Let's play catch-up, shall we?

I had high hopes of managing to blog a bit from Summer School, but kind of obviously, failed.

Broadband issues - took me a while to get to grips with the college wi-fi. And then, well, lots going on and shortage of time and all that. Not to mention needing to switch the brain off after a hard day at the wool-face.

We drove down to Lincoln in torrential rain, which didn't improve on arrival. In fact, got worse, with a thunder storm as we were unpacking our personal stuff from the car and borrowed trailer, culminating with a massive flash and crack directly overhead as we settled in to our room.

Tutor accommodation was great, a nice little en suite room with a tv and own tea-making facilities. The students didn't fare quite so well, but I think were reasonably happy. Nice campus, compact, lovely gardens and lots of places to sit outside when the rain had gone. And the food was more than adequate all things considered.

Sunday, we unpacked all the teaching stuff and settled in to our room. We had some concerns about the shortage of tables and indeed, space, but rather foolishly were terribly British and didn't do other than assume that if there had been a bigger room we would have been given it. So our start on Monday morning was very slightly alarming when one of our students quietly mentioned that she was somewhat claustrophobic........We did ok, but it became apparent that we still didn't have enough tables and space to work at them, so I went off to see if we could commandeer part of the corridor. At that point, the college admin person was around, and when she realised that we were attempting to cram twenty four people into the space that she had been told was for twelve, we were offered a slightly larger room - which we took!

So, Monday evening was spent packing, moving and setting up all over again, but fortunately with the assistance of class members, who were a huge support and help. And Tuesday, we began again!

They were a wonderful group, every last one of them. Worked their socks off, and had a great laugh doing it. Two of them had only been spinning for less than six months, but you wouldn't have known it; several others for not so very much longer. Others had been at it for several years, but were still able to find new stuff to learn,

A selection of photos:













I think we all had fun.

There was some good sharing going on, too. Two of the participants had done the wool combing class previously, and were kind enough to give us an excellent demonstration of how it really should be done, rather than my approximation. And Meg Crowther showed us a neat way of spinning a silk cap that none of us had ever seen before. I include the video I took with permission.



The DSM and I certainly had a blast. Just hope that everyone else did as well.

Edinburgh in 2011 - sounds good to me!