Highland Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers

Category: Reports

These reports and photographs of past events are kindly donated by participants. Please bear with me whilst I bring the archives slowly up to date.

  • 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.

  • 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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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.
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  • Tomintoul Coat Project

    A builder renovating a cottage in the square at Tomintoul found a coat hidden in the rafters. It was dated to the 1830s. The community got lottery funding to research and create a replica which could be openly displayed in the heritage centre. Two child sized coats have also been made so that children can try them on. The 14th March was set as the date for a workshop day at the end of the project, and the Guild was asked to participate – a talk about spinning, weaving and dyeing, particularly relating to the period the coat was thought to have been made, plus interactive demonstration of spinning and weaving.

    I trawled my book collection for historical information for the talk. Gill, Fiona and Christine came along to demonstrate spinning and help people to have a go. Ada loaned me a large selection of natural dye samples; Fiona also brought some of hers. Linda and Sue were there as participants, but Linda had also brought along some of her natural dye experiments and was able to talk to participants about this.

    I set up my small rigid heddle loom with a black and white warp for a shepherd’s plaid type check pattern, and my small 4-shaft with a basic twill with a navy warp and lime green weft. We also had spindles and a pirn.

    We all thoroughly enjoyed the day. There was a huge amount of interest in our crafts. A lot of people had a go and fairly competently!

    We were of course just one part of the day. We also heard interesting talks on the history of the village, and the way the coat was dated, and we had the opportunity to have a close look at (but not touch!) the coat.

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  • Rigid Heddle Weaving 14 March 2020

    Jane Kitchener tutored this beginners workshop, which was held the day before the Krogbragd workshop. Apologies for not posting this sooner. I wasn’t there, but it seems to have been a very successful day, and Inga has provided photos which show what went on. The resulting weaving looks lovely. Here is Jane’s report of the day:

    As someone who regularly uses a rigid heddle loom, I was keen to share my skills with complete beginners. The day’s plan included a way of warping the loom, followed by the opportunity to weave a length of cloth, at a pace to suit all participants.
    The workshop began with an introduction to looms, associated equipment, woven samples and reference books. A worksheet was provided, with space for notes and as an ‘aide-memoire’. Working in pairs to put a warp on the looms made it quicker and less intimidating for all. I was on hand to give further advice, where necessary, and with a small number in the group there was a relaxed atmosphere throughout the day.
    By lunchtime, the looms were prepared and weaving could start. After a short lunch everyone enthusiastically set to work, with encouraging results: varying lengths of fabric were woven and admired. Progress was rapid and all-too-soon it was time to discuss how to finish the weaving, plus the benefit of record-keeping.
    A satisfied group went home with their woven cloth and expressed an interest in furthering their skills on a rigid heddle loom. There are more techniques and design opportunities available, so I hope the prospect of such a workshop is not too far away.
    Jane Kitchener

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  • Krokbragd Weaving 15 March 2020

    Another excellent workshop tutored by Kathryn Kusa. Eleven Guild members took part, and there was a lot of bustle early on as everyone arrived and started to set up their looms – quite a variety of these, including 2 rigid heddle looms. We had warping instructions beforehand. Krokbragd uses just uses 3 shafts and is threaded 1, 2, 3, 2. It is a weft faced technique, so the warp, made of strong cotton, does not show. Kathryn began by showing us the lifting sequence on the 4-shaft loom: 12, 23, 13, then how the patterns are produced. She then demonstrated the set up for the rigid heddle, which we were all interested to see. The loom is warped in the usual way, with threads alternately through slots and holes, then supplementary heddles (Kathryn had used inkle loom heddles, which she said were just the right length) are attached to the threads in the slots. These are slipped alternately onto two dowels so that half are on each. The sheds are formed as follows: 1. rigid heddle in the up position, first lot of supplementary heddles raised; 2. rigid heddle still in the up position, second lot of supplementary heddles raised; 3. rigid heddle in the down position. Kathryn then handed us instruction sheets, with patterns to try. As ever the results were amazingly varied, with differences in colour and scale producing very different results from the same pattern suggestions. Later in the day Kathryn showed us how to draw out pattern ideas and convert them to weaving instructions. A brilliant day, just fitted in before the self isolation instructions from the government.

