I'm busy!

But I haven't forgotten that I am a blogger again.

Just been (ugh) having my photo taken for publicity for the Christmas Open Studios event. If you know me, you know I loathe this process, even if part of a group which this was. A vain, I fear, attempt to hide behind other people and a spindle. I am, though, looking forward to the weekend, I get to spin for two whole days and talk to interesting people. We don't usually have stuff to sell, but I have even had people begging me to sell them some yarn, although I have to admit, not often!

Saturday was a Guild day. These meetings of late have been really, really good. We have a whole gang of new and enthusiastic members, and frequently have visitors as well. This all makes for happy, noisy and vibrant meetings. The last couple of ideas, we have been following an idea that one of our members pinched from another Guild, which has to be uncredited as even she can't remember which it was! You have "four corners" (although this can be variable) and something takes place at each station. It is a kind of skill sharing, taster day, which generates in our experience a grand buzz.

This one was fibre prep, and I did combing. I don't know about the people I demonstrated to, but I had a wonderful time. I love combing, especially with English combs, but rarely make the time to do it. And I used a gorgeous Shetland fleece that we had got from Jamieson and Smith last year, an additional pleasure.

We have been trying hard to do a good job for our newer members recently. It is very easy to forget that there are things that we, as veterans, take for granted but they may be less familiar with. So we have organised a few beginner/refresher spinning sessions at ordinary guild days, and these Four Corner days, all of which have been popular and useful. And us veterans can learn a thing or two as well (as is always the case in any teaching situation, or should be!) This time, one of the areas ended up being blending boards, with people who had made their own. Now, the DSM bought carding cloth back at Woolfest, which was languishing somewhere or other.........as we speak, he is manfully wielding a staple gun, and will soon be blending away with the best of them, having been shown again how to do it.

To continue the mish mash of this post.........a cautionary tale. Recently, I wanted to spin something very soft and luxurious, so rootled in the stash and found some cashmere. Well, I think it is - it could be bunny fluff, but the former is more likely, and the same point holds for both. (Plus the extra reminder to LABEL YOUR STASH.) Cashmere seemingly does not have a long storage life. Whilst most other fibres take little harm from being kept for a good while, cashmere, being so very fine, compresses. Because it is more expensive and precious than most of our stash might be, we don't want to waste it, so have to go through a truly tedious process of returning it to a spinnable state. There is no quick fix, whatever method you use - I normally open it up over and over again, but you can card it (don't particularly recommend drum carding, myself.) I have had a somewhat similar experience with mohair, but that is easier to fix, it tends to open up enough to spin reasonably by just stripping the top down into thin strips. So, be warned!




The Cancer Journal

Time passes, slowly. My sister has had her first cycle of chemo. The first few days afterwards were hellish, but the next few better, and now, in the run up to the next session she is feeling quite reasonable and able to get out and about, so is happy to keep going for the time being. She will have two more, then the oncology team review progress - or not - and decide accordingly. That is going to be another difficult time (amongst many.) Reasonable progress on the moving front, as well. Doing it is not going to be fun either, but things will be a lot better afterwards. So, not so much to say at the moment.