30th March, and then at the Forres Theme Day a month later on Sunday 5th May in the afternoon. The Forres Theme Day is an annual event, with vintage cars. pipe band etc, and is usually a good day out, though the weather can be variable!
Stephanie Hoyle’s Dyeing Workshop was preceded with clear notes in March’s Guild Newsletter explaining the uses of Procion MX Dyes and which fibres they were suitable for. Recipes were given so we could prepare our fibres ahead of the day. I found this extremely useful as it enabled me to hank up skeins, weigh out tops and label them beforehand then soak them all, starting at home.
When I arrived at Strathpeffer Community Centre the room was already laid out with three “work stations” each equipped with plastic covers for the tables, a microwave oven, a range of dyes, and containers for mixing and fixing dyes. Stephanie gave us an introductory talk, covering Health and Safety, preparing yarns, fibre etc. for dyeing, applying dye and fixing dyes then finishing the process. What was even better she gave us written notes, especially useful for people like me who can only take in a little at a time or who are hoping to do more dyeing later.
After this short talk, we were all off back to our workstations and the dyes. What fun it was to try and match colours; mixing the primary colours to give subtle and sometimes surprising shades, or just using the primary colours directly onto the fibre then letting them blend into each other. I tried three different methods: immersing fibre in the dye completely; space dyeing tops and injecting dye into a centre-pull ball of yarn. All my fibres were wool, others members tried dyeing cotton, other plant fibres and fabric.
The day passed all too quickly. I came away with all my 500gms of tops and yarns dyed and ready to rinse out once they had fully cooled. You can see the results in the pictures [the last three in the gallery below]. My next excitement will be when I spin up the tops and knit up the yarns.
Thank you Stephanie for an interesting, informative and productive day.
Mary Paren
Here are some photos from the March 2019 Procion MX dye workshop. Since the workshop I’ve dyed some more cotton and got much deeper colours. I left it in the dye for 40 hours plus. I also left it in the fixative solution, adding the dye to that. Not sure which was responsible for the deeper colours, so more experimenting needed. There was still colour left in the water, so perhaps it needed to be left even longer. These are my workshop notes which you can download.
Stephanie Hoyle
Another good day, with 30 plus people attending, and a shared lunch. Most people were spinning; Sheila had brought along a book charka to spin cotton. Click on the pictures to see more detail.
[envira-gallery id=”3196″]The focus of the day though was the Guild challenge. This started at the September meeting, when those participating had been asked to bring 100 gms of fibre (in an opaque bag!) to exchange. The challenge was to spin whatever fibre you got, and to make something with it! Several people who could not attend the September meeting joined in later, exchanging fibre at spinning groups. The array of completed projects was impressive, and it seemed that everyone had learned from it and been pushed out of their comfort zone.
[envira-gallery id=”3197″]A couple of additional items: Michelle was wearing a tunic created from her first foray into 4-shaft weaving; and there was also a display of woven samples.
[envira-gallery id=”3198″]Details of most of the spinning and dyeing books are now on the web site. Still working on the others.
A very popular event, with an attendance of 37. Most people were spinning, but there were a few weavers, and a couple of knitters as well. We had a very interesting talk from Christina Chisholm, a former Highland Guild member, who is Chair of the Editorial Committee for the Journal of the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. We were all very impressed to learn that the vast majority of the work done by the Association is done by volunteers, including the commissioning, selection and editing of material for the Journal, and the organisation of the Conference, Summer School and Exhibition. We were also very impressed with Christina’s folders of samples for her Certificate of Achievement in Weaving, for which she got a well deserved Distinction.
Some photos of the event (more to come):
[envira-gallery id=”3114″]The venue for the Knitfest this year was the main hall of the Inverness sports centre. This, to my mind was the best venue yet. The hall is square-ish, so allowed for better layout of the stands. We had a good space with a wall behind us, as many tables as we asked for, and plenty of room for spinners, as they had put a social chat area near us, which we were able to encroach on if necessary. The downside was that we were quite near the stage, and some of our volunteers found it too noisy – the second day was better as they lowered the volume. As in previous years we had a small display from the Moray Firth Gansey Project adjacent to our stand. Quite a number of people had a go at spinning or weaving, mostly adults, there weren’t many children around.
[envira-gallery id=”3038″]At this event we had all of our Guild equipment on display, so that members could see what is available, try things out, and find out how to use equipment they’ve never tried before. A lot of people also came along to spin, weave and be social. So many people attended that we had to transfer to the big hall as we were too cramped in the usual room.
[envira-gallery id=”3037″]I think I almost know what I’m doing now, thanks to a lot of support from Helen! You’ll see I’ve put up something on the December workshop – if you click on the heading you will find more photos. I also have photos from the November open day and the Knitfest. To find these click on “reports”. I’m also working on the library, but this will take a while, so I’m doing it in the background. Helen photographed all (or most – some may have been on loan) of the book covers, so some of the work is done, but it’s still quite slow.
I didn’t get to the corners workshop on 8th December, but from Alison Roddham’s photos it looks as though it was a really good day, with people learning to use alarming looking hackles and combs, making dainty Dorset buttons, and exploring the potential of pin looms / quilt looms.
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