    Kathryn demonstrates the techniques:

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    Our weaving:

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    People:

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  • Open Day and Challenge 8 Febrary 2020

    Between 40 and 50 people attended this event, with some coming and going in the course of the day. We had a big circle of spinners around the hall, with several weavers at tables as well. This was the day to bring along what we had made from the fibre distributed at the September Open Day: 50 gms Corriedale tops, 40 gms Blue Faced Leicester / seacell tops, 10 gms recycled sari silk. Apart from the sari silk the fibre was undyed. The challenge was to spin and make something from the fibre. We could dye it, and we could add up to 100 gms of fibre or yarn; felting was also allowed. The number and variety of items created was truly impressive – pictures below:

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    plua a few pictures of people:

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  • Spinning workshops 11 & 12 January 2020

    The Spinning for Beginners workshop, run by Michelle Stirling on 11 January seems to have gone very well – here is a write up from Inga:

    As is very common at guild events the air at the beginning of the session seemed full of anticipation for a day of crafting fun, and Michelle did not disappoint! The day was full of information, experimentation and general woolly fun. We were shown how to set up our wheels and take care of them, with special attention given to the importance of getting the tension on our wheels correct and oiling them periodically. Michelle had brought and laid out a wonderful array of different fleeces for us to look at, work with and try out using different preparation techniques. We felt like children in a sweetie shop! She demonstrated hand carding to make rolags, drum carding to make a batt and using a dog comb to prep the wool, whilst leaving plenty of time for us to experiment throughout the day.

    When the spinning began it was obvious that there were different levels of beginner: some complete beginners and some who had spinning experience. Michelle catered for all abilities and participants were happy to share knowledge and swap wheels so that people could experience spinning on different wheels. This meant that naturally the seed was planted for possible wheel purchases!

    To sum up the day, it was enjoyed by all, designed by Michelle to give the perfect mix of learning and experimentation in a relaxed and fun fashion and yet a very productive day was had by all too!
    Inga Ballantyne

    Here are some photos showing the processes Michelle demonstrated:

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    Christina Chisholm ran a repeat of her Spin to Weave workshop on 12 January. This was again well attended and was an excellent workshop. In the morning we practiced producing a consistent worsted yarn suitable for warp or weft. Christina demonstrated short draw, showed us how to work out the ratio of our wheels, then had us each attach a tape measure between wheel and waistband so that we could draft a consistent amount for each turn of the wheel. This required a fair amount of concentration! Christina also demonstrated an extended draw (American long draw), which works well for some fibres and blends, and also produces a yarn suitable for weaving. After lunch Christina talked us through her excellent handouts on how to calculate the amount of yarn required for warp and weft. She showed us some of her woven pieces and impressed on us the importance of sampling. We then moved to the loom, where she showed us how to use a dummy warp to save wasting precious handspun – the handspun warp is tied on to the dummy warp, and lashed to the front bar, so there is very little waste.

    The following photos show some of the processes demonstrated: short draw; extended draw; putting the handspun warp on the cross sticks; starting to tie on; lashing; testing the tension; weaving a header; starting to weave; hemstitching.

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    Here are some more general photos:

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  • Festive Open Day December 2019

    A nice relaxing day, attended by about 25 people – a lot of spinning and talking and some very nice inkle weaving, plus home made mince pies and other goodies. Our new annual magazine was ready to pick up, and looks very professional. We also had the opportunity to buy more of the challenge bags and some festive fibre collections.

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  • Culloden Christmas Fair

    Some Guild members demonstrated spinning and weaving at Culloden Battlefield on 24 November.

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  • 4 Corners Workshop

    I didn’t manage to get to this workshop, but it looks as if it was a really good day! There was a festive theme, with participants making batts from red, green and white wool, fleece angels, and coiled gift baskets; the fourth corner was designated as “social” and gave an opportunity to carry on with one of the earlier activities or just chill. Below are two reviews and some pictures.

    Here’s a review of the Angels and Baskets corners, written by Kathleen:

    It was a lovely day when we met for the November corners workshop at the community centre and I really enjoyed the day too. I think there were about 12 people at the workshop (not including the tutors), so we all split into small groups of 3 or 4. I took part in 2 of the 3 corners.

    Firstly I went to the tassel angel corner where Bryony and Jane taught us step by step to make little “woolly” angels. All the materials were provided. You can create your angel with a variety of spun wool and unprocessed fleece. There were different types of fibre available in different colours, some fluffy yarns or sparkly threads. You do not need much equipment, a couple of bits of card, a pencil and a barbed felting needle and sponge and scissors. It doesn’t take long to make one and we were soon able to hang our little angels on the twigs alongside the ones Bryony and Jane had created earlier. I managed to make 2, complete with a halo. My first angel had sparkly wings, the second was a bit more wild.

