I've Been Spinning!!

It's been a very busy Burton Manor weekend and as expected, this course was a million times better than last weeks so I shall mention it no more ( unless I get some sort of refund!).

Anne, the tutor, had been having a think since she gave Burton Manor the brief and decided to do silk with a twist! I didn't TOUCH silk cap the whole time I was there! It was FABULOUS!!!!!

I actually spun everything in the picture below, I HAVE been a very busy girl, but who could blame me with all the luscious colours on show! We started by spinning a plied yarn where all the colours in the roving were meant to match up when they were plied. I did have partial success, about an inch of the same colour every once in a while, but mostly just produced a pretty yarn, it's the autumnal one in the bottom left hand corner, unfortunately, It hasn't come out too well, but you get the idea!

The next one up is Silk lap that sort of comes in a giant fluffy sheet, it's impossible to spin smooth and for this one, the more lumpy the better ( even though I felt mine was a little wild!). It then got spun with a pink, slubby commercial silk yarn which peeks thru the fluff ( if you saw it in the flesh).

Then I used Tussah Silk lap which had loads more twigs and rubbish in it but somehow was easier to pull apart and spin more controlledly. That got plied with a grey linen/silk mix commercial yarn.

The top left is our Friend Giotto (yes, Colinette!) plied with a linen/silk noil lap that was a true b****r to spin as it was very short, I didn't s[in any more of it after that! The Giotto curls round your spun single and produces a really interesting textural yarn ( and I love the colours!)


On the right hand side, there's a luscious Silk/Cashmere mix that was SO soft to spin. Anne ( the tutor) wanted us to ply it with more silk lap but I thought it didn't deserve that (too crisp), so used a very fine silk commercial yarn instead. It has a gorgeous halo, it's sitting beside me as I type, shimmering at me.

The one above is my first foray into beaded yarn, albeit the easy way. Again, I got to dip into the tops selection ( kiddie in a candy store!) to spin more silk and threaded beads onto that same fine silk yarn to ply with it. I was a bit stingy with my beads at first so they're a little unevenly spaced ( to say the least!) but they give little accents, I'd love to see it knitted up!

The top right and last yarn is meant to be cabled with beads but it's gone a bit weirde, cable yarn was never my strong point. Still, it looks pretty, has loads more and bigger beads and I also tried the colour matching thing from the first sample and on the whole, it worked!

I had a wonderful time, the food was great, the room lovely but unfortunately there were only four of us there! It's a great shame because if the numbers don't improve, there may not be another course and that would be a great shame. There are very few spinning classes that are accessible for me and whilst I do have to save my pennies for a weekend like this one, It is truly special. So, do me a favour, give Burton Manor a ring, ask them when the next spinning class will be, if there are enough enquiries, maybe, just maybe there'll be another course in six months or so, they don't do enough advertising so we few have to!

By the way, Romelda...


... this one's been handspun for you! If you want it ( to pet, put in a bowl, knit or whatever), you know what to do! Fingers crossed that things will turn a corner soon but it sounds like you have people around you who care which is great. I'll keep sending Reiki your way, maybe it's giving you some strength in the meanwhile.

And as for Anne, still fighting off a cold, you know I'll say " you need to slow down a bit" and you'll just take it with a pinch of salt and carry on as normal so we'll take that one as read eh! Still thinking of ya and I'll get round to a real live e-mail or phone call soon, I promise!

Ah well, time's up, I've got 23 items finishing on Ebay later, only 4 of them bid on so far so I'm not holding out any hopes of making my millions! For anyone who's curious, I'm chris_cheats.