Highland Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers

Category: news

  • 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.

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  • Spring events

    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!

  • Accounts 2017-18


  • Library update

    Details of most of the spinning and dyeing books are now on the web site. Still working on the others.

  • Update

    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.

  • Prizes all round

    Well done to all who tended our stand at the Sutherland Show on Saturday.  It was a lovely day out and such a good display.  Thank you to Janet for coordinating it all.  We also won a first prize for the tent as a whole and a special award for our interaction with the public (I’m sorry I don’t have it’s proper title to hand).  Thank you Jane for the pictures.

      

  • Well Done Ladies!

    Congratulations !!

    The following Highland Guild members were successful at the Royal Highland Show last month:

    Handcrafts – Theme: Landscapes
    Section D : Hand Spinning, Weaving & Dyeing – ‘Heading for the Hills’

    Hank Shetland yarn, 2-ply for knitting – Hand Spun from Shetland Sheep including sample of fleece staple.

    1st: Sue Varley

    3rd: Mary Paren

    4th: Stephanie Hoyle

    Sue Varley also won the special prize “Jean Parker Prize” for best exhibit of 2ply extra fine shetland yarn – an award not given out every year!

     

    Three Hanks of Hand-Spun Yarn, using different natural fibres and dyes – inspired by the Section title – mounted on card identifying plant sources

    1st: Mary Paren

     

    Hank of Fancy Yarn – i.e. slub, loop or spiral. Specify intended use and include a small worked sample

    2nd: Stephanie Hoyle

    3rd: Mary Paren

    A scarf in Alpaca Yarn – knitted, crocheted or woven in spun yarn

    1st: Mary Paren

    2nd: Stephanie Hoyle

    4th Gill Challis

    Cushion – any hand weaving technique

    2nd: Stephanie Hoyle

    4th: Mary Paren

    Length of material, not less than 1 metre – any hand-weaving technique

    3rd: Stephanie Hoyle

    Section E : Hand Knitting – ‘Moorland’

    Tunic in Chunky yarn

    3rd: Gill Challis

     Section B : Embroidery – ‘Fields and Flowers’

    Canvas-work – sampler depicting harvest fields – ready to be hung

    1st: Stephanie Hoyle

     

  • More of this?

    Firstly a big Thank You! Our last meeting felt a huge success, with so many people attending. 4 new members came along and were truly given some great mentoring from our members. It was a delight to watch. Thank you again ladies for the good work. For once we actually managed to cover the cost of the hall (something we haven’t managed to do on most occasions in the past), so we are grateful for your contributed funds. I, for one, would love to see more of these kind of days and would be interested in seeing extra social gatherings added into our workshop calendar, possibly on a weekday if we have a workshop booked for the month, and at a variety of locations. What do you think… would you be interested? Do email me and let me know. Thanks to Sheila for the short video of our meeting. I’ve put it on the front page and if you start playing the video and then “right click” on the image you can open the video in a new “tab” where it will be much larger. I don’t know just why you have to set it running first but there you go.

    On Saturday 11th March Val Lenton will be teaching us how to do Tunisian Crochet.
    You can see the details under the Events tab. One aspect is that Val will provide the equipment needed in the form of the correct crochet tool that is yours to take home. An added bonus!
    Susanne, our Treasurer, tells me that so far we have 10 people booked on the day but there are more spaces. Of course we would like all members wishing to participate be accommodated so please contact Susanne as soon as you can if you’re interested. She also has other people waiting to know if they might have a place.

    Now I must get back to my weaving… it has been a little neglected given this lovely weather we’ve been having here.
    Hope to see you soon.
    All the best
    Helen

  • February !

    Hello all,

    Well, it’s just turned the first of February.  Some of you may know it as Candlemas though it goes by other names too.  Officially it’s the first day of spring and my first reaction was to say “you’re joking!” but actually I can see the sense in it.  Already I have primroses in the garden and the buds are starting to form on the trees.  We don’t have snowdrops in the garden but there are masses in the woods nearby.

    Urges to be outdoors had been pulling at me and I was drawn to use some fallen eucalyptus leaves to experiment with some “Eco printing”.  Cotton needs a protein mordant so the previous week I tried India Flint’s recipe for soaking in soya milk.  I promptly forgot about it.  Over a week later I deeply regret that!  Many expletives of disbelief and horror that anything could possibly smell so bad came out of my kitchen.  Three washes at 90 degrees, alternating with added bleach or added bicarb of soda, still didn’t get rid of the stench properly!  I did try the leaf printing eventually, bundling up layers of damp leaves and cloth.  As I unrolled my bundles I thought of my friends who have laughed at my natural dyeing experiments and found myself grinning at yet another “fantasy beige” outcome with not a leafy design in sight.  I’m glad to say that the logwood and dyers alkanet produced wonderful abstract designs of good colour when sprinkled on the cloth and steamed for a few hours.  I might just go back to old fashioned onion skins like we used to do on Easter eggs.