    The second corner I went to was the Rope baskets, taught by Inga. (This corner was the one I really wanted to learn about as soon as Inga had shown us her blue rope basket at one of last year’s meetings.) The only equipment required was a size 4-5 crochet hook, some “rope” and some wool to crochet with. Inga had prepared several small coils of pulley rope all ready started so we could grasp the technique of crocheting around the rope with the wool before we started to create our own basket. Ruth Black had helped Inga to create lengths of rope with tweedy fibre so we all got to choose a colour we liked and some co-ordinating or contrasting wool, then the slightly tricky part began. we had to crochet along the rope for an inch or two then coil it around to form a spiral and continue to crochet in the spiral, increasing the number of stitches as the size of the spiral increased, to build the base for the basket. Once we reached the size of base we wanted for the basket we slightly adjusted how we did the crochet stitch to build up the wall of the basket. You can, with some practice and concentration create vertical walls or sloping ones that make more of a bowl shape, or even keep it as a flat disk if you wish to make a coaster for a cup or a mat. The overall finish will depend on the sturdiness of your rope and the colours you choose. The tweedy rope was quite soft in comparison to Inga’s original basket.

    On both these corners, once you know how to create the item you can create your own unique items by varying the materials used and the colours. I had taken along a few shop bought bright balls of wool and used these to make a contrasting rim on the first basket, then after lunch I decided to make another basket using bright wool all the way up the walls. (I chose not to move on to the festive batts as I was enjoying the rope basket and wanted to see if I could make a second one. I had been to a previous “daft” batt workshop using a drum carder so wanted to concentrate on my 2nd basket)

    And before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head home. I thoroughly enjoyed my day and am sure I will try to create more angels and baskets.

    And a review of the Festive Batts corner written by Henriette:

    Mary, with support from Aileen, showed us how to prepare special and individualised batts for spinning. Mary let us choose one of three main colours: green, red or white, which was just beautiful in view of Christmas. In red and green Mary had prepared hand dyed fleece. On a tray we arranged a substantial amount of fleece and roving together with ‘fun bits’ of different types of silk and/or Angelina. Then we chose one of the drumcarders, different in width and carding cloth. To feed the drumcarder we first opened up the fleece, ideally keeping the locks still recognisable and feeding them in lengthwise. The fleece was mixed with roving of the same colour, opened up as well. We kept an eye on the licker-in which showed us whether the wool was opened up enough and not to overfeed areas on the drum.

    Then the artstic fun started. We chose between two options: leave the batt on the drum and add small amounts of specialities directly to the drum while we turned it or we took the batt off the drum carder, opened it up again and fed a “sandwich” into the drumcarder which carried bits of silk roving, throwster’s waste or noils and/or Angelina in its midst. Both options of feeding could also be combined.
    We could experience various amounts of “ingredients”. Practice also showed what would work or get stuck at the licker-in. And it was a separate decision on how well combined or how fluffy and knotty we would like to have the appearance of the batt. Each batt could get sparks of another colour as much as texture.

    I went home with three batts and look forward to the outcome when spun.

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  • AGM and Show & Tell 2019

    Our AGM is always lively and interesting, and as usual produced a range of suggestions for the new committee to discuss. Following the formal part of the day, and a social lunch we had a Show & Tell, with an impressive array of articles made my members over the year. Here are some photos:

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    Jane and Bryony have just been to Bhutan. Here are some photos of the textiles they brought back:

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  • Loch Ness Knitfest 2019

    This year the Marketplace was only open on Friday and Saturday. We were able to set up our display on Thursday afternoon and were there to demonstrate on both days. We had a good spot – further from the stage than last year. I was initially concerned that we didn’t have a wall behind us, but in fact it worked very well. We had a lot of space all round, so were able to have a double sided display. This was quite impressive, thanks to the generosity of members in loaning their handwork; and though there were 8 or 9 of us demonstrating there was no sense of crowding. Friday was quite quiet in the Marketplace, but we still attracted interest, including a young woman who came to learn to use the drop spindle she’d just bought, and a small girl I saw solemnly weaving on Henriette’s 8-shaft loom. Saturday was busier, we had a number of people having a go at spinning and weaving, there was a lot of interest in Michelle’s book of stitched artwork, and Sadie’s tapestry weaving also attracted a lot of interest. Some pictures below – I’ve included one of the knitted Inverness Town House – nothing to do with us, but fun!

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