    On another colour note we have Dornoch fibre festival coming up soon and we’d love help with some demonstrating over the two days it’s on.  If there are a good few of us there should be lots of time for exploring the show too, and of course I’m looking forward to the stalls!

    all the best

    Helen

  • January News Updated

    Thanks to Jane we now have the January newsletter keeping us up to date.

    Alison is giving us some more detail on her inkle loom workshop for this month so you can get a better idea of what to expect, and it sounds like there is plenty for all levels of experience.  The events item is updated with details.

    Remember to get your membership in this month.  You’ll notice the new payment button on our home page.  Unfortunately we are charged for processing online payments so must make an addition of £2.50 to cover fees.  Of course if you pay by sending our treasurer Susanne a cheque then the amount will still only be £20 for membership.

    All the best

    Helen

    p.s.

    Aileen has just sent me a wonderful picture of the new inkle loom her son has made for her…

    “This was hand made by my son Adrian Hickey, a Furniture Maker. The best Christmas present I ever had.  Anyone who would like one made get in touch.”  (Aileen)

     

  • Accounts 2015-2016

  • Corners !

    When I first joined the guild workshops titled “Corners” had me totally confused. How to make corners? In what medium? But soon I found this quirky title to be a gathering of four different mini workshops which you can move between as you like, doing all or just one if you prefer. This last workshop, which I sadly missed, was a fun gathering of 3 different tutored corners and one busy social area where there seems to have been many spinning wheels!

    We had Corner 1: Bev from Handspinner Having Fun, Broadford, Skye who brought a range of fibres for participants to try and/or buy.
    Corner 2: Rene Gibson from Achmore tutoring the spinning of alpaca.
    Corner 3: Sara Smith from Rosemarkie who made us a stack of wee Quilt Weaver Looms, as seen on the day of Teresinha Robert’s talk, and showed how to use them.
    Corner 4: A social corner with many spinning wheels and much chattering!

    Thank you to Serena and Catherine for the photographs!

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  • AGM thoughts from Serena

    So it is the AGM tomorrow and I can’t go as I am stuck in bed. I should be writing the Chair’s report but thought I would just raise a couple of points here (facebook) and on the website ( help please Helen) so you might think about them in advance.

    We have a great workshop programme that is supposed to run from Sept to June with a balance of weaving, spinning and dyeing with practical workshops and talks.. We think there is a demand for more simple spinning days, Members’ Days and Beginners spinning. How should we meet this demand without compromising on the workshops that we provide? One suggestion is that we try to have more Big Spins, emulating the Achmore Day which is held in September. We could have a Spring Spin in Inverness or Ardross.

    We could just have more meetings but would you come?

    There is so much interest in spinning and lots of people say they would like to try. Should the Guild be more active in offering Beginner’s spinning ? Our remit is to encourage and promote the craft but we are all improvers and benefit from our workshops. Can we just rely on local spinning groups and people who want to teach?

    Also at the AGM I wanted views on whether we should have a wheel. Apparently the Guild wheel is damaged. I bought a basic Ashford traditional which was used at Knitfest. Is it useful to have one for shows etc and available for hire or do demonstrators tend to use their own. Storage is an issue. Now maintenance is also needed.

    Hope to see you all soon.
    Best wishes
    Serena

  • Long Draw Successes

    Serena sent in these pics of the Long Draw Spinning workshop.

    She writes “Great workshop today with Odet Beauvoisin showing us how to do long draw for woollen and worsted yarn. I think most of us got it some of the time. Interesting that Odet is such a proficient spinner that she had to add in neps to make her yarn look hand spun or it did not sell so well.”

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  • Knit Fest

    What a wonderful day meeting some lovely people from all over !  Scotland, England, Sweden and of course a great number of Danish Ladies, who have flown over enforce to support the event having just had their own show two weeks ago.  So many gorgeous jumpers, coats and shawls passed by or stopped to chat (with wonderful people attached).  Thank you to all the visitors for being so warm and friendly.  I know a good many of them are here for the whole weekend so you’ll get a chance to meet up over the weekend.

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    Thanks Fiona for the pic.

    It looks like we’ll be in “the observer” on Tuesday too (that’s not an advert to buy though… just saying !)